Individual and Public Resilience and Coping With Long-Term Outcomes of War

The study focuses on the distinction between individual and public resilience, and their effects on long-term negative (symptoms) and positive (posttraumatic recovery) war outcomes 1 year after the end of the war. Path analysis indicated the following: (a) Gender, age, economic situation, and exposure to traumatic war events significantly predicted recovery as well as symptoms. Being a female, an older person, lower economic situation, and higher exposure were associated with a lower level of recovery and a higher level of symptoms. (b) Individual and public resilience served as mediators between economic situation and exposure, and the two war outcomes. (c) The best predictor of recovery is public resilience whereas the best predictor of symptoms is individual resilience.