Rationale Due to lack of vaccine or cure, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a threat to all human beings, undermining people’s basic sense of safety and increasing distress symptoms. Objective To investigate the extent to which individual resilience, well-being and demographic characteristics may predict two indicators of Coronavirus pandemic: distress symptoms and perceived danger. Method Two independent samples were employed: 1) 605 respondents recruited through an internet panel company; 2) 741 respondents recruited through social media, using snowball sampling. Both samples filled a structured online questionnaire. Correlations between psychological/demographic variables and distress and perceived danger were examined. Path analysis was conducted to identify predictive indicators of distress and perceived danger. Results Significant negative correlations were found between individual/community resilience and sense of danger (-.220 and -.255 respectively; p <.001) and distress symptoms (- .398 and -.544 respectively; p <.001). Significant positive correlations were found between gender, community size, economic difficulties and sense of danger (.192, .117 and .244 respectively; p <.001). Gender and economic difficulties also positively correlated with distress symptoms (.130 and .214 respectively; p <.001). Path analysis revealed that all paths were significant ( p <.008 to .001) except between family income and distress symptoms ( p =.12). The seven predictors explained 20% of sense of danger variance and 34% the distress symptoms variance. The most highly predictive indicators were the two psychological characteristics, individual resilience, and well-being. Age, gender, community size, and economic difficulties due to COVID-19 further add to predicting distress, while community and national resilience do not. . Conclusions Individual resilience and well-being have been found as the first and foremost predictors of COVID-19 anxiety. Though both predictors are complex and may be influenced by many factors, given the potential return of COVID-19 threat and other future health pandemic threats to our world, we must rethink and develop ways to reinforce them.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing epidemic of coronavirus disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has spread recently worldwide. Efforts to prevent the virus from spreading include travel restrictions, lockdowns as well as national or regional quarantines throughout the international community. The major negative psychological outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic is the anxiety caused by it. The aim of the present study was to examine the level of concern and the contributions of modes of resilience, well-being and demographic attributes towards decreasing or enhancing anxiety and depression among two samples: Israeli Jews (majority group) and Israeli Arabs (minority group). These random samples included 605 Jews and 156 Arabs who participated in an internet survey. A previous study, which has been conducted in the context of terror attacks, has shown that compared to Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs expressed a higher level of fear of war and lower levels of resilience supporting personality attributes. The results of the current study indicated a similar pattern that emerged in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: the Israeli Arabs reported a higher level of distress and a lower level of resilience and well-being.

The study focuses on the long-term impact of war on adolescents (N = 821) and adults (N = 870) living in a war afflicted Israeli community a year after the war. Results indicate the following: (a) stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG) correlate negatively with each other. (b) Age was positively associated with stress symptoms and negatively with PTG. (c) Economic condition predicted stress symptoms as well as PTG of adults better than exposure to traumatic events, whereas for school students the best predictor of stress symptoms was exposure to traumatic events while the best predictor of PTG was age of participants.

The current study analyzed repeated responses to the coronavirus. Data for the first phase was gathered during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in Israel (T1), which included the overall lock-down of the Israeli society. The repeated measurement was conducted approximately two months later, on the initial phase of lifting the lock-down (T2). The sample size was 300 people. Results indicated four significant differences between the first and the second measurements: Sense of danger, distress symptoms, and national resilience significantly decreased, while perceived well-being increased at T2. No significant differences were noted between the two measurements regarding individual and community resilience and economic difficulties. The data indicated that the highest decrease in national resilience was accounted for by low respondent trust in governmental decisions during the COVID-19 crisis. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the participants was determined by two indicators: level of distress symptoms and sense of danger. Path analyses showed that five variables significantly predicted these two indicators. Their best predictor at T1 and T2 was well-being followed by individual resilience, economic difficulties due to the pandemic crisis, community resilience, and gender. It was concluded that psychological attributes may help in decreasing the impact of the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study focuses on the distinction between individual and public resilience, and their effects on long-term negative (symptoms) and positive (posttraumatic recovery) war outcomes 1 year after the end of the war. Path analysis indicated the following: (a) Gender, age, economic situation, and exposure to traumatic war events significantly predicted recovery as well as symptoms. Being a female, an older person, lower economic situation, and higher exposure were associated with a lower level of recovery and a higher level of symptoms. (b) Individual and public resilience served as mediators between economic situation and exposure, and the two war outcomes. (c) The best predictor of recovery is public resilience whereas the best predictor of symptoms is individual resilience.j abr_41 70..89The present study focuses on the distinction between individual and public resilience, and their effects on long-term negative (stress symptoms) and positive (posttraumatic recovery [PTR]) war outcomes. To our best knowledge, no previous study has examined the mutual effects of these two modes of resilience on coping with long-term affects of war.In recent years, as terror attacks become prominent threats across the world, and specifically since the 9/11 attack in New York, resiliency has been researched extensively. In these studies, the main research question is the ability of the civil population to withstand adverse events such as a mass casualty terror attack or war and its ability to recover and return to normal everyday life. This ability is described in most studies as resilience.

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Considering the potential impact of COVID-19 on the civil society, a longitudinal study was conducted to identify levels of distress, resilience, and the subjective well-being of the population. The study is based on two repeated measurements conducted at the end of the pandemic’s “first wave” and the beginning of the “second wave” on a sample (n = 906) of Jewish Israeli respondents, who completed an online questionnaire distributed by an Internet panel company. Three groups of indicators were assessed: signs of distress (sense of danger, distress symptoms, and perceived threats), resilience (individual, community, and national), and subjective well-being (well-being, hope, and morale). Results indicated the following: (a) a significant increase in distress indicators, with effect sizes of sense of danger, distress symptoms, and perceived threats (Cohen’s d 0.614, 0.120, and 0.248, respectively); (b) a significant decrease in resilience indicators, with effect sizes of individual, community, and national resilience (Cohen’s d 0.153, 0.428, and 0.793, respectively); and (c) a significant decrease in subjective well-being indicators with effect sizes of well-being, hope, and morale (Cohen’s d 0.116, 0.336, and 0.199, respectively). To conclude, COVID-19 had a severe, large-scale impact on the civil society, leading to multidimensional damage and a marked decrease in the individual, community, and national resilience of the population.