Journals
2025 EN
Kagan Maya · Ne'emanHaviv Vered
ABSTRACT Drawing upon the Social Cure theoretical framework, this study explores the intricate relationship between social inclusion, meaning in life, and resilience among Generation Z during the Israel‐Hamas war. Notably, this cohort encounters heightened challenges in fostering close social relationships, resulting in a diminished sense of social inclusion. The study comprised 317 Israeli Generation Z adults who completed a structured online questionnaire. Results revealed a positive association between social inclusion and resilience, mediated by the presence of meaning in life. These findings underscore the importance of social inclusion in times of crisis in predominantly individualist contemporary Western societies.
Journals
2025 EN
Peleg Ora · Gendelman Lior
ABSTRACT The conflict that began in Israel on October 7, 2023, involving severe violent actions by Hamas, has intensified regional tensions, caused civilian evacuations, and led to significant mental health challenges. The study aimed to examine the prevalence of emotional distress (including anxiety, depression, and PTSD) among a sample of the Israeli population (both evacuees and non‐evacuees), identify at‐risk civilian profiles, investigate the associations between stressful life events (past and current) and emotional distress during wartime, and validate the Current Events Checklist (CEC). Six hundred ninety Israeli adults completed questionnaires assessing past and current stressful life events and emotional distress. The clinical classification of participants revealed that 50.0% fell within the clinical range for anxiety, 47.4% for depression, and 33.5% for PTSD. Additionally, two‐thirds of the sample (67.0%) fell within at least one clinical range. Both past and current stressful life events were found to be positively associated with emotional distress. The findings indicate a high level of emotional distress in the Israeli population. They also emphasise the significant impact of past and current stressful life events on emotional distress, with individuals who experienced higher levels of both, particularly evacuees and females, showing greater distress amid war.
Journals
2025 EN
MijalevichSoker Elad · Ring Lia · Joffe Esther
+3 more
ABSTRACT Pregnancy is both a joyful and a challenging period that involves emotional and physical concerns, which can be exacerbated during a crisis event such as war, elevating the risk for post‐traumatic symptoms. However, stressful circumstances also constitute the opportunity to experience personal growth, which has been hardly examined among pregnant women. This study investigated the contribution of post‐traumatic symptoms, optimism, meaning in life (presence and search for meaning) and pregnancy‐related characteristics and concerns to personal growth. A cross‐sectional study was conducted among 175 pregnant women aged 20–45 ( M = 31.19, SD = 5.16), who were recruited through convenience sampling. They completed a series of self‐report questionnaires during the first month of the Israel‐Hamas war. Better economic status, higher optimism and greater search for meaning were associated with higher personal growth. Higher post‐traumatic symptoms were related to higher personal growth, mainly among younger women. The findings provide unique evidence for pregnant women's personal growth, even in the shadow of wartime and highlight the need for professionals to focus primarily on women's psychological resources during pregnancy, especially during crises, encouraging optimism and discussing issues of meaning in life.
Journals
2025 EN
Laufer Avital · Khatib Anwar · Finkelstein Michal
+1 more
ABSTRACT The Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent ‘Iron Swords’ war represent a profound national tragedy in Israeli history. Emerging Adults (EAs) aged 18–30 constitute a vulnerable group due to an inherent lack of social and economic resources. This study explores the secondary trauma stress (STS) experienced by both Israeli Jewish and Arab EAs, examining their levels of indirect exposure, fear, resilience, and coping strategies. The study sample included 562 Israeli EAs, approximately half of whom identified as Jewish and most others as Muslim. The findings reveal high levels of indirect exposure, with more than half of the participants knowing someone who was harmed during the attack. Fear emerged as a strong predictor of STS, surpassing the effects of exposure. Compared with Arab participants, Jewish participants reported greater exposure and fear but also higher resilience and coping strategy use. Despite these differences, STS levels were similar across groups, highlighting Arab EAs' greater vulnerability due to pre‐existing disparities in resources and sociopolitical tensions. Coping strategies failed to mitigate STS, suggesting a “panic‐coping cycle”. These findings emphasise the need for resource‐based and culturally sensitive interventions to address the distinct vulnerabilities of Arab EAs and support recovery in crisis contexts.
