Prof. Yael Benyamini

Yael Benyamini is a Full Professor at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work and a researcher in the fields of health and aging, and in particular, women’s health. Prof. Benyamini attained her master's degree in social psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her PhD in health and social psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is an Honorary Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS). She served as Secretary of the EHPS, an Associate Editor of Psychology & Health and a guest editor for Health Psychology Review, the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and Frontiers in Psychiatry. She published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and over 20 chapters and invited articles and is co-editor of the book Assessment in Health Psychology. Following the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she initiated and led the “Pregnancy and Childbirth in Corona times” track in the ACADEMIA-IL project, in which an information kit and guidelines were developed for pregnant women, for health care professionals in midwifery and obstetrics, and for managers and policy makers related to the functioning of these disciplines during a pandemic. Yael is also an avid mountain cyclist.

Full C.V

Researchgate

Prof. Benyamini studies how people think about their health. She co-authored with Prof. Ellen Idler the now classic 1997 review on self-rated health, which provided a theoretical framework for understanding the validity of subjective ratings of health. This review has led to a dramatic expansion of research on self-ratings of health and was recognized as one of the most highly cited articles in the social sciences (cited over 5,000 times to date). Prof. Benyamini has continued to make significant contributions to this field, expanding her research from perceptions of global health to those of specific conditions and their effects on coping with health threats and ultimately on the psychological and physical outcomes. She focused on chronic diseases (e.g., pain, heart disease) and ageing and later on women's health issues (e.g., infertility, pregnancy, menopause). In recent years, she led large research groups in the area of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum adjustment and has been involved in international networks of childbirth researchers.

Link to updated list of publications on ORCID

Recent publications:

Brill, S., Defrin, R., Goor Aryeh, I., Meseritz Zusman, A. & Benyamini, Y. (in press). Short and long term effects of conventional spinal cord stimulation on chronic pain and health perceptions: a longitudinal controlled trial. European Journal of Pain, in press. DOI:10.1002/ejp.2002.

Goshen, A., Goldbourt, U. Benyamini, Y., Shimony, T., Keinan-Boker, L., & Gerber, Y. (2022). Association of diet quality with longevity and successful aging in Israeli adults ≥65 years old. JAMA Network Open, 5(6):e2214916. DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14916

Kollman, J., Benyamini, Y., Lages, N., & Renner, B. (2022). The role of personal risk experience – an investigation of health and terrorism risk perception in Germany and Israel. Risk Analysis, 42(4), 818-829. DOI: 10.1111/risa.13804

Abramov, M., Shalom-Paz, E., & Benyamini, Y. (2022). Persevering in fertility treatments despite failures: Unrealistic optimism and the reality of a pronatalist culture. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29, 209-219. DOI:10.1007/s12529-021-10001-5

Kahalon, R., Yanushevsky Cnaani, G., Preis, H., & Benyamini, Y. (2022). The complex effects of maternal expectations on postpartum depressive symptoms: When does a protective factor become a risk factor? Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 43(1), 74-82. DOI:10.1080/0167482X.2020.1795826

Kahalon, R., Preis, H., & Benyamini, Y. (2022). Mother-infant contact after birth can reduce postpartum post-traumatic stress symptoms through a reduction in birth-related fear and guilt. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 154, 110716. DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.110716

Cohen, G., Nevo, D., Hasin, T., Benyamini, Y., Goldbourt, U., & Gerber, Y. (2022). Resumption of sexual activity after acute myocardial infarction and long-term survival. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 29, 304–311. DOI:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaa011

Todorova, I., Albers, L., Aronson, N., Baban, A., Benyamini, Y., …& Zlatarska, A. (2021). “What I thought was so important isn’t really that important”: international perspectives on making meaning during the first wave of the COVID-1 pandemic. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 9(1), 830-857. DOI:10.1080/21642850.2021.1981909

Garthus-Niegel, S., Benyamini, Y., & Horsch, A. (2021). Editorial: Perinatal mental health: expanding the focus to the family context. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12:719053. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.719053

Karnieli-Miller, O., Maymon, R., & Benyamini, Y. (2021). The experience of physicians in obstetrics during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Harefuah, 160(5), 291-296. [In Hebrew; החוויה של רופאים.ות במיילדות בתקופת הגל הראשון של הקורונה].

Armon, S., Benyamini, Y., Grisaru-Granovsky, S., & Avitan, T. (2021). Online obstetrics and gynecology medical students clerkship during the Covid-19 pandemic: a pilot study. Medical Science Educator, 31, 457–461. DOI:10.1007/s40670-020-01181-y

Kahalon, R., Preis, H., Shilo, G. & Benyamini, Y. (2021). Maternal expectations among pregnant women from single, lesbian, and heterosexual parented families. Journal of Family Issues, 42(4), 863-880. DOI:10.1177/0192513X20933927

Kahalon, R., Preis, H., & Benyamini, Y. (2021). Who benefits most from skin-to-skin mother-infant contact after birth? Survey findings on skin-to-skin and birth satisfaction by mode of birth. Midwifery, 92, 102862. DOI:10.1016/j.midw.2020.102862