Rachel Lev-Wiesel
Biographic Data
| ID | 197108 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Lev-Wiesel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Lev-Wiesel |
| SIGNATURE | LEV-WIESEL R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Haifa |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5024-6891 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Preface to Volume I: Collective Trauma, Community Exposure, and War-Related Resources
This inaugural volume of the Special Issue investigates the psychological, social, and communal impacts of residing in conditions of war and political violence. It consolidates multidisciplinary research conducted during ongoing armed conflicts, emphasizing collective trauma, various degrees of direct and indirect exposure, and community-based resources that influence coping mechanisms and adaptation. The contributions encompass a broad spectrum …
Preface to Volume II: Parents, Therapists, and Creative Interventions Amid War Limor Goldner & Rachel Lev-Wiesel
This second volume of the Special Issue examines the impact of war-induced trauma from relational, developmental, and clinical perspectives, with particular attention to parents, therapists, and creative interventions amidst ongoing conflict. While Volume I addressed the communal and societal aspects of collective trauma, this volume concentrates on interpersonal processes within families, therapeutic relationships, and intervention settings. The…
The Contribution of Desire for Revenge and Perceptions of Injustice to Adolescent CSA Survivors’ Wellbeing
Seventy adolescent survivors of childhood sexual abuse (Mage = 10.88, SD = 2.90) and one of their parents participated in a study aimed at better understanding the contribution of desire for revenge to distress symptoms and post-traumatic growth (PTG) through the mediation of self-concept. In addition, two moderation mediation models examined the possibility that survivors’ perceptions of injustice would moderate the relationship between the desi…
Family Drawings of Institutionalized Children with Abuse History from South India
Purpose This study explored how institutionalized children in India express attachment styles through Family Drawings and how these relate to their victimization experiences. Method Ninety-two Indian children aged 9 to13 completed the Kerns Security Scale, the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire, and a Family Drawing coded using Fury’s eight global scales. Results Principal Component Analysis revealed three emotional themes: Inward Distress, Pat…
Revenge Fantasies Expressed Through Drawings and Narratives: Insights from Indian Perspectives Based on Gender and Religion
The mixed-methods study aimed to explore revenge fantasies among Indians, focusing on gender and religious differences, and to evaluate the alignment between quantitative measures and qualitative expressions through drawings and narratives. The sample comprised 97 Indian women and 55 men, aged 18–56, who identified as either Hindu or Christian. Quantitative assessments included the demographics sheet, Traumatic Events Questionnaire (TEQ), and Inj…
Cultural differences in revenge fantasies using drawings: A comparative study between Indians and Thais
Unjust events cause humiliation and can elicit revenge fantasies. The present study explored cultural differences between Indians and Thais expressing revenge fantasies through drawings and narratives. A matched convenience sample of 100 adults, that is, 50 participants each (35 females and 15 males) from India and Thailand were recruited. The qualitative measures administrated include drawings with two prompts: ‘Draw an unjust event you experien…
Exploring Safe Place: Insights from Thai Children At-Risk
Comparison between Thai and Indian Adolescents’ Self-Figure Drawing as Child Abuse Art-Based Assessment
These findings contribute to the understanding of how cultural factors influence adolescents' self-representations through drawing. The differences in pictorial indicators highlight the nuanced variations within similar cultures, emphasizing the cultural specificity of self-expression
Use of self-figure drawing as a screening tool to identify child sexual abuse, eating disorders, and suicidality
Childhood sexual abuse is a significant risk factor for adverse psychological outcomes such as eating disorders, as well as suicidal attempts and ideation.Detecting these phenomena at an early stage is crucial for improving prognosis.The current study investigated indicators of childhood sexual abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal tendencies as reflected in the self-figure drawings of 130 Slovakian adolescents treated for eating disorders or hos…
Refugee Minors’ Perspectives Explored with the Bridge Drawing and Children’s Hope Scale
Moving from one’s home country to a foreign country due to unforeseen circumstances such as war and unrest is a distressing life event. For minors, such an experience can impact their perception of the past and present alongside future goals and desires. With this background, a pilot study was done to assess the life transition reflected in the Bridge Drawing Test (BDT) of refugee minors who have moved from either Ukraine or Eritrea and are curre…
Silenced Echoes: Revenge Fantasies Toward Unjust Events in Drawings and Narratives of Indian Hindu Women
