Palace, M, Szwejka, L, Kossowska, M, May, B, Tretyakova, Y, Karolczak, A, Strojny, P, Gurbisz, D, Besta, T, Cherkas, N, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz, B, Lee, S, Bokszczanin, A, Adams-Tukiendorf, M, Jiang, W and Suhirthi, A Does escaping a war zone feel worse than being there? War and coping by Ukrainian civilians in Ukraine and Poland. Psychological Trauma. ISSN 1942-9681 (Accepted)
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Does escaping a war zone feel worse than being there War and coping by Ukrainian civilians in Ukraine and Poland.pdf - Accepted Version Download (502kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Objective: While the factors facilitating and compromising stress-coping by civilians in an active war zone and those who have fled it are critical to the experiences of trauma, they are under-explored, which the current paper aims to address. Method: Between March 23rd and May 15th of 2023, 122 Ukraine-based and 132 Poland-based Ukrainian participants completed a survey measuring different aspects of trauma, social beliefs and coping. Results: Compared to the war zone civilians, the Poland-based refugees scored significantly higher in terms of general war repercussions, peritraumatic experiences, PTSD symptoms, loneliness, anxiety about the loved ones and chemical/biological/missile/drone attack anxiety. While no differences between them were found in terms of other factors, regression and SEM analyses suggests that the general well-being was compromised in both samples by lower sensation-seeking, higher loneliness, higher fantasy-proneness, lower expected support from the West, and higher expected Chinese and Iranian support for Russia. Religiosity did not play a role. Conclusions: While the role of perceived social support (at the levels of friends and family) turned out to be limited, the (broader) expected support (from the West) played a more significant role. Additionally, our exploratory Civilian War Trauma Structural Equation Model suggests that anxiety interacts with the individual's overall vulnerability, thus exacerbating the psychological impact of war.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | ©American Psychological Association, 2025. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | 1701 Psychology; 5201 Applied and developmental psychology; 5202 Biological psychology; 5203 Clinical and health psychology |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
Divisions: | Psychology (from Sep 2019) |
Publisher: | American Psychological Association |
SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 25 Mar 2025 10:11 |
Last Modified: | 25 Mar 2025 10:15 |
URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25983 |
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