Content area
Full text
Abstract: Stress reactions and coping resources of adolescents in chronic and acute situations evoked by missile fire were examined. Data were gathered during August 2006 (Second Lebanon War) on a sample of 303 Israeli adolescents living in Northern Israel (acute state) and 114 youths from Sderot and the Negev, an area which has been exposed to frequent rocket attacks in the last seven years (chronic state). State anxiety and psychological distress were measured as stress reactions. Sense of coherence, family sense of coherence, sense of community and level of exposure were investigated as potential explanatory factors in reducing emotional distress. The overall magnitude of variance explanation was found to be different at each state: a relatively high amount explained variance of stress reactions was found in the chronic stress situation, but not in the acute state. These data support the value of developing a model that differentiates stress situations with the aim of understanding patterns of significant resources in moderating stress reactions in each state. (Global Health Promotion, 2009; 16 (4): pp. 5-15)
Key words: adolescents, chronic versus acute stress, coping resources, emotional distress
There are growing indications of resilience and salutogenic results among adolescents who have experienced potential traumatic experiences such as political violence, terror and war (1).Many teenagers who were exposed to such experiences do not suffer from later psychological problems and have stayed well (2-4). It appears that mediating and moderating variables, other than the exposure to violence per se, may significantly determine the pathway between exposure to potentially traumatic events and its subsequent outcomes (4).
The salutogenic theoretical approach (5) has sought to explain successful coping with stress and emphasizes the study of coping resources that might reduce distress reactions to stressors. There is a body of accumulated research that indicates that a variety of coping resources, such as sense of coherence, family cohesion or social support,moderate distress reactions and increase resilience (6, 7).
Employing the salutogenic theoretical approach (5), our study aim was to investigate resilience resources that may reduce distress reactions and enable the adolescents to stay healthy along two different stress experiences of political violence. The importance of understanding and explaining individual reactions in terms of the patterns of crosssituational profile has been highly evaluated by leading...