The study explored revenge fantasies as a response to perceived injustices among Indian Hindu women amid the prevalent gender-based violence. A mixed-method design with 52 women (18–56 years) was used to collect their drawings and narratives depicting revenge fantasies, demographics, the Traumatic Events Questionnaire, and the Injustice Experiences Questionnaire. Participants highlighted non-family events with strangers as perpetrators, preferrin…
Toward development and validation of a child maltreatment pictorial card tool
The study introduces the Child Maltreatment Pictorial Cards (CMPC) comprising 26 cards: 15 depict child maltreatment (CM) forms, and 11 cards illustrate positive situations. A total of 102 participants (age range 6–17 years) – 63 abused children and 39 non-abused controls – were recruited following ethical approval. Convergent and discriminant validities were established by using the Medical Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire and child history fi…
Experiences of social workers who witness mistreatment as captured in drawing and narrative
The current study attempted to find out how the Bystander’s role and response are reflected in the drawings and narratives of social workers. The sample consisted of 32 social workers aged 25 to 55 who were asked to draw two drawings: “draw a work mistreatment you witnessed at work” and “draw your reaction to that event” narrative to each drawing was given following the drawing activity. In addition, a self-report questionnaire that included demo…
Poverty, Somatisation Tendency and Potency in Low-Income Adolescent Groups of India and Israel: Explorations from the Field
Poverty increases vulnerability towards somatisation and influences the sense of mastery and well-being. The present study on adolescents living in relative poverty in a high-income group country (Israel) and a low-middle-income group country (India) explored the nature of somatisation tendency (ST) and its relationship with potency and perception of poverty (PP). Potency, a buffer against stress-induced negative health effects, was hypothesized …
The reflection of desire for revenge and revenge fantasies in drawings and narratives of sexually abused children
Whereas the desire for revenge for an unjust deed is considered natural, its use within the therapeutic setting is scarce, specifically in sexually victimized children. The study aimed to find how experiencing sexual molestation during childhood and the revenge fantasy is reflected in drawings and narratives of sexually victimized children. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form, 14 children who experienced sexual abuse and were ps…
Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Draw and Describe Their Experiences of Dissociation
The paper examined how dissociation is experienced and manifested in the drawings and narratives of female survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Fifteen Israeli women filled out a self-report questionnaire consisting of demographics, traumatic events, and dissociation severity. Then, they were asked to draw a dissociation experience and provide a narrative. The results indicated that experiencing…
The mediating role of parental embodied mentalizing in the longitudinal association between prenatal spousal support and toddler emotion recognition
Emotion recognition is an important developmental achievement in early childhood. Grounded in theoretical concepts of family systems theory and the spillover effect, the goal of the current study was to examine whether prenatal spousal support predicts toddler emotion recognition at 24 months, and whether this association is mediated by parental embodied mentalizing (PEM) at 6 months. PEM refers to the parent's capacity to understand the infant's…
Use of Self-Figure Drawing as an Assessment Tool for Child Abuse: Differentiating between Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse
Child abuse is a worldwide phenomenon with adverse short- and long-term mental and physical negative consequences, with a huge gap between the prevalence of child abuse and disclosure rates. The study aimed to examine and validate the self-figure drawing as an assessment tool to differentiate between three forms of child abuse, i.e., child sexual abuse (CSA), child physical abuse (CPA), and child emotional abuse (CEA). Following the ethical appro…
Losing Faith in My Body”: Body Image in Individuals Diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Disease as Reflected in Drawings and Narratives
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the dependency on dialysis is an abrupt life-changing event that harms a patient's life (e.g., social relationships, work, and well-being). This study aimed to examine how individuals who undergo chronic dialysis due to failure end-stage renal disease perceive their bodies, as reflected in drawings and narratives. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form to participate in the study, 29 adults between …
Health and Risk Behaviors of Bystanders: An Integrative Theoretical Model of Bystanders’ Reactions to Mistreatment
This article constructs a comprehensive theoretical model that outlines bystanders' emotional and behavioral responses to the mistreatment of adolescent peers. The model captures bystanders' risk and health risk behaviors, which have been overlooked in the context of their reactions; when addressed at all in connection with bystanders of bullying among adolescents, they have been treated separately. Here, we present bystanders' emotional and cogn…
Roles of Emotional Reactions and Potency in Coping with Abusive Experiences of Indian Adolescent
