Emotion, attention and stress regulation as markers of resilience in male and female Israeli soldiers during the Israel-Hamas war.

Abstract

Psychological resilience is a key factor for societal and military stability when faced with terror attacks and/or war. The research presents physiological findings-obtained with the electrodermal activity (EDA) and Auditory Sustained Attention Test (ASAT)-on stress responses, attentional and emotion regulation abilities in 57 Israel Defense Force male and female combat soldiers during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In addition, it shows self-reported resilience scores and post traumatic symptomatology measured by questionnaires and explores the relationship between the subjective and objective data. Compared to male soldiers, female soldiers showed significantly higher hyperarousal symptoms yet showed a tendency to a significantly lower specific skin conductance response (on the EDA) to the first startle sound. Furthermore, the self-reported acute stress symptoms positively and significantly correlated with the physiological emotion regulation measured by startle responses, and negatively correlated with attentional regulation measured by the ASAT. The lack of gender differences in stress level, resilience and self-regulation abilities emphasizes the high capabilities of women combat soldiers, especially due to gender-related risks in combat. Relatively high scores of acute stress symptomology in the population of combat soldiers invite later screening and assessment for the prevention of post traumatic disorders in vulnerable individuals. The combination of physiological measures and questionnaires highlights possible report biases, and thus underscores the importance of combining these objective/subjective measures for adequate assessment of resilience and post traumatic symptomology.