DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AS ANTECEDENTS OF ISRAELI COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL RESILIENCE

Abstract

This study focuses on demographic antecedents of community and national resilience. We hypothesized that both kinds of public resilience would be predicted by 4 demographic variables, which have rarely been associated with community or national resilience in the past: community type, age, and levels of religiosity and preparedness. The final sample of 435 participants included 92 kibbutz members, 61 moshav members, 38 inhabitants of villages, and 244 town dwellers. Results indicated the following: (a) when demographic variables were accounted for, community and national resilience were positively correlated with each other; (b) the demographic variables in the path analysis model, controlling for each other, significantly predicted community and national resilience; (c) older age and higher level of religiosity positively predicted both community and national resilience; (d) higher preparedness positively predicted only community resilience; and (e) higher communality of the community was associated with higher community resilience and lower national resilience.