Terrorism, distress and coping: High versus low impact regions and direct versus indirect civilian exposure

Abstract

The 2001–2002 terror campaign against Israel's heartland was an unprecedented string of deadly bombing attacks against Israeli civilians. The violence touched the lives of countless Israelis and has negatively affected the general mood of many. The objective of this investigation was to assess the level of exposure to terrorism for individuals residing in the affected areas and to examine psychological responses and ways of coping during the peak of the violence. A random sample of 327 adults, purposely over-sampled from the hardest-hit areas, was surveyed. Although citizens residing in the most severely hit locales were also those who suffered most from posttraumatic symptoms, the effects of major national trauma were not limited to those directly exposed to it. These results suggest that objective measures of exposure or loss may not be sensitive predictors of reactive distress. Acceptance of the situation and its uncontrollability was both the most commonly used way of coping employed and the only effective one.

Keywords:

• Terror
• stress
• coping
• Israel

This study was partially supported by a grant from the R. D. Wolfe Centre for the Study of Psychological Stress, University of Haifa, Israel. The authors wish to thank Dvash Software Systems of Haifa, Israel for their kind assistance.

Notes

1 Items that received an endorsement score of 2 or above were counted as being employed at least to some degree.