Couples' Psychological Resources and Marital Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Marital Support.

The aim of this study was to assess the interdependent relations among psychological resources, marital support, and marital satisfaction in married couples from the perspective of both dyad members, using the Actor-Partner-Interdependence-Model (APIM) approach. One hundred and fifty-one heterosexual married couples ( = 302) completed questionnaires assessing psychological resources (dispositional optimism and sense of mastery), marital support, marital satisfaction, social desirability, and demographic variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test a proposed mediation model adopting the dyadic approach.

The Effects of Coping Strategies on Distress and Quality of Life among Jewish and Arab Mothers with a child diagnosed with cancer.

Purpose: The study aim was to assess ethnicity-related differences in perceived threat and coping strategies used by Jewish and Arab mothers of pediatric cancer patients, and the effects of these strategies on the mothers' distress and quality of life.

Method: The sample consisted of 100 Arab and 97 Jewish mothers whose child was diagnosed with cancer and was being treated in an oncology unit. They completed questionnaires assessing demographic and illness variables; threat, task-oriented, emotion-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping; psychological distress; and quality of life.

Mastery and social support moderate the effects of educational level on adjustment of Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer.

The study explored the adjustment of Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer, as shown by the mothers' distress and quality of life. The aim was twofold: to examine the associations between educational level, psychosocial resources and adjustment indices and to assess the moderating effects of psychosocial resources on the education and adjustment association. The sample consisted of 100 Arab mothers who completed questionnaires assessing demographic and illness variables, mastery, social support, psychological distress and quality of life.

Ethnicity moderates the effects of resources on adjustment of Jewish and Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer.

Objective: The study aimed to explore the adjustment of Jewish and Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer.

Method: Ninety-seven Jewish and 100 Arab mothers completed questionnaires assessing mastery, social support, and adjustment (psychological distress, quality of life, and future fears and hopes).

Results: Arab mothers were higher than Jewish mothers on distress and lower on social support and future hopes).

Resilience and psychosocial adjustment in digestive system cancer.

The study aims to investigate the contributions of resilience, affective reactions and post traumatic growth (PTG) to psychosocial adjustment and behavioral changes among digestive system cancer patients in Israel. A sample of 200 participants, 57.5 % men (from the 46 to 70-year age range), 1-4 years following diagnosis, completed an inventory assessing demographic and medical information, resilience, current positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), PTG, psychosocial adjustment and retrospective report of behavioral changes following cancer treatment.

Posttraumatic growth moderates the effects of posttraumatic stress symptoms on adjustment and positive affective reactions in digestive system cancer patients.

The study aims were twofold: (1) To investigate the associations of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) with adjustment and affective reactions of digestive system cancer patients and (2) To assess the moderating effects of PTG on the associations of PTSS with adjustment and affective reactions. The sample consisted of 200 respondents 1-4 years following diagnosis and treatment for digestive system cancer. Participants completed questionnaires assessing PTSS, PTG, adjustment, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA).

Ethnicity moderates the effects of resources on quality of life for persons with mental illness living in community settings.

Objective: The study explored quality of life among Jewish and Arab individuals with mental disorders living in community settings in Israel. The goal was to examine the associations between social and psychological resources, involvement in decisions, and quality of life, and to assess the moderating effects of ethnicity on these associations.

Method: The sample consisted of 58 Jewish and 62 Arab residents with schizophrenia, living in community residences.

Effects of an experimental social stressor on resources loss, negative affect, and coping strategies.

This experimental study, grounded in Hobfoll's conservation of resources (COR) theory, assessed the effects of manipulating a social stressor on loss of psychological resources, negative affect, and coping strategies. Israeli student volunteers were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: (1) social stressor (n = 66) and (2.) nonstressor (n = 59).

Loneliness, optimism, and well-being among married, divorced, and widowed individuals.

The study explored feelings of loneliness and dispositional optimism and their unique contribution to well-being. The sample included 196 women and men (M age = 45.94 years; 54% were women; 34% were married, 34% were divorced, and 32% were widowed) who completed inventories assessing feelings of loneliness, dispositional optimism, and well-being measured by life satisfaction and negative affect.

Gender differences in loss of psychological resources following experimentally-induced vicarious stress.

The present research focuses on gender differences in resource loss, perceived threat, and negative affective reactions induced by experimental manipulation of vicarious stress. Israeli students (54.7% women) were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: (1) Threat Condition (n=98), in which participants were exposed to a video film depicting terror attacks and (2) Control Condition (n=30), in which participants viewed a video film depicting a series of non-emotive news broadcasts.

Resilience and distress: Israelis respond to the disengagement from Gaza and the second Lebanese war.

Resilience and distress in Israeli society were assessed at three points in time: before and after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and after the second Lebanese war. A random sample of 366 Israelis was assessed for nation-related anxiety and hostility, personal resources and post-traumatic symptoms. The lowest levels of anxiety were observed at the second time point, after the disengagement.

