Analytical material by Ruslana Moskotina and Danyil Karakai: “It could have been worse: an analysis of changes in subjective well-being at the beginning of the invasion”

The website of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine has published an analytical material by Ruslana Moskotina (PhD; Research Fellow of the Sector of Sociological Monitoring of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine; researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research of KSE University) and Danyil Karakai (head of the Centre for Sociological Research of KSE University; postgraduate student of the Faculty of Sociology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), "It could have been worse: an analysis of changes in subjective well-being at the beginning of the invasion"

In this material we look at how Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine affects subjective well-being.

Subjective well-being characterises how a person assesses their life; this assessment includes a cognitive and an affective component. The cognitive component reflects what a person thinks about their life, and the affective one what they feel. The cognitive component is often assessed through a question about a person's satisfaction with life as a whole, and the affective one by asking how happy they are. Life satisfaction and happiness correlate substantially with each other and are often treated in research as interchangeable. That, however, can hardly be called a good decision. Different factors may affect life satisfaction and the level of happiness differently. Life satisfaction is more closely connected with what characterises stability in a person's life, and happiness with what concerns a person's health or relations with others. It therefore makes sense to study the effect of the war on each of these components of subjective well-being separately.

The full material is here