Effects of Personal, Family, and Community Characteristics on Emotional Reactions in a Stress Situation

Abstract

This study investigated emotional reactions to a community stress situation: living on the Golan Heights during the period of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. The study concerned the buffering effects of three types of moderators—at the individual, family, and community levels—on anxiety and anger. Data were collected in two regional high schools from 201 pupils. Of these, 107 pupils lived in the Golan settlements (study group) and 94 lived in the Galilee area (comparison group). No significant differences were found between the two groups in the emotional reaction scores. Regarding the question of individual versus contextual moderators, the results indicated a somewhat different pattern for the two emotional reactions. Whereas the significant moderators that accounted for variance of the anxiety responses were on the individual level only, the anger reactions were explained by community-level factors as well.