Israeli adolescents' coping strategies in relation to terrorist attacks

Exposure to terrorism seriously threatens the well-being of children and adolescents. Israeli citizens have witnessed massive ongoing terrorist attacks during the last few years. The present research, conducted among 330 Israeli adolescents, examined coping strategies in relation to terrorist attacks. We found that adolescents utilize more productive than non-productive coping strategies when dealing with terrorist attacks. Moreover, they rarely seek professional help. Male adolescents use more non-productive coping strategies and female adolescents seek more social support as a coping strategy. The impact of exposure to media reports and life satisfaction on adolescents' use of coping strategies is discussed, and potentially effective approaches to coping with terrorist attacks are proposed.