Hardiness, attachment style, and long term psychological distress among Israeli POWs and combat veterans

This study assessed the role of hardiness and attachment style, as personal resources in adjustment to stress of prisoners of war and combat veterans. One hundred and sixty-four POWs from the 1973 Yom Kippur war and 189 comparable controls who fought in the same war were studied, almost two decades after the war. Results show that both hardiness and attachment style had a direct main effect and were inversely related to PTSD and psychiatric symptomatology. Results also show that the two resources worked in a mutually compensatory manner. The methodological and theoretical implications of this study are discussed. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.