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Social Support Buffers the Effects of Terrorism on Adolescent Depression: Findings From Sderot, Israel

NCJ Number
224230
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 47 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2008 Pages: 1073-1076
Author(s)
Christopher C. Henrich Ph.D.; Golan Shahar Ph.D.
Date Published
September 2008
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This prospective study of 29 Israeli middle-school students who had experienced terror attacks by Qassam rockets examined whether higher levels of baseline social support protected adolescents from adverse psychological effects of exposure to rocket attacks.
Abstract
Study findings suggest the importance of mounting community mental health efforts in guiding schools, families, and peer groups in becoming protective resources in times of traumatic stress. The study also found some evidence for a cross-over interaction, in which social support predicted increased depression over time for participants who were not exposed to terrorism. Such cross-over effects are not uncommon in the stress-buffering literature, suggesting that some protective factors (e.g., social support) are beneficial under conditions of stress, but can be linked with elevated distress when there is no context of external threat or stress. Researchers involved in this study believe these are the first findings that document the protective effect of social support for terrorized adolescents based on a longitudinal study design in which social support was measured before stressful events (i.e., exposure to terrorism) and the subsequent outcome (i.e., time-two depression). Participants were assessed at two time points 5 months apart, before and after a period of military escalation from May to September 2007. Adolescents’ self-reported depression was measured at both time points, using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Child Depression Scale. Social support from family, friends, and school was measured at time one, using a short form of the Perceived Social support Scale. Adolescents also reported whether and how they had been exposed to rocket attacks at both time points. 1 table, 1 figure, and 17 references