Pride and prejudice: The mediational role of socio-cognitive development in the occurrence of PTSD among Mizrahi immigrant veterans in Israel

Low status immigrants often suffer from an increased risk for physical and mental health problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a severe mental disorder that may develop in the footsteps of trauma exposure. In this paper we examined the possibility that some of the PTSD risk faced by such immigrants is due to damage to their Socio Cognitive Development (SCD). We postulated that this SCD damage is a consequence of the effect of discrimination and prejudice on subjects' Socio Economic Status. To test our hypothesis regarding the mediational role of SCD in the occurrence of PTSD among low-status immigrant veterans we examined PTSD in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s. The time frame enabled us to zero-in on a period in the history of Israeli society during which there was a deep cleavage between Ashkenazi Jews (of Western European background) and Mizrahi Jews (immigrating to Israel from Muslim countries in Asia and Africa), with Ashkenazi discrimination of Mizrahim affecting their SES and SCD. Military records from the IDF allowed us to look at the influence of pre-morbid IQ and Education-level on the risk for PTSD. Furthermore, building on Terror Management Theory, we hypothesize that in addition to SCD being a predictor of PTSD, a positive sense of social belonging could also affect the risk for PTSD. We suggested that a negative immigration experience can entail damage to that sense of belonging in a meaningful collective thus disturbing the functioning of its members' existential anxiety buffer. Employing a social psychological analysis of Israeli culture and society we identified military service in a combat unit as one of the most powerful routes by which members of a low status immigrant group could re-build the anxiety buffer. We tested this second hypothesis by looking at the different PTSD risks of Mizrahi immigrants in combat and in non-combat army units.