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Unearthing the most primal motivations behind the fear politics movements sweeping across the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, Stevan E. Hobfoll examines how the increasing sense of threat from the political and cultural ?other? or ?outsider? engenders an evolutionary, built-in ?defend and aggress? response. This deep-wired evolutionary response is a defining aspect of our tribal origins and has allowed for the rise of propaganda, extremist politics, and?in turn?violence. In this timely work, which binds theories in psychology, sociology, evolution, biology, linguistics, iconography, rhetoric, and religion, Hobfoll explores the tribalist roots of radical militant Islam, violence against women, white supremacy, the rise of authoritarian leaders, and an increasingly polarized and uncompromising political landscape. Grounded in evolutionary psychological research, Hobfoll?s long term study of stress, and in conversation with contemporary academic literature, Tribalism not only offers an explanation for society?s worst impulses, but also points us towards the best protections against tribalism and other evolutionary traps.

IntroductionWar in Ukraine started in March 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and continues today in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Over 1.5 million people in these regions have been displaced from their homes. We conducted this study 36 months after the conflict began and interviewed civilians residing in Ukraine.PurposeThis study examines the prevalence of exposure to war trauma, rates of PTSD by symptom clusters, and whether socio-demographic factors are associated with positive scores for PTSD among civilian urban-dwelling and internally displaced persons in Ukraine during the ongoing conflict in its Donbass region.MethodsFace-to-face interviews were conducted using a multi-stage random sample of the general population in two large cities (Kharkiv and Lviv) in Ukraine (n = 1247) and a purposive sample of internally displaced persons (n = 300), half living in each city. Exposure to trauma, symptom clusters for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and overall PTSD were assessed.ResultsWe found widespread direct exposure to conflict-related traumatic events (65%) among internally displaced people (IDPs) compared to a sizable minority (23%) of urban-dwelling people (UDPs). We found elevated prevalence of PTSD symptoms that were also uniformly spread within several socio-demographic factors. There were, however, significant differences in PTSD between (1) IDPs compared to UDPs and (2) those UDPs with Ukrainian compared to Russian ethnic identity, the former of each pair showing increased likelihoods of positive PTSD scores.ConclusionsUkraine’s adult civilians, enduring the prolonged engagement in war with Russia and Russian separatists, have elevated rates of PTSD. Moreover, those who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict (IDPs) have significantly higher levels of PTSD compared to UDPs.

Does exposure to political violence prompt civilians to support peace? We investigate the determinants of civilian attitudes toward peace during ongoing conflict using two original panel datasets representing Israelis (n=996) and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza (n=631) (149 communities in total). A multi-group estimation analysis shows that individual-level exposure to terrorism and political violence makes the subject populations less likely to support peace efforts. The findings also confirm psychological distress and threat perceptions as the mechanism that bridges exposure to violence and greater militancy over time. The study breaks ground in showing that individual-level exposure – necessarily accompanied by psychological distress and threat perceptions – is key to understanding civilians’ refusal to compromise in prolonged conflict.

In this article, I build on Lawrence Palinkas's empirical and theoretical approach and bring in more fully the focus of conservation of resources (COR) theory that Palinkas discusses. Palinkas analyzes technological disaster from psychological, sociological, and broader cultural perspectives. By more fully weaving in the principles and corollaries of COR theory, I attempt to more fully elaborate how the theoretical approach that Palinkas raises offers precise predictions, directions, and potentials for intervention and policy. I emphasize that personal, social, and material resources tend to develop and exist in aggregate, called resource caravans. Second, I introduce the concept that resource caravans are encouraged, discouraged, or outright prevented by environmental conditions that I call resource caravan passageways. This approach not only helps guide an understanding of the multiple tiers of devastation that likely will occur, it also guides insights regarding resiliency and rebuilding lives and communities, and reweaving the elements of culture that become torn when disasters have such major personal, social, and economic impact.

Objectives: The Conservation of Resources (COR) theory suggests that stress results from threatened or actual loss of resources following significant life events. This study used COR theory as the framework to explore the reflection of loss of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress and resilience, in an adult Jewish Israeli population. Methods: We examined the association between background variables, stress, loneliness, concern, COVID-19-related post traumatic symptoms (PTS), resilience factors and COR via an online survey among 2,000 adults during April 2020. Results: Positive relationships were identified between resource loss and PTS ( r = 0.66, p < 0.01), and between resource gain and resilience ( r = 0.30, p < 0.01). Psychological variables were significantly associated with PTS and explained 62.7% of the variance, F (20, 1,413) = 118.58, p < 0.001. Conclusion: Loss of resources, stress, loneliness and concern were found to be risk factors for distress and PTS, whereas resilience factors played a protective role. We thus recommend using the COR theory to explore COVID-19 effects elsewhere.

