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Proximal and distal determinants of community resilience under threats of terror
Author(s) -
Eshel Yohanan,
Kimhi Shaul,
Marciano Hadas
Publication year - 2019
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.22245
Subject(s) - psychological resilience , psychology , community resilience , sample (material) , adaptation (eye) , stress (linguistics) , social psychology , resilience (materials science) , demography , clinical psychology , sociology , chemistry , physics , chromatography , redundancy (engineering) , neuroscience , computer science , thermodynamics , operating system , linguistics , philosophy
Community resilience (CR) is a positive trajectory of adaptation of a commune after a disturbance, stress, or adversity. Previous studies have successfully predicted CR in times of stress by distal factors, such as demographic characteristics of the community members and by their psychological attributes. We submit that since all these variables are distal predictors, which are not directly related to the actual stressful condition, CR would be predicted more readily by proximal factors, which portray people's responses to the investigated adversity (i.e., trust in the community emergency team). A sample of 1,515 adults, living in terror‐stricken border communities in northern Israel has been examined. Their perceived CR has been predicted concurrently by distal and by proximal factors. Results have supported the research hypotheses, indicating the importance of proximal variables in determining and promoting CR.