Stress and coping: the experience of students at the American University of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Wntr, 1996 by Ahmad Oweini

Attending an institution of higher education has its share of stress and difficulties associated with the rites of passage from high school to college, and from adolescence to adulthood. Such difficulties include adjusting to a new environment, and meeting new academic, intellectual and social challenges. What would this experience be like when an institution of higher learning is in the midst of a troubled and war-torn country?

The experience of students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) was unique in terms of the dangers, anxieties and fears that they had to cope with on a daily basis, and the adjustment process that they had to engage in to fashion a normal academic and social life. These stressful circumstances stemmed from the sustained periods of terror and political and social instability that plagued Lebanon between 1975 and 1991.

However, AUB students appeared to continue their academic life and social activities in a fashion that was more "normal" than most would presume, despite the hostile and life-threatening environment. Invariably, they registered at the beginning of each semester, attended classes, took exams, dated, organized outdoor fairs, and graduated at the end of each academic year. In short, they made the best of their precarious and insecure situation and fashioned an approximation of a normal academic and social life.

What conclusions can be drawn from the experiences of AUB students? Did AUB shelter its students from the worst effects of the conflict or did the war affect the students in ways that were more subtle and more indirect than might be assumed?

This study aims at exploring the ways in which the prolonged political turmoil in Lebanon has affected the atmosphere of an elitist institution that has played a critical role in education and development in the Middle East. To that end, a chronicle of the major events that occurred on the AUB campus between 1975 and 1991 was presented, and a group of AUB alumni living in the USA were interviewed about their emotional, social, and academic lives, and the different mechanisms that they resorted to in coping with stress caused by threatening living conditions.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The concept of coping has been examined particularly in the context of coping with combat stress and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In examining the coping patterns of American soldiers who fought in Vietnam and concentration camp survivors during the Holocaust, studies concluded that exposure to stressful events "outside the range of human experience"(1) has an adverse effect on a person's mental health, and results in a variety of immediate or delayed symptoms ranging from mild anxiety and insomnia to full blown psychoses and suicide.(2 3 4 5 6 7) Other accounts focused on the remarkable adaptive and reintegrative abilities of civilians during war trauma.(8 9 10 11) A number of psychological processes (defense mechanisms, particularly denial), personality traits and environmental variables (support systems and control over one's environment) were found to influence the nature and outcome of coping.(12 13 14 15)

The civil war that erupted in 1975 was the most devastating military conflict that Lebanon has witnessed in its modern history, and the breaking point resulting from years of tension and power struggle between the Muslim and the Christian communities who represent the two major religious groups in Lebanon. From its outset, the Lebanese civil war was an endless series of destruction, bloodshed and divisiveness that led to the segregation of the population along denominational lines and political affiliations. This, in turn, created a tragic decline in all cultural and educational values, and ultimately to the collapse of the economy's productive capacity.

Once a prosperous country where people celebrated the amalgamation of Arab and Western cultures, and enjoyed freedom of expression, a high level of education, arts and entertainment, Lebanon seemed to have lost it all. The government collapsed, and armed militias and warlords prevailed, each in his own fief: killing, random shelling, looting, kidnapping, car bombings, forced occupations, and displacements were commonplace. Additionally, the continuous rationing of electricity, water and fuel, hiding in shelters, coexisting day by day with the fear and anxiety of the unforeseen, became a way of life. All sectors of the economy suffered and most religious, social, and cultural institutions were rendered dysfunctional.

Today the war is over, at least as far as the armed conflict is concerned. With a death toll exceeding 100,000 people and physical damage upwards of $50 billion,(16) the devastating effect of the Lebanese war is undisputed. However, with respect to the toll that the ongoing strife has taken on mental health in Lebanon, opinions are divided and studies inconclusive. By and large, reports from various periods of the civil conflict maintain that, although Lebanon experienced widespread poverty, social unrest, rising inflation and a rapid depreciation of the currency, most Lebanese people seemed to have survived the harshness of the war relatively unaffected.(17 18 19 20 21 22)