Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Oct 19, 2021; 11(10): 864-875
Published online Oct 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i10.864
What factors explain anger and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic? The case of Israeli society
Orna Braun-Lewensohn, Sarah Abu-Kaf, Tehila Kalagy
Orna Braun-Lewensohn, Sarah Abu-Kaf, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Conflict Management & Resolution Program, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel, Israel
Tehila Kalagy, Department of Public Policy and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel, Israel
Author contributions: Braun-Lewensohn O wrote the manuscript, ran, and analyzed the data; Abu-Kaf S and Kalagy T contributed to writing and analyzing the data; all authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Supported by the BGU COVID-19 CORONA CHALLENGE.
Institutional review board statement: The study is ethically approved, No. 2020-08.
Informed consent statement: Signed informed consent statement was obtained from the participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Orna Braun-Lewensohn, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Conflict Management & Resolution Program, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel, Israel. ornabl@bgu.ac.il
Received: April 25, 2021
Peer-review started: April 25, 2021
First decision: July 14, 2021
Revised: July 20, 2021
Accepted: September 8, 2021
Article in press: September 8, 2021
Published online: October 19, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: The aim of this study was to explore whether community resilience, hope, and trust in leaders reduced anger and emotional distress during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Data were gathered from 636 Israeli adults. The participants filled out self-reported questionnaires including one on state anger, a measure of mental-health problems, and questionnaires about trust in the state’s leaders, community resilience, and hope. Our results showed that personal and communal factors play significant roles in reducing psychological distress. This study confirms that personal resilience is an important factor that should be strengthened throughout life. Trust in leadership is important for citizen’s mental health.