Journals
2025 EN
GreenblattKimron Lee · Shrira Amit · Palgi Yuval
ABSTRACT Previous traumatic exposure, as well as ancestral trauma, may render individuals more sensitive to subsequent trauma. The current study examined the intersection between traumatic events across generations by assessing change in post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms before and after the October 7 terror attack among Israeli war veterans while accounting for parental Holocaust exposure. A web‐based random sample of 331 Yom Kippur War male veterans of European origin ( M age = 72.54, SD = 2.86) completed questionnaires in three waves before and after the October 7 attack. Multilevel models showed that PTSD symptoms increased over time. Moreover, having a Holocaust survivor father interacted with time, suggesting that veterans who had a Holocaust survivor father showed a steeper increase in PTSD symptoms across time relative to those without a Holocaust survivor father. Having a Holocaust survivor mother or two survivor parents did not interact with time. The findings have significant implications for the interplay between current, subsequent, and intergenerational effects of traumatic exposure, highlighting a “fragile resilience.” This fragile resilience reflected relative resilience under non‐stressful conditions but increased symptom triggering in stressful times among war veterans whose fathers experienced massive trauma. Practitioners should be aware of these factors while helping individuals exposed to war and terror.
Journals
2025 EN
Hsu HanYu · Wang Tao · Feng XinYu
ABSTRACT Most political psychology theories demonstrate that Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), as two fundamental ideological beliefs, are both positively related to individuals' militant and hostile attitudes. Meanwhile, macro‐level political contexts also influence the functions of these ideological beliefs. In this article, we argue that China's state‐sanctioned socialist political context—upholding authoritarianism while opposing social dominance—results in opposite functions for RWA and SDO in shaping the political attitudes of ordinary people. Using the 2023 Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a case study, we hypothesised that Chinese netizens' RWA and SDO have opposing effects in predicting their support for the war. We further explored the mediating effects of responsibility attribution to the U.S. as well as outgroup prejudices towards Jews and Muslims. Using a cross‐sectional questionnaire with a nationwide online sample ( N = 1089), we confirmed the contrasting effects of RWA and SDO on the war support of Chinese netizens. Additionally, the influence of ideological beliefs was mainly mediated by the perceived responsibility of the U.S., with prejudices against Muslims or Jews accounting for only a minor effect. These findings highlight the divergent functions of ideological beliefs outside of the political contexts dominated by the liberal‐conservative dichotomy.
Journals
2025 EN
RiquelmeGallego Blanca · RamosSoberbio Lucía · LenoDuran Ester
+2 more
Abstract The aim of the present study was to establish the fetal and neonatal impact of war conflicts during pregnancy. A systematic review was conducted according to The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and relevant publications available in the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases. Primary and quantitative studies were eligible for inclusion. To be included, studies had to be redacted in Spanish or English and evaluate maternal exposure to a war or terrorist attack during pregnancy, with consideration being given of the consequences of this for fetal and/or neonatal development. Systematic, narrative and exploratory literature reviews were excluded, as were meta‐analyses and studies in which the sample differed from the sample of interest, the focus was on other stressful factors that differed from a war conflict and the consequences examined did not comprise the impact of a war during pregnancy on the fetus or neonate. The methodological quality of included articles was assessed using the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) tool. A total of 28 articles were included, with an included sample of n = 664,980 mother‐infant dyads, exposed to war conflicts. The adverse impact of prenatal stress suffered by mothers during periods of war revealed that, (1) in the short‐term, babies were at greater risk of having a low birth weight and impinged length and being born prematurely, whilst mothers were more likely to suffer a miscarriage. (2) In the long‐term, babies exposed to war during the prenatal period had a higher risk of experiencing alterations to their neurodevelopment, mental disorders and pathophysiological diseases. The stress suffered by mothers during the prenatal period can bring about a number of negative consequences over both the short‐ and long‐term in babies, especially, in terms of their physical and neurological development. It is important to conduct further research on the topic with the aim of detecting and treating the early stages of maternal psychological illnesses experienced during pregnancy due to war conflict and, in this way, achieve benefits for pregnant women and future generations.
