Perceived Beneficial and Detrimental Postwar Responses of Israeli Adults: Are They Positively or Negatively Linked to Each Other?

This study first compares two theoretical perspectives on the links between beneficial and detrimental posttraumatic responses. One group of studies claims that positive posttraumatic responses tend to be positively related with negative stress-related responses. Others posit that, after a severe stress, these responses are negatively correlated with each other. We argue that these contradictory results represent the different theoretical positions on the nature of favorable postwar outcomes. A second issue investigated is the associations of beneficial and detrimental postwar responses with demographic variables as well as with exposure to the stress of war. An Israeli adult sample (n = 870) was administered two different measures of negative posttraumatic outcomes (resource loss and postwar symptoms) and two different measures of positive posttraumatic outcomes (resource gains and posttraumatic recovery) one year after they were badly affected by a war. Resource gains correlated positively with resource loss, whereas PTR correlated negatively with postwar symptoms. There were also positive associations between the two measures of stress as well as the two beneficial posttraumatic outcomes. Older age, being a woman, lower economic status, and higher exposure to traumatic events tended to correlate positively with both measures of detrimental outcomes. These variables correlated negatively with PTR, and three of them (excluding economic status) were not significantly linked with resource gains.