Page 38 - IJSA, Vol. 3, No 1, 2020

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2020

Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to expansion of women; Group 3 (Control): 105 military members
problems concerning mental health. This problem has inexperienced in community policing as well as any
been revealed by researchers in medical, psychological, battle actions, among them: 86 (81.90%) men and 19
and social fields. Their studies prove that the situation (18.10%) women.
with the COVID-19 has provoked an increase in cases The study has been realised by such electronic means as
of post-traumatic stress reactions and post-traumatic on-line messengers: Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp
stress disorders, of vulnerable groups in particular etc. This form of the on-line questionnaire has arisen
(Holmes et al., 2020). Medical staff is one of the risk from the necessity to restrict group contacts under
groups, which has a high possibility of psychological conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
problems. Medical workers are affected by such The structured questionnaire consisted of questions
psychological factors as mental over-loading, danger to grounded on the following methods: “Mississippi Scale
be personally infected and become a reason of infecting for Estimating Post-traumatic Reactions (military
members of their own family, etc. (Johns Hopkins variant)”; “Depression Anxiety Stress Scales” (“DASS-
University, Coronavirus Resource Center, 2020). 21”); “Insomnia Severity Index” (“ISI”).
However, besides medical staff, a significant role in Besides, military-men who had mental disorders by the
overcoming the consequences of the pandemic is played results of the standardised psychological methods have
by military-men of the National Guard and policemen been interviewed by psycho-diagnostics with the
who maintain order among the population during the purpose of specifying symptoms and providing
quarantine period. In Ukraine they perform the psychological support.
following functions: enforce civil order in places of the Cronbach’s alpha used to assess the reliability of the
quarantine regime and observation, control the structured questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha is a measure
population to follow restricting quarantine actions by used to assess the reliability, or internal consistency, of
keeping up a patrol, etc. Policemen and military-men are a set of scale or test items. In other words, the reliability
engaged in solving conflicts with the people who refuse of any given measurement refers to the extent to which
to follow the quarantine requirements. Committing it is a consistent measure of a concept, and Cronbach’s
functional duties creates a real threat to catch the disease alpha is one way of measuring the strength of that
due to a direct contact with those who are infected by consistency. Using the module SPSS Statistics,
the COVID-19. Cronbach’s alpha is 0.817. The obtained α value is
Moreover, on account of military-men taking part in the included in the interval 0.9˃α≥0.8, indicating a good
operation of joint forces in Donbas that was internal consistency.
accompanied by actions of the whole set of factors of
battle conditions, a lot of military-men generate the Results
symptoms of post-traumatic stress reactions (PTSR) To assess the psychological influence of the COVID-19
(Melnyk, Prykhodko, & Stadnik, 2019; Melnyk & pandemic on military-men and the level of intensity of
Stadnik, 2018). In terms of carrying out official duties at their post-traumatic stress reactions we have applied
times of the COVID-19 pandemic, this group of “Mississippi Scale for Estimating Post-traumatic
military-men is affected by additional stress factors as Reactions (military variant)” (Ahaiev et al., 2016). It has
well. It stipulates the necessity to research vulnerability been developed to diagnose PTSR by military-men who
to post-traumatic stress reactions of military-men who performed tasks in the zone of battle actions. The
are engaged in the pandemic liquidation, as well as to Methods have been developed on the grounds of MMPI
develop an effective system of preventing neurotic that consists of 35 questions forming three basic scales,
disorders among them. which correlate with three groups of PTSR symptoms:
The aim of the study. To reveal the peculiarities of 11 questions of the first scale describe symptoms of the
mental traumatic influence on military-men engaged group “invasion”, 11 questions of the second scale
into the COVID-19 pandemic liquidation; detail the describe symptoms of the group “avoidance”, 8
level of stress, anxiety and depression in order to questions of the third scale describe symptoms
develop further actions concerning mental support and “excitability”, 5 questions describe symptoms
psycho-prophylaxis. connected with a feeling of blame and suicide
inclination. The number of the received points allows
Materials and Methods dividing those who are under study into the following
In order to conduct the research, we have engaged 334 groups: fewer than 77 points – normative indices; 78-97
military-men (of different categories: military-men for a points – certain symptoms of PTSR; 98-145 points –
regular term and military-men under a contract, officers indicators of PTSR (Ahaiev et al., 2016).
(of the age from 18 to 40), who performed their duty of Further detalisation of psychopathological symptoms
maintaining order together with the police. We have has been carried out by “DASS-21” methods. It is a short
shortlisted 3 groups: Group 1: 112 military members form of DASS (21 questions), that is intended for
experienced in community policing and battle actions, measuring negative states of depression, anxiety and
among them: 96 (85.71%) men and 16 (14.29%) stress. Assessment of DASS subscales has been realised
women; Group 2: 117 military members experienced in according to the standardised methods (Psychology
community policing, but inexperienced in battle actions, Foundation of Australia, 2018). The average number of
among them: 99 (84.62%) men and 18 (15.38%) points by the scale has been assessed, as well as a

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