THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND SOME INDICATORS OF THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION IN WAR CONDITIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.n3.4671Palabras clave:
Education, Level of Education, Participants in the Educational Process, Mental Health, Uncertainty, War Conditions, Subjective Well-being, Psychological Well-beingResumen
The article is devoted to studying the relationship between education and the state of the population’s mental health in wartime. Referencing the results of studies conducted by foreign and Ukrainian scientists, the authors note that in EU countries the level of education is associated with the content of work, the nature of employment, professional status and prestige, as well as with the level of wealth. Thus, people with a higher educational attainment have more prestigious jobs and higher incomes, which, firstly, create conditions for well-being and, secondly, provide wide access to mental health resources and professional help. It is emphasized that in Ukraine there is no stable relationship between the level of education, the prestige of work, and the level of wages, and therefore the level of education cannot be considered a determinant of mental health. Instead, involvement in the educational process forms strong social networks and coping skills and can be a resource, increasing the level of psychological and social resilience. The article considers the results of a study conducted by the Department of Sociology and Psychology at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, devoted to monitoring the mental health of the population of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region during the period of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine (two waves of the study in 2023 and 2024; n = 730 and n = 543, respectively). We conducted a secondary analysis of the second wave data aimed at identifying the relationship between education and mental health indicators. The results of the analysis proved that, in wartime, a high level of education is not a guarantee of mental health. In addition, Ukrainian realities are such that neither the level of education nor the stability of employment determine the level of material security. At the same time, we note that continuous involvement in education does have a positive effect on mental health and is an important factor in the psychological resilience and subjective well-being of participants in the educational process.
Citas
[1] Addison, C., Campbell-Jenkns, B., Sarpong, D., Kibler, J., Singh, M., Dubbert, P. (2007). Psychometric evaluation of Coping Strategies Inventory Short-Form (CSI-SF). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 4(4), 289–295. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph200704040004
[2] Atrooz, F., Khabour, O.F., Almomani, F., Aljararwah, S., Alfurjani, B.H., Salim, S. (2024). Education and socioeconomic status as predictors of refugee mental health: insights from a study of Jordan-based Syrian refugee sample. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1432205. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1432205
[3] Bauldry, S. (2015). Variation in the protective effect of higher education against depression. Society and Mental Health, 5(2). 145–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869314564399
[4] Betancourt, Th., Keegan, K., Farrar, J., Brennan, R. (2020). The intergenerational impact of war on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing: lessons from the longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone. Conflict and Health, 14, 62. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-020-00308-7
[5] Bloom, D. E., Cafiero, E., Jané-Llopis, E., Abrahams-Gessel, S., Bloom, L. R., Fathima, S., Feigl, A. B., Gaziano, T., Hamandi, A., Mowafi, M., Pandya, A., Prettner, K., Rosenberg, L., Seligman, B., Stein, A. Z., & Weinstein, C. (2011). The global economic burden of noncommunicable diseases. World Economic Forum.
[6] Carpiniello B. (2023). The Mental Health Costs of Armed Conflicts-A Review of Systematic Reviews Conducted on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and People Living in War Zones. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 2840. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20042840
[7] Chen, S., Rotenberg, S. & Kuper, H. (2025). Does war moderate the association between mental wellbeing and its predictors among children? A multi-country cross-sectional study. BMC Psychiatry, 25, 436. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-06795-3
[8] Cohen, A. K., Nussbaum, J., Weintraub, M. L. R., Nichols, C. R., Yen, I. H. (2020). Association of adult depression with educational attainment, aspirations, and expectations. Prevention of Chronic Diseases, 17, 200098. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.200098
[9] Concept for the development of mental health care in Ukraine for the period until 2030 (2017). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1018-2017-%D1%80#Text
[10] Frijters, P., Johnston, D. W., & Shields, M. A. (2014). The effect of mental health on employment: Evidence from Australian panel data. Health Economics, 23(9), 1058–1071. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3083
[11] Graham, C., Eggers, A., & Sukhtankar, S. (2004). Does happiness pay? An exploration based on panel data. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 3, 319–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-2681(04)00047-2
[12] Graham, C., & Pinto, S. (2019). Unequal hopes and lives in the USA: Optimism, race, place, and premature mortality. Journal of Population Economics, 32(2), 665–733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-018-0687-y
[13] Habib, M., Ciobanu, A., Al-Ani, M., Mottershead, R. (2025). Stigma in Mental Health: The Status and Future Direction. Cureus, 17(6), e85398. DOI 10.7759/cureus.85398
[14] Hobkirk, A. L., Towe, S. L., Lion, R., & Meade, C. S. (2015). Primary and secondary HIV prevention among persons with severe mental illness: Recent findings. Current HIV, 12(4), 406–412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-015-0294-4
[15] James, S. L. (2018). Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2017. The Lancet, 392(10159), 1789–1858. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32279-7
[16] Karagodina, O., Kovtun, O., Neduzhko, O., Filippovych, M., Dumchev, K. (2024). Kyiv: ICF “Alliance of Public Health”, 2024 Mental health of key groups: needs and opportunities for receiving appropriate services in the conditions of war against Ukraine: report on the results of the study. https://eiphp.org/28826/psykhichne-zdorov-ia-kliuchovykh-hrup-potreby-i-mozhlyvosti-otrymannia-vidpovidnykh-posluh-v-umovakh-vijny-v-ukraini/
[17] Karamushka L., Tereshchenko K., & Kredencer O. (2022). Adaptation of the methods “The Modified BBC Subjective Well-being Scale (BBC-SWB)” and “Positive Mental Health Scale (PMH-scale)” on a Ukrainian sample. Organizational Psychology. Economic Psychology, 3-4(27), 85–94.
