Subjective social stress indicators and the level of reported psychopathology: the case of Israel

This study investigated (on the aggregate level) the relationship between the level of psychopathology in society (monthly rates of inpatient psychiatric admissions) and the population's perception of stress (expressions of worry or dissatisfaction regarding the general, economic, and security situation) and social support (national solidarity expressed as positive attitudes regarding relations between various segments of the population). The subjective indicators were derived from continuing surveys of representative samples of urban Israeli population during 1967-1979. Included were 12 stress indicators and 3 solidarity indicators. As predicted, general stress was positively related to psychiatric admissions, while security stress (due to its cohesive effect) and social solidarity were negatively related to these admissions. Contrary to prediction, economic subjective stress was negatively related to psychiatric admissions. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.