title: Traumatic Stress during Population-wide Exposure to Trauma in Israel: Gender as a Moderator of the Effects of Marital Status and Social Support.
abstract: The 'tend-and-befriend' approach (Taylor et al., ) posits that in times of stress, women in particular may tend to their loved ones and seek out social support as a coping mechanism. Two corollaries of this model are that when confronted with a situation of extreme stress, marriage may be more of a protective factor for men, as central beneficiaries of their wives 'tending' or nurturing response, and social support from a wider network may be more of a protective factor for women, as part of women's 'befriending' response to stress. Using a sample of 508 Israelis (M = 47 years; 48% women) under the real condition of a population under missile attacks, we investigated the latter two corollaries of the tend-and-befriend model, hypothesizing that marriage would buffer against symptoms of traumatic stress for men in particular and that social support would buffer against symptoms of traumatic stress for women in particular. Our findings revealed gender differences affirming both hypotheses and offering interpretive evidence in support of the tend-and-befriend model based on a gender-informed field study of responses to traumatic stress in real time. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors: Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
authors: Yael
authors: Y
authors: Israel-Cohen
authors: School of Business Administration, College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon LeZion, Israel.
authors: Oren
authors: O
authors: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D040921:Stress Disorders, Traumatic / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: gender; marriage; social support; traumatic stress