Alone with our interpretations”: Uncertainty in child abuse intervention among healthcare professionals
Do Self-Figure Drawings Reveal the Drawer’s Cultural Values? Thais and Israelis Draw Themselves
This study aimed to investigate to what extent the self-figure drawings of young adult Thais differ from the self-figure drawings of a matched Israeli group. The convenience sample consisted of 24 participants; 12 Israelis and 12 Thais were asked to draw themselves with a pencil on a sheet of A4 paper and add a narrative to the drawing. In addition, they were asked to draw how they are perceived by the other group. Analyses of variance were condu…
Adult women survivors of intrafamilial child sexual abuse and their current relationship with the abuser
This article examines the adult perceptions of women survivors of intrafamilial child sexual abuse and their current relationship with the family member who abused them in their childhood. Twenty Jewish Israeli women were interviewed in depth between 2008 and 2009. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis produced 2 interrelated continua with regard to the presence of the perpetrator in the women's life: a continuum o…
Prevalence of Child Maltreatment in Israel: A National Epidemiological Study
Growth in the Shadow of War: The Case of Social Workers and Nurses Working in a Shared War Reality
This study aimed to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms and vicarious traumatization (VT) versus post-traumatic growth (PTG) among Israeli practitioners who shared war-related reality with their clients during the Second Lebanon–Israel war (2006). In addition, the contribution of potency (one's personal resource) and the role of peri-traumatic dissociation (the emotional detachment activated during or immediately after a traumatic event) were e…
Psychological Symptomatology among Palestinian Male and Female Adolescents Living under Political Violence 2004–2005
Personal Characteristics, Unemployment, and Anxiety among Highly Educated Immigrants
This exploratory study examines the relationship between personal resources (sense of potency, marital quality, social support from family and friends), the duration of unemployment, and the level of state anxiety experienced by highly educated, unemployed, middle‐aged immigrants. Studying the anxiety levels among populations at‐risk such as unemployed immigrants is particularly important in the context of situations of military conflict. In such…
The Physical and Psychosocial Health of Bedouin Arab Women of the Negev Area of Israel: The Impact of High Fertility and Pervasive Domestic Violence
This study examined the self-reported health status of Bedouin Arab women in relation to two salient features of current Bedouin Arab social mores: the emphasis on maintaining a high rate of fertility and the social acceptance of domestic violence. A quota sample of 202 Bedouin Arab women ranging in age from 22 to 75 were personally interviewed. Fortyeight percent of the women reported a lifetime exposure to physical violence, and 30% reported do…
Expectations of Costs and Rewards: Students Versus Practicing Social Workers
This study compares Israeli social work students' perceptions of the rewards and costs of working in the profession with those held by Israeli senior social workers. Questionnaires examining this issue were administered to 91 participants. Findings indicated that students' perceptions were significantly higher than senior social workers' perceptions
Pathways to Resilience Among Israeli Child Victims of Abuse and Neglect
The Effects of Similarity Versus Dissimilarity of Spouses' Traumatic Childhood Events on Psychological Well-Being and Marital Quality
This study compared spouses who had experienced similar versus different childhood trauma in terms of post-traumatic symptomatology, psychological symptoms of distress, and marital quality. The sample comprised two groups: Holocaust child survivors who were sexually abused during the Holocaust and are married to Holocaust child survivors ( n = 44) who were also sexually abused, and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse married to nonsurvivors…
Living Under the Threat of Relocation: Spouses' Perceptions of the Threat and Coping Resources
Silenced Echoes: Revenge Fantasies Toward Unjust Events in Drawings and Narratives of Indian Hindu Women
The study explored revenge fantasies as a response to perceived injustices among Indian Hindu women amid the prevalent gender-based violence. A mixed-method design with 52 women (18–56 years) was used to collect their drawings and narratives depicting revenge fantasies, demographics, the Traumatic Events Questionnaire, and the Injustice Experiences Questionnaire. Participants highlighted non-family events with strangers as perpetrators, preferrin…
Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Draw and Describe Their Experiences of Dissociation
The paper examined how dissociation is experienced and manifested in the drawings and narratives of female survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Fifteen Israeli women filled out a self-report questionnaire consisting of demographics, traumatic events, and dissociation severity. Then, they were asked to draw a dissociation experience and provide a narrative. The results indicated that experiencing…
Role perception among social workers living in politically uncertain areas
