The role of gender and age in coping with terror: Israelis in the shadow of El-Aqsa Intifada

Since the beginning of the "El Aksa" Intifada in October of 2000, civilians on both ends of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been forced to cope with the merciless reality of ongoing confrontation. Israeli citizens residing in the occupied territories and within the Israeli border have been continuously subjected terror attacks, either directly or via the media. The following chapter presents an overview of the psychological consequences of prolonged exposure to political violence. It's first part presents a general study examining the exposure of Israeli citizens to terror attacks, the methods used to cope with these attacks and the prevalence of posttraumatic symptomatology in the Israeli population. The second part presents a study focusing on gender differences in posttraumatic vulnerability in the face of terror. In the third and final part, we focus on the role of age in predicting the consequences of exposure to intense terrorism. General findings as well as clinical and future research implications are discussed.