Community resilience and sense of coherence as protective factors in explaining stress reactions: Comparing cities and rural communities during missiles attacks

Based on the salutogenic theory, the aim of this study was to examine sense of coherence and communal resiliency as related to stress reactions during missile attacks. Data were gathered in August 2011 while missiles were being shot from Gaza to the Negev communities in Israel from approximately 150 participants, aged 15-85. Participants lived in cities and different types of small rural villages. Self reported questionnaires were administered via the internet and included demographic data, coping resource of sense of coherence and community resiliency as coping resources, as well as state anxiety, state anger and psychological distress as stress reaction outcomes. Overall, the participants in our study reported strong personal and communal resources and relatively low levels of stress reactions. Personal and communal resources were linked negatively to the different stress reactions. However, some differences emerged when we compared participants from different types of communities. The most resilient group was composed of people who lived in the rural and communal communities. Differences also emerged on patterns of relationships between the community resource and state anxiety. While among the rural citizens, community resilience was strongly linked to anxiety, no relationships were revealed in the urban citizens group.