Stress and Resilience Research Center

About the Center

The Center focus on studies related to research on resilience, stress and well-being among the broad populations of Israel and worldwide. The Center is one of the many collaborators of Multinational Resilience and Wellbeing Research Collaboration (ResWell), located at Tel Aviv University: https://reswell.tau.ac.il

The Stress and Resilience Research Center has three members: Dr. Hadas Marciano, senior lecturer in the psychology department at Tel-Hai College and two emeritus professors – Professor Shaul Kimhi and Professor Yohanan Eshel – both of whom were previously chairs of the psychology department at Tel-Hai College.

Research Areas

One of the Center’s goals is to repeatedly measure an index for "Resilience of Israel" at least once a year. In this framework, a wide-ranging survey is conducted. The survey consists of various indicators of resilience (societal or national in its former name, community and individual), well-being indicators, hope and morale indicators, as well as distress indicators (level of depression and anxiety, sense of danger, and perceived threats). The purpose of this periodical measurement is twofold: first, it enables a comparison between different periods concerning the various indices of the survey, among the adult population in Israel; Second, a baseline measurement that is conducted periodically allows a research readiness for any emergency situation that may arise at any time. If such an event occurs, the last baseline measurement that was carried out before the event, will allow for examination of resilience, coping and well-being after the event has ended or dissipated. That is, this base-line measurement will make it possible to examine the extent of bouncing back process, which many researchers define as the main expression of resilience. The existence of such a baseline measurement allows monitoring after the emergency event to examine the progress of this bouncing back process. This paradigm has proven itself well during the ongoing event of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since we had a baseline measurement that was taken during a calm period before the pandemic outbreak, we could make important comparisons and examine the bouncing back over time. In addition, in cooperation with researchers from the Reswell Collaboration, we have been working on many studies in Eastern Europe for the past year, following the war in Ukraine. Indicators of resilience, well-being, and distress are studied among citizens of Ukraine and its surrounding neighbor countries.

Moreover, studies of the impact of individual resilience on coping with stress are currently being conducted in collaboration with a researcher from the University of Haifa (Dr. Roee Admon).

Finally, we are also preparing toward important studies on the topic of stress and resilience in the context of the climate change issue.

Staff and Researchers

Dr. Hadas Marciano – Center chair

Phone: 058-4999255

Email: [email protected]

Professor Shaul Kimhi – Principal Researcher

Phone: 050-5622070

Email: [email protected]

Professor Yohanan Eshel - Senior Researcher

Phone: 053-7136744

Email: [email protected]

Research at the Center

Physiological correlates of stress recovery in realistic setting as a putative marker for individual resilience

Collaboration with Dr. Roee Admon from University of Haifa

Comparative research of levels of resilience and stress in Eastern European countries: Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia and Georgia, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Developing a new index called “Perceived Partial Social Integration (PPSI)” for examination of the connection between different resilience indicators.

Selected Publications

Ballada, C. J. A., Aruta, J. J. B. R., Callueng, C. M., Antazo, B. G., Kimhi, S., Reinert, M., Eshel, Y., Marciano, H., Adini, B., da Silva, J. D., & Verdu, F. C. (2022). Bouncing back from COVID‐19: Individual and ecological factors influence national resilience in adults from Israel, the Philippines, and Brazil. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1-24.‏

Eshel, Y., Kimhi, S., Marciano, H., & Adini, B. (2022). Belonging to socially excluded groups as a predictor of vaccine hesitancy and rejection. Frontiers in Public Health, 2409.‏

Eshel, Y., Kimhi, S., Marciano, H., & Adini, B. (2022). Conspiracy claims and secret intentions as predictors of psychological coping and vaccine uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 151, 311-318.

Eshel, Y., Kimhi, S., Marciano, H., & Adini, B. (2022). Partial social integration as a predictor of COVID-19 vaccine rejection and of distress indicators. Frontiers in Public Health, 2101.‏

Eshel, Y., Kimhi, S., Marciano, H., & Adini, B. (2022). Perceived Partial Social Integration (PPSI), Levels of Distress and Resilience, and COVID-19 Vaccine Rejection of Israeli Jews and Arabs. Frontiers in Public Health, 4591.‏

Kimhi, S., Eshel, Y., Marciano, H., & Adini, B. (2022). Impact of societal resilience on vaccine hesitancy and uptake: Lessons learned from the Israeli experience. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 79, 103181.‏

Kimhi, S., Marciano, H., Eshel, Y., & Adini, B. (2022). Do we cope similarly with different adversities? COVID-19 versus armed conflict. BMC Public Health, 22:2151.
Marciano, H., Kimhi, S., Eshel, Y., & Adini, B. (2022). Hope and fear of threats as predictors of coping with two major adversities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19, 1123.