- Бялонович, С.В. (orcid.org/0009-0007-6407-1157) (2026) Features of the Impact of Daily War Stressors on the Mental Health of the Civilian Population Doctoral thesis, Інститут соціальної та політичної психології.
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Abstract
Bialonovych S. V. Features of the Impact of Daily War Stressors on the Mental Health of the Civilian Population. – Qualifying scholarly work, manuscript. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in specialty 053 – Psychology. Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2025. The dissertation provides a theoretical synthesis and an empirical analysis of the impact of daily war stressors on the mental health of the civilian population of Ukraine under conditions of prolonged uncertainty and social threats. It is demonstrated that, alongside directly traumatic events, everyday (cumulative) stress acquires a system-forming significance-both direct (reports of shelling, threats to life, destruction of housing) and indirect (forced displacement, isolation, disruption of social ties, economic instability). Their combined effects create an environment of chronic distress and determine the long-term dynamics of mental health, which necessitates holistic models for its assessment and support. The study substantiates the need to develop instruments for measuring daily war stressors and outlines approaches to analyzing their impact on mental health vectors among civilians who did not directly participate in hostilities. The topic of the dissertation is closely related to the research agenda of the Department of Psychology of Political and Legal Relations at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, within the framework of the research project “Psychological Factors of the Readiness of Individual and Collective Actors for Constructive Behavior in Emergency Situations” (2020–2022), state registration number 0120U000157. The object of the study is the mental health of the civilian population of Ukraine under conditions of war. The subject of the study is the features of the impact of daily war stressors on the mental health of the civilian population. The aim of the study is to examine the characteristics of the impact of daily war stressors on civilian mental health in order to establish a theoretical basis for developing effective practices of psychological assistance, psychoprevention, and rehabilitation. This approach makes it possible not only to delineate the risks and consequences of war-related stressors, but also to identify pathways for maintaining psychological resilience and adaptation among different social groups in crisis conditions. he relevance of the study is determined by the fact that prolonged war creates a complex living environment in which daily stressors accumulate and gradually transform individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns-from strategic planning and creativity to meaning-making and prosocial activity. Of particular significance is the disruption or transformation of established social practices (family rituals, educational and work processes, civic engagement, and everyday mobility), as these practices serve as key mechanisms through which war mediates its impact on mental health. In this context, the distinction between direct and indirect stressors is explained by differing degrees of disruption to social practices: direct stressors are associated with immediate physical impacts (shelling, injury, destruction of housing), whereas indirect stressors arise as consequences of destroyed or radically altered structures of everyday life (forced displacement, isolation, unemployment, and disruption of social ties). The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is grounded in concepts of daily stress and allostatic load, ecological models of resilience, contemporary psychosocial approaches to adaptation in prolonged crises, as well as the analysis of everyday socio-psychological practices as an explanatory basis for distinguishing between direct and indirect stressors. Two main instruments were employed in the study. The first was the adapted methodology “Individual Model of Psychological Health” (A. Kozlov), which enabled the assessment of mental health vectors (family, spiritual, strategic, intellectual, creative, prosocial, humanitarian, and the self-vector). The adaptation procedure took into account cultural specificities and contemporary psychometric standards. The second instrument was the author-developed “Ukrainian Daily War Stressors Scale,” designed to measure the intensity of stress exposures across two subscales: direct and indirect stressors. The initial pool of 34 items was generated through content analysis of life domains and subsequently underwent expert evaluation. A pilot study (n = 43) confirmed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α: direct = 0.841; indirect = 0.894) and criterion validity through correlations with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) (ρ = 0.323 and ρ = 0.366; p < 0.005). The PSS-10 was used exclusively at the scale validation stage and was not included in the subsequent empirical study. The empirical component of the research was conducted in two stages: a pilot stage and a main stage. The first sample included 364 respondents, quota-sampled by region (approximately equal subsamples from the north, south, west, east, and the city of Kyiv), with a predominance of women; age groups were up to 24 years, 25–44 years, and 45+. The second (main) sample comprised 936 respondents, also regionally quota-sampled, ensuring group comparability and geographical representativeness. The operationalization and validation of the Ukrainian Daily War Stressors Scale confirmed its two-factor structure, distinguishing direct and indirect stressor components (with expected cross-loadings of individual items), which corresponds