The association between type of exposure to the threat of terrorism and resilience in communal villages in Israel: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

The present study investigates the relationship between personal and community resilience and the type of exposure to the threat of terrorism (high vs. low) in communal villages in Israel. Drawing on Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence (SOC), Tedeschi and Calhoun’s Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), and Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources (COR) theories, the present study explores how resilience is shaped by psychological perceptions, access to social resources, and resource management strategies under chronic threat. Data were collected from residents of six villages stratified by type of exposure to the threat of terrorism and by religious composition. The findings indicate clear differences in resilience patterns among religious, mixed, and secular communities, and between communities with high and low exposure to the threat of terrorism. A multivariate regression model predicting community resilience explained 57 % of the variance, with community coherence emerging as the strongest predictor, including in non-religious settings. The present study highlights resilience as a perceptual-psychological construct shaped by both communal environment and subjective experience. These findings have theoretical and applied implications for fostering resilience and adaptive functioning in communities facing persistent threats of terrorism.