Page 30 - IJSA, Vol. 6, No 2, 2023

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2023
рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa

The Psychological General Well-Being Index was quite disorder – chronic stress/disorder both on both personal
low for most of the students surveyed, due to the presence and societal levels (Vus & Esterlis, 2022). Gilreath et al.
of many psychogenias caused by the war. This includes (2022) studied stressors that can affect the academic
shelling of public places, hospitals, schools, energy and performance and well-being of youth in wartime
supply facilities, resulting in prolonged lack of water, conditions.
heat, electricity and communications. Representatives of Therefore, it is particularly important to study the
all student groups are moderately distressed. The highest strategies that students use to cope with stressful
level of distress (the lowest level of PGWBI) was found situations under difficult wartime conditions. Coping
among students in Group 1 (55.1 points), in the area strategies are different ways of dealing with a stressful
where active hostilities are taking place. Students in situation and are important for everyone’s mental health.
Groups 2 and 3 had lower levels of distress (60.1 points Furthermore, adaptive coping styles lead to improved
and 63.5 points, respectively), but distress was still in the mental health, while maladaptive coping styles lead to
range of moderate distress for this technique. Only men further deprivation and other mental health problems.
in all groups showed no distress on a separate scale We chose the CSI questionnaire to study coping
(general health), indicating their satisfactory general strategies because it is a reliable, proven, and widely used
health and well-being. The highest distress (lowest score technique in research for assessing thoughts and
of all groups) on the positive well-being scale was behaviors that arise in response to a particular stressor
reported by female students in Group 1 (49.7 points). We (Pérez-Chacón et al., 2023; Yeh et al., 2023). As a
believe that this is due to certain psychological particular type of social behavior, stress coping can either
characteristics and social roles of women, as well as the ensure or destroy a person’s health and well-being. It
fact that they often witness numerous civilian casualties allows the subject to cope with stress or inability to
during war. function in difficult life situations by being aware of their
Previous work using the PGWBI has also largely own actions. In addition, such behavior is aimed at
indicated gender differences, with female students actively interacting with the situation, i.e., changing it (if
reporting higher levels of distress than male students (De it is under control) or adapting to it (if it is not under
la Rosa et al., 2022). control).
The use of other research techniques (the Depression Our research has shown that university students use
Anxiety Stress Scales, DASS-21; General Health different coping strategies in the stressful situations of the
Questionnaire, GHQ-28; and the Social Support war in Ukraine. However, the coping strategy of
Questionnaire, F-SozU K-22) in the context of dividing cognitive restructuring is more commonly used. It should
students into groups according to their proximity to the also be noted that Group 1 is characterized by coping
combat zone allowed us to obtain similar results: the strategies of social support and self-criticism.
manifestations of depression were higher among women This study has some limitations. First of all, it should be
than among men. At the same time, severe and extremely noted that the study was conducted under conditions of
severe manifestations of anxiety (2-3 times higher than active war, which may be the reason for the high values.
similar indicators of respondents) were observed among Another limitation of our study is the small number of
students who were not in the vicinity of the combat zone participants in each group. A more complex assessment
(Stadnik et al., 2022, 2023). Thus, using different of the students was not possible under these conditions.
techniques to study this problem leads to similar results. In our study of Ukrainian students, we used only the
The war had a significant negative impact on the mental Ukrainian language versions of the PGWBI and CSI
state of the students, and the closer they were to the war questionnaires. These versions of the questionnaires
zone, the greater the impact. eliminated potential errors in question interpretation and
In the study, we took into account the particularities of optimized response time. Nevertheless, this provided
student youth. For students, studying at a university is important information that gives a first glimpse into the
usually characterized by drastic psychosocial changes mental health status of the sample. It also made it possible
related to interpersonal relationships and the need to to draw conclusions that help to take early measures
adapt to student life. Therefore, not only the effects of aimed at improving the state of psychological well-being
war, but also various social aspects of a student’s life can of students, taking into account the peculiarities of the
significantly affect his or her ability to learn and lead to use of coping strategies that they use to overcome life
a deterioration of psychological well-being. crises.
Previous research on the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian
war on the mental health of student youth in Ukraine Conclusions
described by predictors determining the impact of Thus, the war in Ukraine negatively affects the
specific features of the style of interpersonal behavior on psychological well-being of university students – the
the index of perceived stress, index of coping resources, closer they are to the combat zone, the greater the impact.
positive attitude toward others, autonomy, environmental This influence is also reflected in their use of coping
management, personal development, life goals, self- strategies to manage life crises on their own.
perception, psychological well-being, integration, The findings add to the knowledge of resources that need
control, risk acceptance and resilience (Lunov et al., to be developed to increase students’ resilience and
2023). Effects are also identified and characterized by psychological well-being. It can also become the basis
levels of mental health impact: acute reactions – acute for developing modern methods of social and

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