Peculiarities of the Psychological Well-Being and Social Adaptation of Young Students and Cadets in Wartime Conditions
Stadnik A. V. 1,2, Melnyk Yu. B. 2,3, Mykhaylyshyn U. B. 4,5, de Matos M. G. 6
 
  
1 Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine
2 Kharkiv Regional Public Organization “Culture of Health”, Ukraine
3 Scientific Research Institute KRPOCH, Ukraine
4 Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine
5 Transcarpathian Research Expert Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ukraine
6 Aventura Social / ISAMB, University of Lisbon, Portugal

 

Abstract

Background and Aim of Study: The mental health and social adaptation of young students and cadets in wartime conditions is a new and understudied problem. 
The aim of the study: to identify the particularities of psychological well-being and social adaptation of students and cadets in wartime conditions.
Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted among the students and cadets of two Ukrainian universities (KNUIA, UzhNU) in 2023, February. 327 participants were divided into 3 groups: 1) 112 cadets whose permanent disposition was changed in Ukraine; 2) 108 students who were displaced and who are in Ukraine and EU countries; 3) 107 students who did not change their place of permanent residence and who are in Ukraine in the combat zone or near it. The 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) to assess psychological well-being and emotional stability, and the Social Support Questionnaire (F-SozU K-22) to determine the particularities of emotional support, practical support, and social integration were used in the study. Appropriate internal consistency values (Cronbach α between 0.817 and 0.903) were found for both scales.
Results: Group 1 has the best general health indicator: 1.65 times better than Group 3. The levels of somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia are lower in Group 1 (practically the same in women and men), and higher in Group 3. The highest rates of social dysfunction are found in Group 3. Men in all groups have more pronounced social dysfunction; women in all groups have more pronounced severe depression. Group 1 total perceived social support is 1.89 times better than Group 3. Emotional support, social integration are highest in Group 1, practical support is highest in Group 2.
Conclusions: The lowest levels of psychological well-being and social adaptation were found in Group 3. This is probably due to uncertainty about the future, constant instability and insecurity. Teachers and psychologists are urged to consider the identified psychological and social peculiarities in the educational and clinical process when dealing with young students.

 
 
 

Keywords

psychological well-being, social adaptation, social dysfunction, anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, wartime conditions

 
 
  

References

Abu-Amsha, O., & Armstrong, J. (2018). Pathways to resilience in risk-laden environments: A case study of Syrian refugee education in Lebanon. Journal on Education in Emergencies, 4(1), 45-73. http://hdl.handle.net/2451/42480

Collins, T. (2023, March 5). In war-torn Ukraine, a first-of-its-kind mental health center aims to heal as “part of our survival” [Video]. USA TODAY. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/05/ukraine-new-mental-health-center/11306210002/

Fydrich, T., Geyer, M., Hessel, A., Sommer, G., & Brähler, E. (1999). Fragebogen zur sozialen unterstützung (F-SozU): Normierung an einer repräsentativen stichprobe (Social support questionnaire (F-SozU): Normalization on a representative sample). Diagnostica, 45(4), 212–216. https://doi.org/10.1026//0012-1924.45.4.212

Garoon, M. A. A., Hashim, S., & Yaacob, N. R. N. (2022). The role of spirituality and resilience among Yemeni refugee students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 11(3), 1058-1065. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v11i3.22377

Gilreath, T. D., Montiel Ishino, F. A., Sullivan, K. S., & Okoror, T. A. (2022). Maladaptive coping among military-connected adolescents: Examining combined risk using QCA. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 948474  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.948474

Goldberg, D. P., & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9(1), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700021644

Haydabrus, A., Santana-Santana, M., Lazarenko, Yu., & Giménez-Llort, L. (2022). Current war in Ukraine: Lessons from the impact of war on combatants’ mental health during the last decade. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), 10536. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710536

Kurapov, A., Pavlenko, V., Drozdov, A., Bezliudna, V., Reznik, A., & Isralowitz, R. (2023). Toward an understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian war impact on university students and personnel. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 28(2), 167-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2022.2084838

Leon, D. A., Jdanov, D., Gerry, C. J., Grigoriev, P., Jasilionis, D., Mckee, M., Mesle, F., Penina, O., Twigg, J., Vallin, J., & Vagero, D. (2022). The Russian invasion of Ukraine and its public health consequences. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 15, 100358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100358

Marchi, M., Magarini, F. M., Chiarenza, A., Galeazzi, G. M., Paloma, V., Garrido, R., Ioannidi, E., Vassilikou, K., de Matos, M. G., Gaspar, T., Guedes, F. B., Primdahl, N. L., Skovdal, M., Murphy, R., Durbeej, N., Osman, F., Watters, C., van den Muijsenbergh, M., Sturm, G., … Derluyn, I. (2022). Experience of discrimination during COVID-19 pandemic: the impact of public health measures and psychological distress among refugees and other migrants in Europe. BMC Public Health 22, 942. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13370-y

McKee, M., & Murphy, A. (2022). Russia invades Ukraine again: How can the health community respond? BMJ, 376, o548, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o548

Melnyk, Yu. B., Prykhodko, І. І., & Stadnik, A. V. (2019). Medical-psychological support of specialists’ professional activity in extreme conditions. Minerva Psichiatrica, 60(4), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0391-1772.19.02025-9

Melnyk, Yu. B., & Stadnik, A. V. (2021). The impact of psychological transformation game “My Dao” on value orientations of participants. International Journal of Science Annals, 4(2), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2021.2.3

