The Impact of Russian Military Aggression on the Psychological Health of Ukrainian Youth

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on the main individual behavior problems of Ukrainian youth in the conditions of Russian political and military aggression since 2014. Research is aimed at issues of adaptation potential, social and psychological security, psychological health, and well-being of young people from all geographic regions of Ukraine. The concept of “socially determined coping constructs” is proposed and the influence of interpersonal behavior style on the resourcefulness and adaptive potential of youth in the conditions of military operations is determined. Prognostic indicators of young people’s experience of security in the conditions of an unpredictable long-term scenario of military aggression are concise. It has been proved that adaptation potential is a factor of preservation of psychological health that is methodologically considered within the paradigm of humanistic psychology within the range of the concept of resilience, psychological well-being, and personal maturity. Interpersonal behavior can be considered by us as a developed form of interaction of personal genesis and social induced predisposition of a certain objectified relation. Adaptation potential is determined as a social-psychological integral hierarchical-parity formation that ensures homeostasis of mature functioning of personality within the conditions of social stress induced by the activity of adaptation capabilities, their latency, timeliness, correspondence with subjective resources, and vectors of social actualization. There has been an empirical establishment of predictors determining the impact of special features of the style of interpersonal behavior on index of perceived stress, index of coping resources, positive attitude to others, autonomy, environment management, personal development, life goals, self-perception, psychological well-being, inclusion, control, risk acceptance, and resilience. The results of our research became the basis for determination of the phenomenon of interpersonal behavior as predictor of the triad: interpersonal communication, adaptation potential, and psychological health of youth.