Eshel Yohanan, Kimhi Shaul, Marciano Hadas, Adini Bruria
Stress and Resilience Research Center, Tel-Hai College, Tel Hai, Israel.
Emergency & Disaster Management Department + ResWell Research Collaboration, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Front Psychol. 2024 Oct 23;15:1403132. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1403132. eCollection 2024.
Discrimination constitutes a source of stress for minority groups, leading to heightened levels of depression. Discrimination can also elicit positive responses aimed at reducing detrimental impacts. The stress experienced by minority groups may impact their mindset and influence their negative emotional responses. Israeli Jewish society comprised for many years two large communities: the dominant Ashkenazi people, who emigrated from East Europe, and the Mizrahi discriminated minority whose members came from Muslim countries. The Mizrahi minority has become a mainstream community over time, and its size equals the Ashkenazi group. This change raises an interesting issue that has not been investigated empirically: What characterizes the psychological responses to the stress of a formerly discriminated minority?
Two representative samples responded to a similar questionnaire measuring inhibiting and bolstering coping strategies. The first sample of 930 people participated in this structured survey between October 12 and 19, 2022. No external adversity threatened Israel at that time. The second sample of 1,608 Israeli Jews participated between October 11 and 17, 2023, a few days after Hamas attacked the southern region of Israel, killed more than a 1,000 people, and kidnapped 100. We examine the impact of moderate and extreme stress of war on the maladaptive levels of anxiety and depression. Furthermore, we investigated the shielding psychological coping measures of this former minority, as compared to Ashkenazi group's response.
Results show that the formerly minority Mizrahi group expresses higher levels of depression, anxiety, and sense of danger under extreme stress compared to the Ashkenazi group. Mizrahi individuals compensated concurrently for these negative emotions by fostering enhanced hope and societal resilience compared to the other group.
The main contributions of the present study are (a) Demonstration that psychological responses of descendants of a minority group to highly stressful conditions do not necessarily agree with their current status as a mainstream community. (b) Indicating that the phenomenon of concurrently enhanced negative and positive responses in face of extreme stress is associated with ethnic origin and history. (c) Associating the effects of different socio-demographic variables with the psychological response of the investigated groups to extreme and moderate stress.
歧视是少数群体压力的一个来源，会导致抑郁水平升高。歧视也可能引发旨在减少有害影响的积极反应。少数群体所经历的压力可能会影响他们的思维方式并影响他们的负面情绪反应。多年来，以色列犹太社会由两个大群体组成：占主导地位的阿什肯纳兹人，他们从东欧移民而来；以及受到歧视的米兹拉希少数群体，其成员来自穆斯林国家。随着时间的推移，米兹拉希少数群体已成为一个主流群体，其规模与阿什肯纳兹群体相当。这一变化引发了一个尚未经过实证研究的有趣问题：曾经受到歧视的少数群体对应激的心理反应有哪些特点？
两个具有代表性的样本对一份测量抑制性和支持性应对策略的类似问卷做出了回应。第一个样本由930人组成，于2022年10月12日至19日参与了这项结构化调查。当时没有外部逆境威胁以色列。第二个样本由1608名以色列犹太人组成，于2023年10月11日至17日参与调查，当时哈马斯袭击了以色列南部地区，造成1000多人死亡并绑架了100人。我们研究了战争的中度和极端压力对焦虑和抑郁的适应不良水平的影响。此外，与阿什肯纳兹群体的反应相比，我们调查了这个曾经的少数群体的心理应对保护措施。
结果表明，与阿什肯纳兹群体相比，曾经的少数群体米兹拉希群体在极端压力下表现出更高水平的抑郁、焦虑和危险感。与另一群体相比，米兹拉希个体通过增强希望和社会复原力同时补偿了这些负面情绪。
本研究的主要贡献在于：（a）证明少数群体的后代对应激条件的心理反应不一定与其当前作为主流群体的地位相符。（b）表明面对极端压力时负面和正面反应同时增强的现象与种族起源和历史有关。（c）将不同社会人口变量的影响与被调查群体对极端和中度压力的心理反应联系起来。
