Childhood Maltreatment (CM) and Its Relation to Coping with War in Adulthood: the Case of Israeli Civilians in the 2014 Israel-Hamas War

The study was conducted following the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. It aimed to examine the influence of the history of Childhood Maltreatment (CM) among adults coping with the war, using a sample of 369 Israeli civilians. One hundred and ten (30%) respondents reported a history of CM. The data collection was conducted three months after the end of the war, while recruitment took place one week following the beginning of the war as part of another study. The main results showed that a history of CM increased levels of war-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and subjective sense of threat, mostly among females. A history of CM was also found to decrease participants’ well-being. Surprisingly, informal social support appeared to increase subjective sense of threat from the war, mostly among participants with a history of CM.