Stress and Coping in Israel During the Persian Gulf War

Abstract

Psychological research in Israel on the Gulf War focused on its unique features—nocturnal missile attacks on civilian targets, absence of retaliatory strikes by the Israel Defense Forces, threat of chemical attack, compulsory confinement of family members in close quarters during the missile attacks, and changes in soldier‐civilian and adult‐child roles. The studies summarized here deal with groups who suffered no personal or property loss, and who consequently suffered few intense, chronic adverse reactions. Researchers investigated the conventional variables in the stress and coping paradigm—objective stressors (e.g., proximity to damaged sites), coping strategies, interpersonal and intrapersonal resources, prewar vulnerability, the level of acute stress reactions (affective, cognitive, behavioral, and somatic) at the onset of the war, and the reduction in intensity and frequency of these stress reactions during and after the war. Findings are consistent with the conclusion that the society as a whole coped well with unfamiliar threats, many of which did not materialize. Original contributions from these studies, obtained under the unique “real‐time” conditions of the Gulf War for Israeli society, are discussed. Lay and peer evaluations of the contribution of psychologists to the war are summarized.