Sapir Ofek's research while affiliated with Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and other places

For many years, clinical case studies that have focused on the intergenerational effects of Holocaust trauma have indicated that second-generation Holocaust survivors (SGHSs) often face relational challenges in their intimate relationships. The relational attitudes of SGHSs during childhood, as well as during adulthood, have been studied. However, only in recent years has this cohort entered the “aging adult” group. In this study, we hypothesized that well-being among Israeli aging SGHSs would be associated with parentification and with specific relational attitudes toward their adult offspring. We examined whether parentification, sense of relational entitlement, pathological concern, and authenticity in relationships mediated the association between family background and well-being. A total of 329 participants (60% SGHSs; 19% men) completed questionnaires tapping retrospective accounts of parentification during childhood, inflated and restricted senses of entitlement, pathological concern, relational authenticity, and subjective well-being. Aging SGHSs reported higher levels of parentification, inflated sense of entitlement toward offspring, pathological concern, lower levels of authenticity, and subjective well-being. The association between family background and subjective well-being was mediated by parentification, inflated sense of relational entitlement, pathological concern, and authenticity. Findings suggest that especially for aging SGHSs, childhood parentification takes a heavy toll on their sense of well-being via the hindering of a balanced sense of relational entitlement and concern and the authentic expression of self.

This study examines psychological and physical influences on the distress and well-being of patients with chronic rheumatic diseases. The study aims were to (1) evaluate the relative contribution of objective disease activity and psychological factors on the wellbeing of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); (2) to compare the psychological distress of SLE patients to fibromyalgia (FM) patients and healthy controls, and to (3) characterize subgroups of patients by performing cluster analysis using psychological variables. Participants were ascertained from closed forums and social media channels resulting in 41 women with a diagnosis of SLE, 47 with a diagnosis of FM, and 77 healthy controls (HC). Hierarchical linear regression for well-being of SLE patients found that most of the variance was accounted for by social support. Cluster analysis performed on the entire sample identified two clusters, a distressed group tending to Type D personality, anxiety and depression, low in well-being and social support, and a resilient group; the proportion of resilient individuals was highest in the HC intermediate in the SLE group and lowest in the FM group. The importance of psychological variables vs disease severity in these two rheumatic diseases for wellbeing is demonstrated by these results. The results suggest that psychological interventions that enhance the experience of social support in medical settings, might benefit patients with both diseases, and be of particular importance to the well-being of patients who are more distressed.