Spousal Coping Strategies in the Shadow of Terrorism

Shechory-Bitton, Mally; Cohen-Louck, Keren

doi:10.1177/0886260517744191

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(100 reference statements)

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“…Finally, although at the time the study was conducted there was no indication that the coronavirus acted differently among men and women, the findings show that women had higher levels of psychological distress compared to men. This is in line with previous findings showing that women appear to be more vulnerable to internalizing symptoms, both in studies on the coronavirus (1) as well as in national studies on psychological distress levels (35,43,44). This tendency is well-documented and has been attributed to physiological differences (45), differences in cognitive appraisal and coping (46), socialization, and social factors (47).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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

Bitton

Laufer

2021

Front. Public Health

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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.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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

Bitton

Laufer

2021

Front. Public Health

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“…Finally, in line with previous findings (e.g., Laufer et al, 2019;Qiu et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Shechory Bitton and Cohen-Louck, 2021), women were found to display more fear than men. They also used more coping strategies and had less resilience compared to men.…”

Section: Gendersupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In contrast, high levels of emotion-focused coping are proposed to have positive effects on adaptation in uncontrollable situations (Conway and Terry, 1992). In these cases, it may even be better to use emotion-focused coping, since this strategy may reduce the negative psychological effects of the event without confronting it directly (Zeidner, 2006;Shechory Bitton and Cohen-Louck, 2021).…”

Section: Resilience and Coping Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Bitton

Laufer

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The aim of the study was to explore whether living under constant security threat would result in better coping and higher resilience when exposed to an unknown threat such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, fear of COVID-19 and fear of terrorism as well as the associations with coping strategies and resilience were examined among Israelis living in conflict zones as well as Israelis living in the center, where exposure to security incidents is rare. Six hundred and fifteen Israeli adults (260 men and 356 women) were interviewed via the internet while Israel was under mandatory first lockdown. Fear of COVID-19 was found to be higher than fear of terrorism among both groups. those living in the conflict zones and those living in the central Israel. In contradiction to our assumption, we found that those who were living in a conflict zone did not exhibit higher levels of resilience and did not cope better when exposed to a new threat—even though they may be more skilled at handling prolonged exposure to a threat such as terrorism. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of both fear of COVID-19 and of terrorism is financial concerns—more than geographical area.

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“…Coping refers to cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage the internal and external demands of the interaction between the individual and the environment [21]. Basically, coping styles can be classified into problemfocused coping (e.g., dealing with stress sources and taking proactive steps to change them) and emotion-focused coping (e.g., regulating one's emotion to reduce stress) [23][24][25]. Additionally, coping styles can also be classified as adaptive/functional and maladaptive/dysfunctional [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between habitual use of coping strategies and posttraumatic stress symptoms in a non-clinical sample of college students: A Bayesian approach

et al. 2020

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The present study investigated the influences of coping styles on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among a sample of non-clinical college students who were exposed to traumatic events. Ninety-nine college students participated in the study. However, the sample used in the analyses consisted of only 37 participants who fulfilled the DSM-IV criterion A for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. The PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) and the Brief COPE were used to assess the participants' PTSS and habitual use of coping strategies, respectively. Bayesian and frequentist correlations showed that emotion-focused coping style was negatively associated with PTSS, while dysfunctional coping style was positively related to PTSS. In the subsequent linear regression on both statistical framework, dysfunctional coping was the only consistent variable predicting more PTSD symptoms. The findings presented here show that lower use of adaptive coping (emotion-focused) and higher use of dysfunctional coping styles on a daily basis are associated to PTSS severity in a non-clinical sample of college students. According to the Bayesian approach, which permits more generalization of data, dysfunctional coping style is determinant to higher levels of PTSS. These findings add new data to the body of research that highlight the critical role of distinct coping strategies in the severity of PTSS.

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Spousal Coping Strategies in the Shadow of Terrorism

Cited by 7 publications

References 64 publications

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

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

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

Association between habitual use of coping strategies and posttraumatic stress symptoms in a non-clinical sample of college students: A Bayesian approach

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