Exposure-Blind Resilience: A Scoping Review of Resilience, Recovery, and Adaptation in Israel After October 7
Abstract
After the October 7, 2023, attack and the prolonged war that followed, research on resilience, recovery, and adaptation in Israel expanded rapidly. We conducted a prospectively registered scoping review of 147 peer-reviewed quantitative publications drawn from 125 independent samples to examine how resilience and adaptation were conceptualized, which resources were associated with favorable outcomes, and what evidence supported protective mechanisms. No publication operationalized resilience relative to the adversity participants experienced. Instead, resilience was predominantly measured as a self-reported capacity, and adaptation was most often inferred from low symptom levels rather than preserved functioning or broader positive adjustment. Personal resilience and individual psychological resources showed comparatively strong associations with favorable outcomes. However, the reliance on self-report resilience measures limits the interpretation of these associations as effects of distinct resources. Belonging showed a more consistently favorable pattern in a smaller literature, whereas findings for social support, family resources, and collective resources were less consistent. Formal tests of adversity-buffering effects were uncommon, predominantly cross-sectional, and indicated context-specific rather than general protection; prospective evidence regarding mechanisms was similarly sparse. No randomized trial tested a resilience-promoting intervention against a non-active comparator. The literature, therefore, identifies numerous correlates of favorable outcomes but provides substantially less evidence about when these resources constitute resilience or alter adaptation in the face of adversity. Future research should prioritize exposure-sensitive definitions, multidimensional outcomes, longitudinal designs, and temporally ordered tests of mechanisms.
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BibTeX
@misc{mendelson2026exposureblind,
title = {{Exposure-Blind Resilience: A Scoping Review of Resilience, Recovery, and Adaptation in Israel After October 7}},
author = {Adrian Mendelson and Yossi Levi-Belz and Yael Segal Elbak and Dalia Moallem and Rinatia Maaravi-Hesseg and Ziv Ben-Zion},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/fmnqz_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/fmnqz_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Exposure-Blind Resilience: A Scoping Review of Resilience, Recovery, and Adaptation in Israel After October 7
AU - Adrian Mendelson
AU - Yossi Levi-Belz
AU - Yael Segal Elbak
AU - Dalia Moallem
AU - Rinatia Maaravi-Hesseg
AU - Ziv Ben-Zion
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/fmnqz_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/fmnqz_v1/
AB - After the October 7, 2023, attack and the prolonged war that followed, research on resilience, recovery, and adaptation in Israel expanded rapidly. We conducted a prospectively registered scoping review of 147 peer-reviewed quantitative publications drawn from 125 independent samples to examine how resilience and adaptation were conceptualized, which resources were associated with favorable outcomes, and what evidence supported protective mechanisms. No publication operationalized resilience relative to the adversity participants experienced. Instead, resilience was predominantly measured as a self-reported capacity, and adaptation was most often inferred from low symptom levels rather than preserved functioning or broader positive adjustment. Personal resilience and individual psychological resources showed comparatively strong associations with favorable outcomes. However, the reliance on self-report resilience measures limits the interpretation of these associations as effects of distinct resources. Belonging showed a more consistently favorable pattern in a smaller literature, whereas findings for social support, family resources, and collective resources were less consistent. Formal tests of adversity-buffering effects were uncommon, predominantly cross-sectional, and indicated context-specific rather than general protection; prospective evidence regarding mechanisms was similarly sparse. No randomized trial tested a resilience-promoting intervention against a non-active comparator. The literature, therefore, identifies numerous correlates of favorable outcomes but provides substantially less evidence about when these resources constitute resilience or alter adaptation in the face of adversity. Future research should prioritize exposure-sensitive definitions, multidimensional outcomes, longitudinal designs, and temporally ordered tests of mechanisms.
ER -