Coping, mastery, stress appraisals, mental preparation, and unit cohesion predicting distress and performance: a longitudinal study of soldiers undertaking evacuation tasks.

The study aimed to assess the associations of psychological and military variables with distress and performance evaluation among 168 Israeli soldiers who took part in evacuating fellow Israeli civilians in the summer of 2005 during the disengagement from Gaza. Coping, mastery, stress appraisals, mental preparation, unit cohesion, and psychological distress were assessed at T1, one to two weeks before the disengagement. A sub-sample of 68 of the 168 soldiers completed the distress measure again at T2, eight to nine weeks after T1, together with performance evaluation of the disengagement task.

Social comparisons and well-being following widowhood and divorce.

A sample of 196 participants (mean age 45.94 years, 54% women) completed inventories assessing upward and downward positive and negative social comparisons and general well-being. Widows and widowers were higher on upward negative comparisons than divorced or married persons while being lower on well-being measures of life satisfaction and psychosocial adjustment.

Threat to life and risk-taking behaviors: a review of empirical findings and explanatory models.

This article reviews the literature focusing on the relationship between perceived threat to life and risk-taking behaviors. The review of empirical data, garnered from field studies and controlled experiments, suggests that personal threat to life results in elevated risk-taking behavior. To account for these findings, this review proposes a number of theoretical explanations.

Personal resources, appraisal, and coping in the adaptation process of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.

Between 1989 and 2005, Israel absorbed over a million new immigrants, about 90% of whom were from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The present study investigated the adaptation of these FSU new immigrants in a sample of 301 participants (67% women, ages 25-45 years), who completed inventories measuring personal resources (tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive flexibility), cognitive appraisals (of employment, language, and housing problems), coping strategies, well-being, distress, and willingness to remain in Israel. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that tolerance for ambiguity and cognitive flexibility contributed positively to control appraisals, task-oriented coping, and level of participant well-being, and negatively to threat/loss appraisals, emotion/avoidance-oriented coping, and distress.

Personal resources of mastery-optimism, and communal support beliefs, as predictors of posttraumatic stress in uprooted Israelis.

The study aims to assess the personal resources of mastery-optimism, and communal support beliefs, as predictors of posttraumatic stress and adaptation in uprooted Israelis following Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria in the summer of 2005. A telephone interview of a sample of 104 respondents slated to be uprooted was conducted several weeks before the disengagement (TI), and again 9 months after the event (T2). At T1, respondents answered a questionnaire which included assessments of dispositional optimism and mastery, beliefs in the availability of community-family and governmental-societal support, nation-related anxiety, and demographic data.

Burnout, social support, and coping at work among social workers, psychologists, and nurses: the role of challenge/control appraisals.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to compare stress appraisals, coping strategies, social resources, and burnout at work between social workers, psychologists and nurses; and (2) to assess the effectiveness of appraisals and support in reducing burnout and enhancing effective coping strategies. Questionnaires containing assessments of work stress appraisals, coping strategies used to deal with problems at work, and social support at work, as well as burnout measures of exhaustion, depersonalization, and accomplishment were completed by 249 female professionals (age range 25-61). No differences were observed between the three professions on most psychological measures, except for the depersonalization outcome of burnout, which was significantly lower among psychologists than among nurses or social workers.

Risk-taking among adolescents: associations with social and affective factors.

The research investigated the associations of social and affective factors with risk-taking in male and female adolescents. A sample of 269 Israeli adolescents completed questionnaires measuring frequency of involvement in risk-taking behaviours, relationships with parents, orientation towards peer group, depressive mood, and aggressive behaviour. Correlations and multiple regression analyses showed that risk behaviour among male adolescents was mainly related to orientation towards peer group, while for female adolescents relationships with parents was the prominent factor in risk behaviour.

Aging holocaust survivors' well-being and adjustment: associations with ambivalence over emotional expression.

A sample of 90 older respondents (age range: 78-83 years) composed of 2 Holocaust groups (camp inmates and other survivors) and a comparison group completed questionnaires measuring ambivalence over emotional expression, positive and negative affect, and psychosocial adjustment. The Holocaust groups rated higher than the comparison group on negative affect and ambivalence over emotional expression and lower on psychosocial adjustment. Ambivalence over emotional expression mediated the effects of the Holocaust on negative affect.

Bereavement of spouse caregivers of cancer patients.

This study assessed bereavement aspects among 69 widowed spouses (mean age = 61.1; 36.2% men) of deceased cancer patients.

Risk taking and coping strategies among Israeli adolescents.

The research sample consisted of 140 Israeli 10th- and 11th-graders who completed questionnaires about risk-taking behaviours and coping strategies. The study assessed the associations between risk behaviours and perceptions of benefit and risk in these behaviours as measured by a questionnaire based on the Risk Involvement and Perception Scale (Siegel, A. W.