Melnyk, Yu. B., Stadnik, A. V., & Pypenko, I. S. (2020). Resistance to post-traumatic stress reactions of vulnerable groups engaged in pandemic liquidation. International Journal of Science Annals, 3(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2020.1.5

Melnyk, Yu., & Stadnik, A. (2018). Mental health of a personality: Diagnostics and prevention of mental disorders. International Journal of Education and Science, 1(3-4), 50. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijes.2018.3-4.37

Mesa-Vieira, C., Haas, A. D., Buitrago-Garcia, D., RoaDiaz, Z. M., Minder, B., Gamba, M., Salvador, D. Jr., Gomez, D., Lewis, M., Gonzalez-Jaramillo, W. C., Pahud de Mortanges, A., Buttia, C., Muka, T., Trujillo, N., & Franco, O. H. (2022). Mental health of migrants with pre-migration exposure to armed conflict: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 7(5), E469–E481. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00061-5

Michalek, J., Lisi, M., Binetti, N., Ozkaya, S., Hadfield, K., Dajani, R., & Mareschal, I. (2022). War-related trauma linked to increased sustained attention to threat in children. Child Development, 93(4), 900-909. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13739

Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. (n. d.). Population in Kharkiv on 01.01.2022. https://index.minfin.com.ua/ua/reference/people/town/harkov/

Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. (n. d.). Population in Uzhhorod on 01.01.2022. https://index.minfin.com.ua/ua/reference/people/town/uzhgorod/

Nguyen, A. (2022, December 18). How war and displacement affect mental health of people in Ukraine and why we should address this. International Organization for Migration. https://ukraine.iom.int/blogs/how-war-and-displacement-affect-mental-health-people-ukraine-and-why-we-should-address

Oppedal, B., Özer, S., & Şirin, S. R. (2018). Traumatic events, social support and depression: Syrian refugee children in Turkish camps. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 13(1), 46-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2017.1372653

Patel, S. S., & Erickson, T. B. (2022). The new humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Coping with the public health impact of hybrid warfare, mass migration, and mental health trauma. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 16(6), 2231-2232. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2022.70

Rozanov, V., Franciškovic, T., Marinic, I., Macarenco, M., Letica-Crepulja, M., Mužinic, L., Jayatunge, R., Sisask, M., Vevera, J., Wiederhold, B., Wiederhold, M., & Miller, I. (2019). Mental health consequences of war conflicts. In A. Javed, K. Fountoulakis (Eds.), Advances in Psychiatry (pp. 281–304). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70554-5_17

Stadnik, A. V., Melnyk, Yu. B., Babak, S. A., Vashchenko, I. V., & Krut, P. P. (2022). Psychological distress among students and cadets of universities in the war conditions. International Journal of Science Annals, 5(1-2), 20–29. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2022.1-2.0

Veronese, G., Pepe, A., Diab, M., Abu Jamei, Y., & Kagee, A. (2022). Social support, resilience, and mental health in a low-intensity warfare context: the effects of siege on university students in Gaza. Journal of Mental Health, 31(3), 383-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2021.1979486

Von Haumeder, A., Ghafoori, B., & Retailleau, J. (2019). Psychological adaptation and posttraumatic stress disorder among Syrian refugees in Germany: A mixed-methods study investigating environmental factors. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), 1686801. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1686801

 

 

 

  
 

 

Information about the authors:

Stadnik Anatoliy Volodymyrovych (Corresponding Author) – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1472-4224; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine, Associate Professor, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs; Director, Social-Psychological Center KRPOCH, Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Melnyk Yuriy Borysovychhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-4638; Doctor of Philosophy in Pedagogy, Associate Professor; Chairman of Board, Kharkiv Regional Public Organization “Culture of Health” (KRPOCH); Director, Scientific Research Institute KRPOCH, Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Mykhaylyshyn Ulyana Bohdanivna –  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0225-8115 Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Full Professor; Head of the Department of Psychology, Uzhhorod National University, Uzhhorod, Transcarpathian Research Expert Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ukraine.

De Matos Margarida Gaspar – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-2350; Doctor of Philosophy in Special Education and Rehabilitation, Clinical and Health Psychologist, Full Professor, Aventura Social / ISAMB, Medical School; University of Lisbon, and FCH/ UCP, Lisbon, Portugal.

 
 
 
Cite this article as:

APA


Stadnik, A. V., Melnyk, Yu. B., Mykhaylyshyn, U. B., & de Matos, M. G. (2023). Peculiarities of the psychological well-being and social adaptation of young students and cadets in wartime conditions. International Journal of Science Annals, 6(1), 22–30. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2023.1.7

Harvard


Stadnik, A. V., Melnyk, Yu. B., Mykhaylyshyn, U. B., & de Matos, M. G. 2023. " Peculiarities of the psychological well-being and social adaptation of young students and cadets in wartime conditions". International Journal of Science Annals, [online] 6(1), pp. 22–30. viewed 30 June 2023, https://culturehealth.org/ijsa_archive/ijsa.2023.1.7.pdf

Vancouver


Stadnik A. V., Melnyk Yu. B., Mykhaylyshyn U. B., & de Matos M. G.  Peculiarities of the psychological well-being and social adaptation of young students and cadets in wartime conditions. International Journal of Science Annals [Internet]. 2023 [cited 30 June 2023]; 6(1): 22–30. Available from: https://culturehealth.org/ijsa_archive/ijsa.2023.1.7.pdf https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2023.1.7

  2018 – 2024 International Journal of Science Annals
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa