States of stress among the population of Ukraine in the context of the war

Serhii Dembitskyi, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine and head of the research project «States of stress among the population of Ukraine in the context of the war» (funded by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), has presented the findings of a nationwide survey by the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine (October 2023).

Methodology of the study: the survey was conducted by the Rating Sociological Group at the request of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine across the whole of Ukraine (apart from the occupied territories of Crimea and the Donbas) on 6–10 October 2023. Survey design: mixed mode, using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) to recruit respondents and Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) for respondents' answers to the main block of the questionnaire. The sample used for the final analysis includes 2,767 respondents and represents residents of Ukraine aged 18 to 69 who use a smartphone (approximately – 74% of Ukraine's adult population). The sample does not include Ukrainians who are currently outside Ukraine. The margin of error at a confidence level of 0.95 and taking the design effect into account is ±2.1%. The response rate is – 9.5%.

The following was established:

• Because of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the number of those with experience of being in a combat zone has grown from 18% to 44%.

• Taking prevalence and negative psychological effect into account, the ranking of stressors is as follows (from the heaviest to the lightest): traumatic experience in the form of difficult memories; stressors of social interaction (conflicts, insufficient support, discrimination) and of one's own actions; a worsening of living conditions; health problems; and the threat to life as a possibility conditioned by the war.

• The most important resources for countering stress are communication in matters outside one's main work, leisure and work. While interaction with those close to one is indeed satisfied at the necessary level among most of the population, the need for leisure and work is satisfied far less well.

• As for individual psychological resources, the strongest of them are general activity (in work and social life) and optimism. The situation is considerably worse with emotional stability and the sense of being in control of the situation.

• In terms of the level of psychological distress*, the current situation is comparable with the second half of 2020, when Ukraine's population was awaiting another wave of coronavirus. About 69% of respondents display a normal level of psychological distress, 21% a heightened level and 10% a high level. This allows the supposition that, thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine preserving a substantial part of Ukrainians' social area of existence, most of the population have sufficient resources of psychological recovery and protection from the heaviest stressors of the war.

• By prevalence, particular states of stress may be ordered as follows (from the least to the most widespread): hostility as impulsiveness and aggression; depression as dejection and melancholy; somatisation as bodily discomfort; interpersonal sensitivity as low self-esteem and vulnerability; anxiety as tension, fear and bad presentiments; exhaustion as a decline in physical and mental capacities; paranoid ideation as suspicion, distrust and blaming others.

• The main consequences of psychological states of stress under war conditions are value deprivation** in such spheres as leisure, physical health and wealth. The three value pillars on which individual life now rests, by contrast, are interpersonal relations, morality and knowledge.

* Psychological distress – a unique emotionally uncomfortable state that an individual experiences in response to specific stressors or a strong need for something and which leads to temporary or permanent negative consequences.

** Deprivation (from the English deprivation) — a mental state in which a subject is unable to satisfy some of their basic (vital) psychological needs sufficiently over a long period.

For more detail see the presentation: https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%86_%D1%8F-%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2_-%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8-fin.pdf