ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Pediatric Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Rights and Needs of Children During Times of War and ConflictView all 15 articles
Children's Rights and Needs During War: The Case of Adolescents in Israel
Provisionally accepted
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Introduction: This study examines the attainment of rights and needs of adolescents during the war following the October 7th 2023 terror attack on Israel. A normative analysis of the rights of children and youth, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), was integrated with an empirical examination of children's rights and needs attainment. Committed to a children's rights epistemology, the empirical examination is based on children's own reports. Additional aims were to explore whether gaps existed between the adolescents' and their parents' perspectives and across demographic groups (using Hebrew and Arabic surveys). Methods: A novel questionnaire was developed based on key children's rights detailed in the CRC and organized according to the "Three P's" classification: protection (whether children are safe from harm), provision (continuity and equality in public services), and participation (access to safe information, participation in decision-making, privacy, and freedom of expression). Data were collected in Hebrew from 359 adolescent-parent dyads between May and July 2025. In a second wave, data were collected in Hebrew and Arabic from additional samples of adolescents (n=101; n=24) between August and September 2025. A mixed-methods approach was employed to analyze the quantitative data, alongside qualitative analysis of text responses to open-ended questions. Results: Protection. While basic safety seems to be maintained for adolescents, exposure to violence, mainly verbal, in schools was noted. Among responders to the Arabic survey, higher percentages of verbal assault at home were reported. Fear of "the other" emerges as a significant theme in text responses. Provision. Education continuity is challenged. Participation. Arabic-speaking adolescents report feeling less free to express their opinions. Parents were reported as a central source of safe information for adolescents, mainly in the Hebrew surveys. Text responses highlight the need of some to "talk more" and "be heard more" despite their young age. Discussion: By employing an interdisciplinary framework, this study contributes to the broader understanding of how war impacts adolescents, emphasizing often-overlooked areas such as freedom of speech, equality, access to safe information, and participation. Findings highlight the impacts of prolonged war on the sense of safety beyond immediate needs.
Keywords: adolescents, Armed conflict, children's needs, children's rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC, Terror, War
Received: 06 Oct 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Rum, Milstein, Zedan and Gal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tali Gal
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