Psychological Impact of Indirect Exposure to Israel-Palestine War, Mental Health and Coping Strategies of University Students

Abstract

The present study explored the psychological impact of indirect exposure to Israel-Palestine war, mental health and coping strategies of university students. Coping strategies have been investigated as a moderator in the relation between psychological impact and mental health issues. Quantitative cross-sectional design was implemented in the current study with the sample size (N=422). Impact of event scale-revised, Mini-Cope and DASS-21 were used for the data collection. Correlation, regression and moderation analysis was done to find the relationship between study variables. Finding indicates that psychological impact was significantly related to mental health and coping strategies. Psychological impact and coping strategies are found to predict mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and stress. In addition, maladaptive coping strategies and neutral coping strategies are found to moderate the relationship between psychological impact due to indirect exposure to Israel-Palestine war and mental health issues. The current study suggested the need to further explore the psychological impacts of the wars among other regions and in other demographics.