The Effect of Objective Social Stress Factors on Subjective Perception of Well-Being and Social Solidarity: The Israeli Case

Abstract

The Israeli setting, with its unique combination of social stress factors was chosen to study (on the aggregate level) the effect of economic and security-related stressors on subjective perception of well-being and social solidarity. The objective security-related stressors considered are inflation and unemployment, and the objective security-related stressors are security-related casualties and incidents. Population size was included as a control variable. The two subjective perceptions of well-being are mood and coping. The four subjective indicators of social solidarity include solidarity between ethnic groups and between religious and secular groups, desire to remain in the country, and readiness for economic sacrifices. The data on the subjective indicators were derived from continuing surveys of representative samples of the urban Israeli Jewish population during the years 1967-1979. The periods covered range from 5-12 years. A multiple regression analysis was applied to the data. The main findings are: (1) Economic and security-related stressors had the predicted negative effects on both subjective indicators of well-being. (2) Of the four solidarity indicators, only solidarity between ethnic groups was positively affected by security-related stressors. Some of findings indicate that security-related stress increases social solidarity in the short run but decreases it in the long run. (3) Contrary to expectation, some positive effects of economic stressors on solidarity are detected. Some theoretical implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.