Sense of Danger and Family Support as Mediators of Adolescents' Distress and Recovery in the Aftermath of War

Posttraumatic stress and recovery were investigated among 820 adolescents living on the Israeli-Lebanese border 1 year after the Second Lebanon War of 2006. It was hypothesized that most adolescents would not report serious symptoms, whereas a minority would complain about high-level prolonged postwar symptoms. Another minority would indicate posttraumatic recovery. It was also hypothesized that associations of age, gender, and exposure to war distress with postwar stress symptoms as well as posttraumatic recovery would be mediated by family support and subjective sense of danger. Results generally supported these contentions.