Journals
2025 EN
Zhou Jie · Liu Yang · Mo Changren
+2 more
ABSTRACT Uncontrollable bleeding is one of the important causes of death in war, road traffic injuries, surgical accidents, and other accidents. Using hemostatic materials to control bleeding quickly and effectively can improve the survival rate of patients, especially for incompressible visceral bleeding. Traditional inorganic materials and natural polymers alone still have limitations, such as non‐degradability and ineffective control of bleeding through wounds. In this work, we designed a cryogel sponge combined Mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) with Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA), which has enhanced mechanical strength and improved in vitro coagulation properties. And MBG@GelMA cryogel could absorb water more than 5 times in 5 min, while it also demonstrates significant improvement in mechanical strength from 4 kap to 12 kpa. Additionally, MBG@GelMA cryogel showed excellent biocompatibility and hemostatic performance. The multi‐stage pore structure and hydrophilicity of frozen gel and MBG help to concentrate blood quickly and activate endogenous coagulation pathway through the release of calcium ions to promote coagulation. The findings of this study demonstrate that the MBG@GelMA composite cryogel possesses outstanding properties in terms of hemostasis, portability, and ease of use, suggesting its remarkable potential as a promptly applicable hemostatic material in both civil and military settings.
Journals
2025 EN
Leshem Becky · Zasiekina Larysa · Guterman Neil B.
+1 more
ABSTRACT Shared traumatic reality has nagative professional effects on mental health providers. The study explores the professional effects of prolonged shared traumatic reality, and the protective role of intergenerational transfer, among Ukrainian psychotherapists during the war with Russia, in the context of their national history of traumatic events. We conducted focus group interviews with 20 Ukrainian therapists who lived and worked in Ukrainian war zones. The recorded transcriptions were analyzed, applying two stages of inductive thematic analysis, and identifying common themes and sub‐themes. The main reported negative effect was compassion fatigue, with secondary traumatization and lack of interpersonal and professional support reported as the dominant risk factors. Positive effects included compassion satisfaction and professional growth. The leading protective factors included active coping and social support, while transgenerational transfer of empowering messages increased coping resources. We concluded that intergenerational transfer could promote coping and positive professional effects, especially in the context of chronic shared traumatic reality, suggested as a new construct. Further studies are suggested.
Journals
2025 EN
Kim Dayoung · Katz Andrew
Abstract Background Engineering students have an array of career opportunities they can pursue. Some of these opportunities will place them in different sectors of the economy. Whereas many may want to pursue careers in the private/corporate sector, there are important roles for engineers to play in the nonprofit/NGO sector and the public policy/government sector. Purpose/Hypothesis The aim of this research was to use a data‐driven approach to understanding factors associated with engineering students' likelihood of pursuing careers in the nonprofit/NGO and public policy/government sectors. Methods We analyzed data from a national survey of final‐year engineering students. We used a data‐driven approach combining an ordinal random forest, projection predictive variable selection, and ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results The importance of certain factors in the students' career satisfaction (e.g., helping others, volunteering with a charity group) was the most predictive item for students pursuing careers in the nonprofit/NGO sector. The importance of making money was negatively associated with students pursuing careers in the nonprofit/NGO sector. Conversely, the students' interest in working on certain topics (e.g., terrorism and war, climate change) was the most predictive for those pursuing careers in the public policy/government sector. Certain academic majors were also positively associated with students' likelihood of joining the public policy/government sector. Job security was also an influential factor for pursuing careers in both sectors. Conclusion This study highlights important but understudied areas for workforce development in alternative career paths beyond the private sector, which could potentially contribute to broadening participation in engineering.