[18] Kim, Y., & Cho, S (2020). Socioeconomic status, work-life conflict, and mental health. American Journal of Individual Medicine, 63(8), 703-712. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23118
[19] Kirkbride, J. B, Anglin, D. M, Colman, I, Dykxhoorn, J, Jones, P. B., Patalay, P., Pitman, A., Soneson, E., Steare, T., Wright, T., Griffiths, S. L. (2024). The social determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations. World Psychiatry, 23(1). 58-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21160
[20] Kokun, O. M. (2024). Diagnostics of professional resilience and psychophysiological resilience: methodological recommendations. Kyiv: Institute of Psychology named after G. S. Kostyuk, NAPS of Ukraine.
[21] Kondirolli, F., & Sunder, N. (2022). Mental health effects of education. Health Economics. Suppl 2, 22-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4565
[22] Koschorke, M., Padmavati, R., Kumar, S., Cohen, A., Weiss, H. A., Chatterjee, S., Pereira, J., Naik, S., John, S., Dabholkar, H., Balaji, M., Chavan, A., Varghese, M., Thara, R., Thornicroft, G., & Patel, V. (2014). Experiences of stigma and discrimination of people with schizophrenia in India. Social Science Medicine, 1982(123), 149–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.035
[23] Korda, M., Shulhai, A., Shevchuk, O., Shulhai, O., Shulhai, A. M. (2025). Psychological well-being and academic performance of Ukrainian medical students under the burden of war: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1457026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1457026
[24] Kravets, L., Siuta, G., Semashko, T., & Bobukh, N. (2023). Cognitive-assessment content of zoomorphic metaphors in contemporary ukrainian and english language culture a comparative aspect. World Journal of English Language, 13(6), 439. https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v13n6p439
[25] Leon-Giraldo, S. (2024). Inequalities in mental health between post-conflict recovery and pandemic-induced challenges in conflict-affected territories in Colombia. World Development Perspectives, 35, 100611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2024.100611
[26] Li, B., Allebeck, Р., Burstöm, В, Danielsson, А.-К., Degenhardt, L., Eikemo, T. A., Ferrari, А., Knudsen, А. К., Lundin, А., Manhica, Н., Newton, J., Whiteford, H., Flodin P., Sjöqvist, М., Agardh, E. E. (2023)., Educational level and the risk of mental disorders, substance use disorders and self‐harm in different age‐groups: A cohort study covering 1,6 million subjects in the Stockholm region. International Journal of Psychological Research, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.1964
[27] Lund, C., De Silva, M., Plagerson, S., Cooper, S., Chisholm, D., Das, J., Knapp, M., & Patel, V. (2011). Poverty and mental disorders: Breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet, 378(9801), 1502–1514. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60754-x
[28] Magakwe, T.S.S., John, E.E., Daniel-Nwosu, E. et al. (2025). Association between educational attainment and mental health conditions among Africans working and studying in selected African countries. Scientific Reports, 15, 20578. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05831-2
[29] Mascayano, F., Armijo, J. E., & Yang, L. H. (2015). Addressing stigma relating to mental illness in low- and middle-income countries. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00038
[30] Mayengo, N., Namusoke, J., Kibedi, H., & Amone-P’Olak, K. (2025). Education-to-Work Transition Among the Youth in Post-Conflict Settings: A Review of the Roles of Individual Agency, Mental Health, and Psychosocial Well-Being. Social Sciences, 14(7), 400. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14070400
[31] Nechitailo, I., & Alieva, A. (2025). Resilience of the educational system in conditions of global social upheavals: the ratio of centralization and autonomy (Ukrainian experience for Europe). Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2025.2462959
[32] Nechitailo, I., Boriushkina, O., Khomulenko, T., Kuznietsov, M., Fomenko, K., Nikitina, O. (2025). Features of adaptation of students to learning in war conditions: the role and significance of resilience and stress coping strategies (on the example of students from Kharkiv universities). International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 14(3), 72-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.14419/rr85p618
[33] Nechitailo, I. S. (2024). Adaptation of the Ukrainian version of the psychodiagnostic method “Questionnaire of neuropsychic tension”: assessment of internal consistency and construct validity. Scientific notes of the V. I. Verdnadsky Tavrichesky National University. Series: Psychology. 35(74), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.32782/2709-3093/2024.5/06
