Mental Health and Coping in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Israeli Case

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the entire world off guard. Israel, similar to all other nations, was forced to cope with the unknown. “Flattening the curve” of infections has become a common term among specialists and decision makers, while explaining restricting measurements taken toward the population. Israelis, who had previously learned to deal with life under constant security threat, are now facing a new reality. The purpose of the study was to check how Israelis are psychologically affected by and coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included 925 Israelis divided into three groups: ages 18–29, 30–59, and 60–88. The data were collected between March 31 and April 8, 2020, when it was already clear that this is a global plague, the country's borders were closed, and the government's directive for citizens was to remain at home while imposing limitations on the public and private sectors. The current study examined psychological distress among the three age groups as well as the associations between levels of distress, resilience, and coping strategies. Levels of distress were measured via the BSI-18 that measures anxiety, depression, and somatization. Resilience was measured using the Connor-Davidson CD-RISC scale. Coping was measured by the short version of the COPE. Psychological distress was associated with being in a younger age group, being a woman, having economic concerns, use of emotion and problem focused coping, and lower resilience. The study also found that concern for the health of family members was the strongest concern among all age groups but was highest among the younger age group. It was also found that those in the younger age group suffered from higher levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization compared to the older age group. The middle age group suffered from elevated levels of anxiety and somatization compared to the older age group. Although the older age group was the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, in this study age was found to be a protective factor from psychological distress. The results of the study suggest the need to consider the younger age group as a risk group, which hence needs to be addressed as the focus of intervention programs. It appears that the concern for their loved ones takes a heavy toll on the younger generation, and this should be considered a major source of stress.

Predicting Managers' Mental Health Across Countries: Using Country-Level COVID-19 Statistics

“…For another, younger managers in our sample experienced greater mental distress, potentially because younger managers might have less experience with crisis situations and might thus have developed fewer coping techniques. Again, this finding is compatible with prior literature ( 12 , 37 ). Our findings thus advise medical professionals to target younger and female managers with mental health service offerings.…”

Predicting Individual Function During COVID-19 Lockdown: Depression, Fear of COVID-19, Age, and Employment

“…Nevertheless, many studies indicate a decline in anxiety and fear with aging and argue that aging is a protective factor (Russac et al, 2007 ; Charles and Carstensen, 2010 ; Mather, 2016 ). COVID-19 studies also reinforce this notion and show that younger individuals experience greater depression and anxiety than older adults (Gualano et al, 2020 ; Moccia et al, 2020 ; Braun-Lewensohn et al, 2021 ; Shechory Bitton and Laufer, 2021 ). Based on these findings, we suggest that age will be negatively associated with depression and fears and positively associated with function.…”

Fear of the Unknown: Does Fear of Terrorism Differ From Fear of Contracting COVID-19?

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“…Israelis, who have considerable experience dealing with life under a constant security threat, are now faced with a new reality in which they are required to deal with an unfamiliar situation, dealing with an epidemic that is a threat to their health and to the health of their family, when uncertainty and lack of knowledge concerning the virus and its effects were at their height (Shechory Bitton and Laufer, 2021). Although there have been several global epidemics in recent decades, Israel was hardly affected by them.…”