IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v44y1998i1p35-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psychological Distress Among Ethiopian and Russian Jewish Immigrants To Israel: a Cross-Cultural Study

Author

Listed:
  • A. Ponizovsky

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • Y. Ginath

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • R. Durst

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • B. Wondimeneh

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • S. Safro

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • S. Minuchin-Itzigson

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

  • M. Ritsner

    (Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center)

Abstract

A community survey was conducted examining the differences in levels of psychological distress and its symptomatology, comparing 110 Ethiopian-Jewish and 400 Russian-Jewish immigrants to Israel. Psychological distress was measured by the Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory. Russian immigrants were found to be more distressed than their Ethiopian counterparts and this between-group difference can be attributed to the greater relative number of females, older immigrants and those with longer duration of stay in Israel in the Russian sample. The highest levels of distress were observed for paranoid ideation in the Ethiopian sample and anxiety and hostility in the Russian sample. These symptoms were independent of gender and time since immigration. Russians with longer duration of stay demonstrated higher scores signifying adjustment difficulties than their Ethiopian counterparts. These results suggest that the differences in levels and symptom expression of psychological distress are determined, to a considerable extent, by demographic factors (sex, age) and the differing cultural backgrounds of the two immigrant groups.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Ponizovsky & Y. Ginath & R. Durst & B. Wondimeneh & S. Safro & S. Minuchin-Itzigson & M. Ritsner, 1998. "Psychological Distress Among Ethiopian and Russian Jewish Immigrants To Israel: a Cross-Cultural Study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 44(1), pages 35-45, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:44:y:1998:i:1:p:35-45
    DOI: 10.1177/002076409804400104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076409804400104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/002076409804400104?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:44:y:1998:i:1:p:35-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.