Nostalgia in the Gaza Strip: Psychological costs and benefits of nostalgia among Palestinian youth

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.