Resilience and Loss During the Iron-Swords War: The Importance of Coping Strategies

The unprecedented events on October 7th in Israel, characterized by little actual and perceived control over the sources of the stress, have affected virtually every household in Israel, either due to the economic and social consequences of the ensuing war or experiencing the loss of relatives and friends. The current study examined the association between traumatic loss of close friends/relatives and resilience during the initial stages of the Iron-Swords war and explored the moderating role of coping strategies for this link. Data were collected from 286 participants (age range 19-82) who completed online scales assessing loss, resilience, and coping strategies during the first weeks of the Iron-Swords war. Results demonstrated a negative association between emotion-focused coping and resilience, as well as a positive association between problem-focused coping and resilience. Moreover, coping strategies moderated the loss-resilience link, which was significant only for individuals reporting low levels of both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Our findings support the claim that relying on at least one dominant coping strategy (i.e., problem-focused coping/emotional-focused coping/both) is efficient to reserve resilience levels at times of adversity. The findings of the current study, based on data collected in the first weeks of the Iron-Swords war, highlight the value of different coping styles in preserving individual resilience as a protective factor against stress during adversity.