Social workers and residents in areas of political uncertainty are exposed to special demands which derive from three sources, residence in the area, exposure to the anxieties and conflicts of neighbors as clients, and being representatives of the establishment. The results of a survey in 1995 of social workers in Judea/Samaria and the Golan Heights show a positive correlation between feelings of surfeit of political issues and difficulty of copi…
The reflection of desire for revenge and revenge fantasies in drawings and narratives of sexually abused children
Whereas the desire for revenge for an unjust deed is considered natural, its use within the therapeutic setting is scarce, specifically in sexually victimized children. The study aimed to find how experiencing sexual molestation during childhood and the revenge fantasy is reflected in drawings and narratives of sexually victimized children. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form, 14 children who experienced sexual abuse and were ps…
Living Under the Threat of Relocation: Different Buffering Effects of Personal Coping Resources on Men and Women
The study examines gender differences in the buffering effects of two coping resources, potency and marital quality, on a random sample of 103 married women and 96 married men who live under the threat of relocation in the Golan Heights region, Israel. Findings indicate that potency (profound faith in one's own ability, and true belief in order and meaning in society) had a buffering effect on perceived demands and stress in both men and women, w…
Spouses' Perceptions of Each Other's Coping Ability with Possible Stressful Life Events and Marital Quality
Spouses' Perceptions of Each Other's Coping Ability with Possible Stressful Life Events and Marital Quality
Living Under the Threat of Relocation: Spouses' Perceptions of the Threat and Coping Resources
Living Under the Threat of Relocation: Different Buffering Effects of Personal Coping Resources on Men and Women
The study examines gender differences in the buffering effects of two coping resources, potency and marital quality, on a random sample of 103 married women and 96 married men who live under the threat of relocation in the Golan Heights region, Israel. Findings indicate that potency (profound faith in one's own ability, and true belief in order and meaning in society) had a buffering effect on perceived demands and stress in both men and women, w…
Role perception among social workers living in politically uncertain areas
Social workers and residents in areas of political uncertainty are exposed to special demands which derive from three sources, residence in the area, exposure to the anxieties and conflicts of neighbors as clients, and being representatives of the establishment. The results of a survey in 1995 of social workers in Judea/Samaria and the Golan Heights show a positive correlation between feelings of surfeit of political issues and difficulty of copi…
Wife Abuse Among Polygamous and Monogamous Bedouin-Arab Families
This study compared the phenomenon of wife abuse in polygamous and monogamous Bedouin-Arab families. A sample of 81 women participated in the present study −40 were from polygamous and 41 were from monogamous families. The instruments administered examined three dimensions: Demographic variables, sense of personal potency (as assessed by the Potency Scale: Ben-Sira, 1985) and experience of abusive behavior (as assessed by the Psychological Maltre…
The Physical and Psychosocial Health of Bedouin Arab Women of the Negev Area of Israel: The Impact of High Fertility and Pervasive Domestic Violence
This study examined the self-reported health status of Bedouin Arab women in relation to two salient features of current Bedouin Arab social mores: the emphasis on maintaining a high rate of fertility and the social acceptance of domestic violence. A quota sample of 202 Bedouin Arab women ranging in age from 22 to 75 were personally interviewed. Fortyeight percent of the women reported a lifetime exposure to physical violence, and 30% reported do…
Expectations of Costs and Rewards: Students Versus Practicing Social Workers
This study compares Israeli social work students' perceptions of the rewards and costs of working in the profession with those held by Israeli senior social workers. Questionnaires examining this issue were administered to 91 participants. Findings indicated that students' perceptions were significantly higher than senior social workers' perceptions
The Effects of Similarity Versus Dissimilarity of Spouses' Traumatic Childhood Events on Psychological Well-Being and Marital Quality
This study compared spouses who had experienced similar versus different childhood trauma in terms of post-traumatic symptomatology, psychological symptoms of distress, and marital quality. The sample comprised two groups: Holocaust child survivors who were sexually abused during the Holocaust and are married to Holocaust child survivors ( n = 44) who were also sexually abused, and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse married to nonsurvivors…
Personal Characteristics, Unemployment, and Anxiety among Highly Educated Immigrants
This exploratory study examines the relationship between personal resources (sense of potency, marital quality, social support from family and friends), the duration of unemployment, and the level of state anxiety experienced by highly educated, unemployed, middle‐aged immigrants. Studying the anxiety levels among populations at‐risk such as unemployed immigrants is particularly important in the context of situations of military conflict. In such…
Psychological Symptomatology among Palestinian Male and Female Adolescents Living under Political Violence 2004–2005
