Attributions and responses to the Arab-Israeli conflict: a developmental analysis

This study assessed the causes ascribed by Israeli children and youth for the Arab-Israeli conflict and the relation of these attributions to their expectations and emotions. The results highlight basic contingencies between the form of attribution and the character of emotional response and future expectation, with marked developmental variations in both the strength and manner of this association. Overall, the findings suggest the utility of Bizman and Hoffman's attributional model as a heuristic for understanding children's perception and response to conflict, but underscore the need for developmental adaptation. Particular attention is drawn to the developing concept of mutuality and its implication for the application of attributional analyses in the young.