Uncovering Resilience Disparities among Religious Groups in Israel’s Mass COVID-19 Vaccination Drive: Lessons Learned to the Post-COVID Era

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to examine the emotional resilience, satisfaction with life, social support, and anxiety during the vaccination process of the Israeli population after the end of the third lockdown, according to religiosity degree. We hypothesized that a higher degree of religiosity (ultra-Orthodox and religious participants) would be associated with higher levels of resilience and with lower levels of anxiety than in secular individuals. In addition, it was hypothesized that satisfaction with life, social support, anxiety, and religiosity will predict resilience and anxiety. Nine hundred and ninety-three native Jewish Hebrew-speaking respondents representing ultra-Orthodox, religious, observant, and secular Jews participated in this study. Ultra-Orthodox participants showed higher resilience and satisfaction with life than other groups, and lower levels of anxiety. Satisfaction with life and social support predicted higher resilience. It is suggested that religious faith as well as satisfaction with life may provide a source of strength and resilience in stressful life events.

The impact of 24/7 news coverage on the mental health of Israelis in the ‘Iron Swords’ War: A cross‐sectional analysis among television audience

“…Also of note are the results of this study, which demonstrate that religious individuals are worse off in both negative perception of the newscasts and reporting of anxiety symptoms compared with secular respondents. Usually, this is the other way around, with religious individuals demonstrating higher levels of resilience (Bodas et al, 2022;Eran-Jona et al, 2022;Sarid et al, 2023). While highly speculative, this finding may demonstrate a tectonic shift in religious attitudes towards the situation in Israel; however, more research is warranted to explore the repeatability of this finding and its causes.…”