Background There is currently a deficit of knowledge about how to define, quantify, and measure different aspects of daily routine disruptions amid large-scale disasters like COVID-19, and which psychiatric symptoms were more related to the disruptions. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the probable positive associations between daily routine disruptions and mental disorders amid the COVID-19 pandemic and factors that moderated the associations. Methods PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, and MEDLINE were systematically searched up to April 2023 (PROSPERO: CRD42023356846). Independent variables included regularity, change in frequency, and change in capability of different daily routines (i.e., physical activity, diet, sleep, social activities, leisure activities, work and studies, home activities, smoking, alcohol, combined multiple routines, unspecified generic routines). Dependent variables included symptoms and/or diagnoses of mental disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and general psychological distress). Results Fifty-three eligible studies (51 independent samples, 910,503 respondents) were conducted in five continents. Daily routine disruptions were positively associated with depressive symptoms ( r  = 0.13, 95% CI = [0.06; 0.20], p  < 0.001), anxiety symptoms ( r  = 0.12, 95% CI = [0.06; 0.17], p  < 0.001), and general psychological distress ( r  = 0.09, 95% CI = [0.02; 0.16], p  = 0.02). The routine-symptom associations were significant for physical activity, eating, sleep, and smoking (i.e., type), routines that were defined and assessed on regularity and change in capability (i.e., definition and assessment), and routines that were not internet-based. While the positive associations remained consistent across different sociodemographics, they were stronger in geo-temporal contexts with greater pandemic severity, lower governmental economic support, and when the routine-symptom link was examined prospectively. Conclusions This is one of the first meta-analytic evidence to show the positive association between daily routine disruptions and symptoms of mental disorders among large populations as COVID-19 dynamically unfolded across different geo-temporal contexts. Our findings highlight the priority of behavioral adjustment for enhancing population mental health in future large-scale disasters like COVID-19.

AbstractObjectiveTo determine the accuracy of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for screening to detect major depression.DesignIndividual participant data meta-analysis.Data sourcesMedline, Medline In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, PsycINFO, and Web of Science (January 2000-February 2015).Inclusion criteriaEligible studies compared PHQ-9 scores with major depression diagnoses from validated diagnostic interviews. Primary study data and study level data extracted from primary reports were synthesized. For PHQ-9 cut-off scores 5-15, bivariate random effects meta-analysis was used to estimate pooled sensitivity and specificity, separately, among studies that used semistructured diagnostic interviews, which are designed for administration by clinicians; fully structured interviews, which are designed for lay administration; and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric (MINI) diagnostic interviews, a brief fully structured interview. Sensitivity and specificity were examined among participant subgroups and, separately, using meta-regression, considering all subgroup variables in a single model.ResultsData were obtained for 58 of 72 eligible studies (total n=17 357; major depression cases n=2312). Combined sensitivity and specificity was maximized at a cut-off score of 10 or above among studies using a semistructured interview (29 studies, 6725 participants; sensitivity 0.88, 95% confidence interval 0.83 to 0.92; specificity 0.85, 0.82 to 0.88). Across cut-off scores 5-15, sensitivity with semistructured interviews was 5-22% higher than for fully structured interviews (MINI excluded; 14 studies, 7680 participants) and 2-15% higher than for the MINI (15 studies, 2952 participants). Specificity was similar across diagnostic interviews. The PHQ-9 seems to be similarly sensitive but may be less specific for younger patients than for older patients; a cut-off score of 10 or above can be used regardless of age..ConclusionsPHQ-9 sensitivity compared with semistructured diagnostic interviews was greater than in previous conventional meta-analyses that combined reference standards. A cut-off score of 10 or above maximized combined sensitivity and specificity overall and for subgroups.RegistrationPROSPERO CRD42014010673.

Does exposure to terrorism lead to hostility toward minorities? Drawing on theories from clinical and social psychology, we propose a stress-based model of political extremism in which psychological distress—which is largely overlooked in political scholarship—and threat perceptions mediate the relationship between exposure to terrorism and attitudes toward minorities. To test the model, a representative sample of 469 Israeli Jewish respondents was interviewed on three occasions at six-month intervals. Structural Equation Modeling indicated that exposure to terrorism predicted psychological distress (t1), which predicted perceived threat from Palestinian citizens of Israel (t2), which, in turn, predicted exclusionist attitudes toward Palestinian citizens of Israel (t3). These findings provide solid evidence and a mechanism for the hypothesis that terrorism introduces nondemocratic attitudes threatening minority rights. It suggests that psychological distress plays an important role in political decision making and should be incorporated in models drawing upon political psychology.

Meta-analytic evidence based on cross-sectional investigations between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) demonstrates that the two concepts are positively related and that ethnic minorities report greater PTG. Few longitudinal studies have quantified this relationship so the evidence is limited regarding the potential benefit PTG may have on post-traumatic adjustment and whether differences between ethnic groups exist. The current study attempts to fill a substantial gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between PTG and PTSD symptom clusters longitudinally using a nationally representative cohort of 1613 Israelis and Palestinian Citizens of Israel (PCI) interviewed via telephone on three measurement occasions during one year. Latent cross-lagged structural models estimated the relationship between PTG and each PTSD symptom cluster, derived from confirmatory factor analysis, representing latent and statistically invariant PTSD symptom factors, best representing PTSD for both ethnic groups. PTG was not associated with less PTSD symptom severity in any of the four PTSD clusters, for Jews and PCI. In contrast, PTSD symptom severity assessed earlier was related to later reported PTG in both groups. This study demonstrates that PTSD symptoms contribute to greater reported PTG, but that PTG does not provide a salutatory benefit by reducing symptoms of PTSD.