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The contribution of school experience to students' resilience following a terror‐related homicide
Author(s) -
Yablon Yaacov B.,
Itzhaky Haya
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12635
Subject(s) - psychological resilience , homicide , psychology , psychological intervention , resilience (materials science) , school climate , clinical psychology , social psychology , developmental psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , medicine , pedagogy , psychiatry , environmental health , physics , thermodynamics
Schools have a significant effect on students' development, and serve as important social agencies for interventions for students facing disasters. However, little is known about the effect of students' school experience itself on their resilience when facing extreme negative events. The present study focused on students who were exposed to terror‐related homicide with the aim of investigating the contribution of school climate resources to their resilience. Since resilience is associated not only with fewer negative outcomes, but also with positive change, the contribution of schools was studied as both inhibiting post‐traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and enhancing post‐traumatic growth (PTG). A mixed‐methods research design was used. The participants included 117 (52% girls) high school students (mean age = 14.54; SD = 1.49). Twenty‐five of them were interviewed in addition to responding to the research questionnaires. Different aspects of the school climate were found to be associated with students' PTS and PTG, yielding two overarched factors explaining the school's role as a protective resource: sheltering and supporting. The former is associated with fewer PTS and the latter with higher PTG. The use of different resources for different forms of resilience is discussed.