Evil-related threats and mental health concomitants among offspring of Holocaust survivors gay men

Figures & data

Figure 1. Stages in participants’ selection into the gay and heterosexual men groups.

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the gay and heterosexual men groups.

Variable	Gay men group (N = 173)	Heterosexual men group (N = 173)	Difference test
Age			t(344) = 0.71
M	60.2	60.9
SD	8.6	8.3
Minimum	50	50
Maximum	84	86
Place of birth (%)			χ^2(1) = 0.00
0. Israel	79.8	79.8
1. Other	20.2	20.2
Economic status (%)			t(344) = 0.07
1. Low	0.6	1.2
2. Below average	3.5	5.8
3. Average	38.2	34.7
4. Above average	47.4	44.5
5. High	10.4	13.9
M	3.6	3.6
SD	0.7	0.8
Education (%)			t(336.24) = −2.42*
1. Elementary or no education	1.2	0.6
2. Partial high school	2.9	4.6
3. Full high school	4.0	11.0
4. Higher education	8.1	13.3
5. Academic education	83.8	70.5
M	4.7	4.5
SD	0.8	0.9
Relationship status (%)			χ^2(1) = 126.26***
0. Not in a steady relationship^a	75.1	15.0
1. In a steady relationship^a	24.9	85.0
Place of residence (%)			χ^2(1) = 53.30***
0. City	90.8	56.1
1. Rural	9.2	43.9
Religiousness (%)			χ^2(1) = 11.79***
0. Secular	91.3	78.0
1. Traditionalist/religious	8.7	22.0

Notes. The t-tests regarding age, self-rated economic status, and education level compared the respective means of the matched groups. Encoding numbers appear to the left of the variables’ categories.

^aA steady relationship was defined as being legally married, living in an unregistered partnership, or otherwise maintaining a steady relationship with a partner.

* p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001.

Table 2. Exploratory factor analysis of the evil-related threats scale.

Item	Loading
67. It scares me to think how human beings’ cruelty can hurt me	.66
58. I’m very scared of terrorism	.62
29. I always live in fear that there will be more and more wars	.62
48. Sometimes I think it’s not worth living in this horrible world	.59
71. I know from personal experience that I can’t count on getting help from others, even close family members or friends	.55
17. It occurs to me that somebody I like might betray our relationship	.50
36. There is a possibility that the police – or other government authorities – will sue me with false allegations	.50
Explained variance (%)	33.67

Notes. N = 330 from both groups, with listwise deletion of missing values. Item numbers are taken from the original Hostile-World Scenario Questionnaire.

Table 3. Adjusted means of evil-related threats among the study groups.

	Gay men group (n = 150)		Heterosexual men group (n = 166)		Total
	M	SE	M	SE	M	SE
Offspring of Holocaust survivors (n = 81)	2.53	0.10	2.25	0.11	2.39	0.07
Non-offspring of Holocaust survivors (n = 235)	2.16	0.07	2.28	0.06	2.22	0.04
Total	2.34	0.07	2.27	0.07

Note. The means are adjusted for age, education, economic status, relationship status, place of residence, and religiousness. Missing were 30 participants who did not complete one or more items in the evil-related threats scale or the Holocaust background variable.

Figure 2. The indirect effect of Holocaust background on depressive symptoms (a) and life satisfaction (b) through evil-related threats among gay men.

Notes. N = 150. Reported values are standardized regression coefficients (betas). Age, education, economic status, relationship status, place of residence, and religiousness served as covariates. The total effect of Holocaust background on depressive symptoms or life satisfaction is reported in parentheses.* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

Figure 3. The indirect effect of Holocaust background on depressive symptoms (a) and life satisfaction (b) through evil-related threats among heterosexual men.

Notes. N = 166. Reported values are standardized regression coefficients (betas). Age, education, economic status, relationship status, place of residence, and religiousness served as covariates. The total effect of Holocaust background on depressive symptoms or life satisfaction is reported in parentheses.* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.