Scientific Reports (Apr 2024)
Coping and emotions of global higher education students to the Ukraine war worldwide
- Daniela Raccanello,
- Roberto Burro,
- Aleksander Aristovnik,
- Dejan Ravšelj,
- Lan Umek,
- Giada Vicentini,
- Rob Hall,
- Chiara Buizza,
- Muhammad Ayub Buzdar,
- Surobhi Chatterjee,
- Nicola Cucari,
- Beata Dobrowolska,
- Ana Teresa Ferreira-Oliveira,
- Thais França,
- Alberto Ghilardi,
- Fany Inasius,
- Sujita Kumar Kar,
- Konstantinos Karampelas,
- Andrii Kuzyshyn,
- Florin Lazăr,
- Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo,
- Maria Malliarou,
- Bertil P. Marques,
- Silvia Mariela Méndez-Prado,
- Cristina Mollica,
- Alka Obadić,
- Olawale Festus Olaniyan,
- Ana Sofia Rodrigues,
- Giulio Sbravati,
- Aleksandra Vasić,
- Ana-Maria Zamfir,
- Nina Tomaževič
Affiliations
- Daniela Raccanello
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona
- Roberto Burro
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona
- Aleksander Aristovnik
- Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana
- Dejan Ravšelj
- Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana
- Lan Umek
- Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana
- Giada Vicentini
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona
- Rob Hall
- Department of Psychology, Macquarie University
- Chiara Buizza
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia
- Muhammad Ayub Buzdar
- Department of Secondary Teacher Education, Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad
- Surobhi Chatterjee
- Department of Psychiatry, King George’s Medical University
- Nicola Cucari
- Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome
- Beata Dobrowolska
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin
- Ana Teresa Ferreira-Oliveira
- CISAS, Polytechnic Institute of Viana Do Castelo
- Thais França
- Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, Cies-Iscte
- Alberto Ghilardi
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia
- Fany Inasius
- School of Accounting, Bina Nusantara University
- Sujita Kumar Kar
- Department of Psychiatry, King George’s Medical University
- Konstantinos Karampelas
- Pedagogic Department of Elementary Education, University of the Aegean
- Andrii Kuzyshyn
- Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University
- Florin Lazăr
- Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest
- Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo
- Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Autonomous University of Chihuahua
- Maria Malliarou
- Department of Nursing, University of Thessaly
- Bertil P. Marques
- Institute of Engineering of Porto, P.PORTO-Polytechnic of Porto
- Silvia Mariela Méndez-Prado
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, ESPOL Polytechnic University
- Cristina Mollica
- Department of Statistical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome
- Alka Obadić
- Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb
- Olawale Festus Olaniyan
- School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of The Gambia
- Ana Sofia Rodrigues
- CISAS, Polytechnic Institute of Viana Do Castelo
- Giulio Sbravati
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia
- Aleksandra Vasić
- Faculty of Law, University of Niš
- Ana-Maria Zamfir
- National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection
- Nina Tomaževič
- Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-59009-3
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 11
Abstract
Abstract Trauma scientists have raised the alarm about the devastating consequences of the Ukraine war on mental health. We examined how higher education students—as indirect victims—coped with this conflict and how they emotionally reacted during 2022. We involved 2314 students from 16 countries through an online survey. A structural equation model indicated significant relations between war-related worry about military and macroeconomics domains and two coping strategies (opposition, support giving), in turn significantly linked with six emotions. The model was strongly invariant across gender, study field, and geographic area. The most frequent emotions were anger and anxiety, followed by two future-centred emotions (hopelessness and hope). Emotions were more frequent for females and students of the countries geographically close to the war region. Our findings call for evidence-based policy recommendations to be implemented by institutions to combat the negative short and long-term psychological sequelae of being witnesses of armed conflicts.
