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A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON NATIONAL RESILIENCE: COMPONENTS AND DEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS
Author(s) -
Eshel Yohanan,
Kimhi Shaul
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.21811
Subject(s) - threatened species , vulnerability (computing) , variance (accounting) , demography , psychological resilience , resilience (materials science) , perspective (graphical) , judaism , sample (material) , psychology , geography , social psychology , political science , sociology , mathematics , computer security , computer science , biology , ecology , chemistry , physics , geometry , accounting , archaeology , chromatography , habitat , business , thermodynamics
A new definition of national resilience (NR) is developed, based on strength to vulnerability ratio (perceived NR divided by sense of danger). Four resilience‐promoting variables predict components of this NR: gender, religiosity, political attitudes, and level of exposure to war. The study was conducted 4 months after the 2014 Israel‐Gaza war. The sample comprised a total of 510 Jewish Israeli civilians (age range 18–85 years): 251 live in southern Israel and were threatened by this war and 259 live in northern Israel and were not threatened by this war. Results showed that the 4 predictors indeed predicted components of NR. The explained variance of NR determined by the strength to vulnerability ratio was higher than the explained variance of a conventional measure of this resilience. No significant differences were found in NR between the 2 samples. The advantages of the new definition of NR are discussed.