Acceso usuarios
Yuriy Melnyk, Anatoliy Stadnik, Ulyana Mykhaylyshyn, Iryna Pypenko
War radically alters people’s mental health. The present study aimed to examine the impact of the war on the mental health of young students and to identify their mental disorders. The study was conducted among a sample of 269 respondents aged 20-35 (79.2% women). Respondents divided into two groups: those who had not left their usual place of residence (Ukraine without active hostilities) and those who had been temporarily displaced (in Ukraine and in European Union countries). The impact of war on students’ mental health as measured by the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHF-SF), Patient Health Questionnaire, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Significant negative correlations found between total MHC-SF, depression symptoms and anxiety disorders. Students who forced to move during the war found to have lower levels of mental health and its components (especially social) than students who did not move. A further breakdown of psychopathological symptoms showed that students who changed their place of residence during the war have symptoms of severe depression (8.3%), moderately severe depression (28.8%), and severe anxiety (19.7%), and need psychological support. The results showed that war is a powerful stressor that negatively affects the mental health of young students, and its influence is so strong that it manifests even in participants who were in safe environments abroad. Despite methodological limitations discussed, the data obtained can serve as a basis for the development and active implementation of psychological assistance and psychoprophylaxis measures, as well as for optimising the education of university students under war conditions
