TY - JOUR
T1 - Nostalgia in the Gaza Strip
T2 - Psychological costs and benefits of nostalgia among Palestinian youth
AU - Abu-Rayya, Hisham M.
AU - Abumuhaisen, Yasmeen
AU - Wildschut, Tim
AU - Sedikides, Constantine
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.
PY - 2025/4
Y1 - 2025/4
N2 - Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, confers important psychological benefits: positive affect, social connectedness, meaning in life, self-continuity, self-esteem, optimism, and inspiration. Is nostalgia equally beneficial in populations that have experienced a difficult upbringing? We explored boundaries of nostalgia's psychological benefits in an experiment among Gaza Strip youth (N = 416). We hypothesized additionally that resilience would catalyse the impact of nostalgia, with high-resilience participants benefiting more than low-resilience ones. Nostalgia only augmented social connectedness. As hypothesized, however, resilience emerged as a moderator. Whereas nostalgia increased positive affect and social connectedness among high-resilience individuals, it reduced positive affect, meaning in life, self-esteem, and inspiration among low-resilience ones. Social environmental hardship plausibly limits the reach of nostalgia's benefits.
AB - Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, confers important psychological benefits: positive affect, social connectedness, meaning in life, self-continuity, self-esteem, optimism, and inspiration. Is nostalgia equally beneficial in populations that have experienced a difficult upbringing? We explored boundaries of nostalgia's psychological benefits in an experiment among Gaza Strip youth (N = 416). We hypothesized additionally that resilience would catalyse the impact of nostalgia, with high-resilience participants benefiting more than low-resilience ones. Nostalgia only augmented social connectedness. As hypothesized, however, resilience emerged as a moderator. Whereas nostalgia increased positive affect and social connectedness among high-resilience individuals, it reduced positive affect, meaning in life, self-esteem, and inspiration among low-resilience ones. Social environmental hardship plausibly limits the reach of nostalgia's benefits.
KW - Gaza youth
KW - affect
KW - nostalgia
KW - psychological benefits
KW - resilience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105001546754&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/bjso.12859
DO - 10.1111/bjso.12859
M3 - Article
C2 - 40130943
SN - 0144-6665
VL - 64
JO - British Journal of Social Psychology
JF - British Journal of Social Psychology
IS - 2
M1 - e12859
ER -