to the theoretical model and supports the validity of the selected structure for further analysis. The results indicate that daily war-related stress exerts a systemic impact on mental health vectors, with a heterogeneous and, in some cases, non-linear structure of effects. The strategic vector shows a pronounced decline with increasing integral stress levels (F(2, 879) = 4.883; p = 0.008; η² = 0.011), reflecting a narrowing of planning horizons, weakening of long-term goal-setting activity, and reduced capacity to maintain a strategic cognitive framework under conditions of uncertainty. Significant effects were also identified for direct stressors (F(1, 746) = 4.253; p = 0.040), while the interaction between direct and indirect factors confirms their cumulative impact (F(1, 746) = 5.716; p = 0.017). In response to indirect stressors, the prosocial vector demonstrates a statistically significant increase (F(1, 746) = 6.019; p = 0.014), indicating social mobilization and the reallocation of resources toward mutual aid, volunteering, and horizontal cohesion. The intellectual vector exhibits a specific dynamic: as indirect stressors increase, a statistically significant rise in scores is observed (F(1, 746) = 8.778; p = 0.003). This reflects the mobilization of cognitive strategies for orientation in an unstable reality and the activation of intellectual resources against the backdrop of depleted strategic thinking. Polynomial contrasts and interaction analyses confirmed the presence of both linear and quadratic trends, consistent with models of “adaptive plateaus” and “breakpoints” under conditions of chronic stress. Cluster analysis made it possible to identify three typical configurations of adaptive responses: existential mobilization-a combination of high meaning–value and family–spiritual resources with elevated stress levels; exhausted adaptation-a decline in most vectors against the background of cumulative stress; and productive engagement-the preservation of functional resources and social activity at moderate levels of stressors. These configurations differ in vector profiles, the intensity of direct and indirect stressors, and the sets of activated coping strategies, thereby providing a basis for differentiated planning of psychological interventions. Scientific novelty of the study For the first time: – an empirically verified map of the impact of direct and indirect daily war stressors on the mental health vectors of the civilian population was constructed, revealing their systemic and multidimensional nature; – three typical configurations of adaptive responses to chronic war-related stress were identified-existential mobilization, exhausted adaptation, and productive engagement-reflecting different mechanisms of preservation and depletion of psychological resources among civilians; – the methodology “Individual Model of Psychological Health” (A. Kozlov) was translated and culturally adapted for the Ukrainian context, enabling its first application for a comprehensive assessment of the vector structure of mental health among populations living under conditions of war; – the Ukrainian Daily War Stressors Scale was developed and piloted, demonstrating a two-factor structure (direct and indirect stressors) with confirmed psychometric reliability and validity. Improved: – the methodological approach to studying mental health under chronic stress through the integration of mental health vector analysis, assessment of daily stressors, and clustering of adaptive configurations; – the understanding of interaction mechanisms between different types of stressors (direct and indirect) as determinants of the multidimensional dynamics of mental health. Deepened: – the conceptualization of mental health as a dynamic system regulated by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, and social vectors that are sensitive to daily stress exposures; – the understanding of functional and compensatory mechanisms through which intellectual and prosocial vectors can serve as stabilizers of mental state under elevated stress conditions. Expanded: – the conceptual framework of psychological resilience theory in the context of wartime events by introducing the category of daily war stressors as a distinct class of factors exerting chronic effects on mental health; – the scientific and practical foundations of differentiated psychological support for the civilian population through consideration of adaptive response configuration profiles. Practical significance of the dissertation results The findings of the dissertation expand the possibilities for diagnosis, prevention, and psychological support of the civilian population under conditions of war. The developed Ukrainian Daily War Stressors Scale can be used to screen levels of everyday stress in community, educational, military–civil, and medical–psychological settings. The adapted Individual Model of Psychological Health methodology makes it possible to assess structural changes in mental health vectors and to identify risk zones or resource domains in clients. The cluster-based typology of adaptive responses provides a practical foundation for the development of targeted psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational programs. The obtained data can be applied in designing programs of psychological assistance, burnout prevention, and resilience enhancement both for the civilian population and for professionals working in high-risk environments. The results of the study are appropriate for use in the development of courses and training programs in stress psychology, health psychology, and crisis psychology, as well as in academic disciplines such as Psychology of Traumatic Situations, Psychology of Resilience, and Psychological Rehabilitation for students majoring in specialty 053 – Psychology.
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