Premium
Traumatic Stress during Population‐wide Exposure to Trauma in Israel: Gender as a Moderator of the Effects of Marital Status and Social Support
Author(s) -
IsraelCohen Yael,
Kaplan Oren
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
stress and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1532-2998
pISSN - 1532-3005
DOI - 10.1002/smi.2647
Subject(s) - moderation , psychology , social support , population , traumatic stress , coping (psychology) , protective factor , developmental psychology , stress (linguistics) , clinical psychology , social psychology , demography , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , sociology
The ‘tend‐and‐befriend’ approach (Taylor et al., [Taylor, S. E., 2000]) posits that in times of stress, women in particular may tend to their loved ones and seek out social support as a coping mechanism. Two corollaries of this model are that when confronted with a situation of extreme stress, marriage may be more of a protective factor for men, as central beneficiaries of their wives ‘tending’ or nurturing response, and social support from a wider network may be more of a protective factor for women, as part of women's ‘befriending’ response to stress. Using a sample of 508 Israelis ( M = 47 years; 48% women) under the real condition of a population under missile attacks, we investigated the latter two corollaries of the tend‐and‐befriend model, hypothesizing that marriage would buffer against symptoms of traumatic stress for men in particular and that social support would buffer against symptoms of traumatic stress for women in particular. Our findings revealed gender differences affirming both hypotheses and offering interpretive evidence in support of the tend‐and‐befriend model based on a gender‐informed field study of responses to traumatic stress in real time. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.