Individual Resilience as a Mediator Between Demographic and Sociopolitical Factors, Community Resilience and Psychological Distress: A Five-Wave Study Following October 7

The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the following conflict has impacted Israeli society, causing widespread distress. While research has examined the direct impacts of such events, less attention has been given to how sociopolitical and demographic factors impact resilience outcomes during prolonged conflict. This study examines the mediating role of individual resilience in the relationships between key factors (including demographic variables, political stance, and religiosity) and psychological outcomes (community resilience and psychological distress) across five time points following the October 7 attack. A representative sample of 957 Israeli adults completed surveys at five time points following October 7, 2023. Linear Mixed Models with random intercepts evaluated relationships between demographic and sociopolitical factors and individual resilience, community resilience, and psychological distress. Mediation analyses examined individual resilience as a mechanism connecting these factors to psychological outcomes. Community resilience significantly declined across five time points, whereas individual resilience was consistently positively associated with community and lower psychological distress. Mediation analyses showed that individual resilience explained the effect of gender, age, income, and government support on resilience and psychological distress. The study found that religiosity's impact on individual resilience strengthened over time, yet its protective effect against psychological distress was direct rather than mediated. This study's results show the importance of enhancing individual resilience to mitigate long-term psychological distress and declining community resilience. This study found that individual resilience is a mechanism through which demographic and sociopolitical factors impact community resilience and psychological distress during a prolonged conflict. The findings show the importance of targeting individual resilience in interventions while acknowledging the direct protective association between religiosity and psychological distress. These results offer important insights for developing tailored support strategies for diverse populations experiencing an ongoing conflict.