[34] Nechitаilо, I., Boriushkina, O., Ponomarenko, Ya. Tverdokhvalova, I., Yelchaninova, T., Kobeleva, D. (2024). Some indicators of students’ mental health in the conditions of war (on the example of the Kharkiv students during the full-scale military invasion of Russia into Ukraine). AD ALTA: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 14/02-XLIV, 25–35. https://www.magnanimitas.cz/ADALTA/140244/papers/A_05.pdf
[35] Oshodi, Y. O., Abdulmalik, J., Ola, B., James, B. O., Bonetto, C., Cristofalo, D., Bortel, T. V., Sartorius, N., & Thornicroft, G. (2014). Pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination among people with depression in Nigeria: A cross-sectional study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49(2), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0737-4
[36] Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(4), 789–822. https://doi.org/10.1086/681096
[37] Ozamiz-Etxebarria, N., de Azúa García, S., Gorrotxategi, M., Cornelius-White, J. (2022). Reducing stigma towards mental disorder in social education students through case studies and problem-based learning. Behavioral Psychology / Psicología Conductual, 30(2), 465-481. https://doi.org/10.51668/bp.8322208n
[38] Pan, J., Xu, T., & Li, D. (2025). The Relationship Between Mental Health Literacy and Social Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study in China. Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15010029
[39] Patel, V., Maj, M., Flisher, A. J., De Silva, M. J., Koschorke, M., Prince, M., Zonal, W. P. A., Riba, M., Sanchez, M., Campodonico, F. D., Risco, L., Gask, L., Wahlberg, H., Roca, M., Lecic-Tosevski, D., Soghoyan, A., Moussaoui, D., Baddoura, C., Adeyemi, J., & Richardson, G. (2010). Reducing the treatment gap for mental disorders: A WPA survey. World Psychiatry, 9(3), 169–176. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00305.x
[40] Patel, K., & Chaudhari, P. (2025). The Interconnection of Psychological Well-Being and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review. International Journal of Scientific Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2),10-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.32628/IJSRHSS25223
[41] Patria, B. (2022). The longitudinal effects of education on depression: Finding from the Indonesian national survey. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 1017995. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017995
[42] Rehm, J., & Shield, K. D. (2019). Global burden of disease and the impact of mental and addictive disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 21(2), 10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-019-0997-0
[43] Shibre, T., Negash, A., Kullgren, G., Kebede, D., Alem, A., Fekadu, A., Fekadu, D., Medhin, G., & Jacobsson, L. (2001). Perception of stigma among family members of individuals with schizophrenia and major affective disorders in rural Ethiopia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36(6), 299–303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001270170048
[44] Tolstoukhov, A., Lunov, V. (2023). Educational resilience in turmoil: psychological well-being and mental health among Ukrainian educational community during the Russo-Ukrainian war. SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4683791 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.468379 1
[45] Tsybuliak, N., Popova, A., Lopatina, H., Suchikova, Y. (2025). Mental health of Ukrainian researchers during wartime. Global Public Health, 20(1), 2495328. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2025.2495328
[46] Ukraine: First UNESCO workshop on school mental health (2023). https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ukraine-first-unesco-workshop-school-mental-health?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[47] Ukrainian Institute of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (n.d). PCL – PTSD Self-Rating Scale. https://surl.li/uszjci
[48] Wahlbeck, K., Westman, J., Nordentoft, M., Gissler, M., & Laursen, T. M. (2011). Outcomes of Nordic mental health systems: Life expectancy of patients with mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(6), 453-458. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.085100
Descargas
Publicado
Cómo citar
Número
Sección
Licencia
I (we) submit this article which is original and unpublished, of my (our) own authorship, to the evaluation of the Veredas do Direito Journal, and agree that the related copyrights will become exclusive property of the Journal, being prohibited any partial or total copy in any other part or other printed or online communication vehicle dissociated from the Veredas do Direito Journal, without the necessary and prior authorization that should be requested in writing to Editor in Chief. I (we) also declare that there is no conflict of interest between the articles theme, the author (s) and enterprises, institutions or individuals.
I (we) recognize that the Veredas do Direito Journal is licensed under a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE.
Licença Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
