Individual, Community, and National Resiliencies and Age: Are Older People Less Resilient than Younger Individuals?

Abstract

Objectives: The resilience of older and younger Israelis was investigated.

Design and setting: A representative sample of the Jewish population in Israel (N = 1,022) was used.

Participants: The participants were three adult age-groups (18-35, 36-64, and 65+ years). Half of them were women, and they evenly represented left-wing and right-wing political attitudes.

Measurements: Resilience was measured by the ratio of strength and vulnerability of the individual, the community, and the nation.

Results: Older participants did not differ from younger people in sense of danger; reported lower level of distress symptoms; and showed higher individual, community, and national resilience scores based on strength to vulnerability ratio, compared with younger individuals.

Conclusions: These data support the contention that older Israelis are more resilient than younger cohorts. Their long direct or indirect experience with wars and terror attacks has not decreased their resilience, and has perhaps even strengthened it.

Keywords: community resilience; individual resilience; national resilience; old age; terrorism.