Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, Vol 18(7), Oct 2026, 1373-1382; doi:10.1037/tra0001883
Objective: Longitudinal studies have shown that most individuals can stay well in response to potential traumatic events (PTEs). However, the mechanisms underlying such resilience are still unclear. Method: This study integrates Bonanno’s resilience model (Bonanno, 2004) with the salutogenic approach (Antonovsky, 1979) to investigate the association between anxiety trajectories and sense of coherence (SOC). Data were collected from 526 (279 males) Israeli adults via online questionnaires at seven time points between March 2020 and February 2022, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Latent profile analysis identified four anxiety trajectories: (a) resilience (consistently low symptom levels), (b) chronic (consistently elevated symptoms), (c) improving (initially elevated symptoms decreasing over time), and (d) high resilience (sustained absence of anxiety symptoms), providing partial support for Bonanno’s model. As expected, SOC significantly differentiated these trajectories, with the “high-resilience” group exhibiting the strongest SOC, followed by the “resilience” and “improving” groups, while the chronic group displayed the weakest SOC levels. Conclusions: This research underscores SOC as a key predictor of anxiety trajectories in navigating PTEs, shedding light on the importance of individual resilience factors in managing adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)