Child sexual abuse: A critical review of intervention and treatment modalities
Growth in the Shadow of War: The Case of Social Workers and Nurses Working in a Shared War Reality
This study aimed to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms and vicarious traumatization (VT) versus post-traumatic growth (PTG) among Israeli practitioners who shared war-related reality with their clients during the Second Lebanon–Israel war (2006). In addition, the contribution of potency (one's personal resource) and the role of peri-traumatic dissociation (the emotional detachment activated during or immediately after a traumatic event) were e…
The Use of Creative Arts Therapies for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Purposes
This paper introduces the growing and developing field of creative arts therapies.The authors briefly highlight the common and distinctive characteristics of eachspecialization, including art therapy, dance movement therapy, music therapy,dramatherapy, and psychodrama. Then, current research is reviewed and a clinicalcase illustration is provided to clarify and demonstrate the use of creative artstherapies for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.…
Reconstruction of self-identity of Holocaust child survivors who participated in “Testimony Theater”
The current study is the first to examine the experience of Holocaust Child Survivors (HCSs) sharing their survival stories by performing with youths on one stage as part of the “Testimony Theater” project. Using qualitative data analysis, the findings indicate that the Holocaust experience is an essential element in forming the identity of HCSs. Arriving in the land of Israel, Holocaust survivors had a collective identity of “Holocaust Survivors…
Pathways to Resilience Among Israeli Child Victims of Abuse and Neglect
Dissociation: Adjustment or Distress? Dissociative Phenomena, Absorption and Quality of Life Among Israeli Women Who Practice Channeling Compared to Women with Similar Traumatic History
Living on the Edges: Between Victims and Survivors, the Voices of Abused Adolescent Girls
Prevalence of Child Maltreatment in Israel: A National Epidemiological Study
Adult women survivors of intrafamilial child sexual abuse and their current relationship with the abuser
This article examines the adult perceptions of women survivors of intrafamilial child sexual abuse and their current relationship with the family member who abused them in their childhood. Twenty Jewish Israeli women were interviewed in depth between 2008 and 2009. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis produced 2 interrelated continua with regard to the presence of the perpetrator in the women's life: a continuum o…
Alone with our interpretations”: Uncertainty in child abuse intervention among healthcare professionals
Do Self-Figure Drawings Reveal the Drawer’s Cultural Values? Thais and Israelis Draw Themselves
This study aimed to investigate to what extent the self-figure drawings of young adult Thais differ from the self-figure drawings of a matched Israeli group. The convenience sample consisted of 24 participants; 12 Israelis and 12 Thais were asked to draw themselves with a pencil on a sheet of A4 paper and add a narrative to the drawing. In addition, they were asked to draw how they are perceived by the other group. Analyses of variance were condu…
Roles of Emotional Reactions and Potency in Coping with Abusive Experiences of Indian Adolescent
Health and Risk Behaviors of Bystanders: An Integrative Theoretical Model of Bystanders’ Reactions to Mistreatment
This article constructs a comprehensive theoretical model that outlines bystanders' emotional and behavioral responses to the mistreatment of adolescent peers. The model captures bystanders' risk and health risk behaviors, which have been overlooked in the context of their reactions; when addressed at all in connection with bystanders of bullying among adolescents, they have been treated separately. Here, we present bystanders' emotional and cogn…
The mediating role of parental embodied mentalizing in the longitudinal association between prenatal spousal support and toddler emotion recognition
Emotion recognition is an important developmental achievement in early childhood. Grounded in theoretical concepts of family systems theory and the spillover effect, the goal of the current study was to examine whether prenatal spousal support predicts toddler emotion recognition at 24 months, and whether this association is mediated by parental embodied mentalizing (PEM) at 6 months. PEM refers to the parent's capacity to understand the infant's…
Use of Self-Figure Drawing as an Assessment Tool for Child Abuse: Differentiating between Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse
Child abuse is a worldwide phenomenon with adverse short- and long-term mental and physical negative consequences, with a huge gap between the prevalence of child abuse and disclosure rates. The study aimed to examine and validate the self-figure drawing as an assessment tool to differentiate between three forms of child abuse, i.e., child sexual abuse (CSA), child physical abuse (CPA), and child emotional abuse (CEA). Following the ethical appro…
Psychology (37 works) · Medicine (22 works) · Clinical Psychology (19 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (16 works) · Poison control (16 works) · Psychiatry (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Clinical Psychology (15 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works)