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Bilewicz M, Babińska M, Gromova A. High rates of probable PTSD among Ukrainian war refugees: the role of intolerance of uncertainty, loss of control and subsequent discrimination. Eur J Psychotraumatol 2024; 15:2394296. [PMID: 39355973 PMCID: PMC11448335 DOI: 10.1080/20008066.2024.2394296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2024] [Revised: 07/25/2024] [Accepted: 08/05/2024] [Indexed: 10/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Background: Intolerance of uncertainty is a well-known predictor of post-traumatic stress symptoms following a traumatic event. At the same time, it is relatively unknown whether intolerance of uncertainty amplifies the effects of other adverse life events on PTSD symptoms among traumatized individuals.Objective: This article addresses this problem in a study of Ukrainian war refugees' experiences with post-migration discrimination and powerlessness (loss of control).Method: 4972 forced immigrants from Ukraine took part in the study (90.2% women, Mage = 40.4, SD = 12.5) completing the PTSD-8 scale, measures of post-migration discrimination and loss of control experiences, and intolerance of uncertainty.Results: Almost half of respondents (47.5%) have probable PTSD. Regression analysis confirmed that war-related experiences, as well as intolerance of uncertainty, post-migration loss of control and experiences of discrimination were significant predictors of self-reported PTSD symptoms. Also, intolerance of uncertainty weakly moderated the effects of experienced discrimination and control deprivation on self-reported PTSD symptoms, so that the effects of adverse post-migration experiences were more pronounced among individuals high in intolerance of uncertainty.Conclusions: Understanding the effect of post-migration experiences on war refugees' mental health is crucial for developing improved acculturation policies and fostering a supportive environment for forced migrants.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Maria Babińska
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Anna Gromova
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
- Institute of Social and Political Psychology, Kyiv, Ukraine
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Cosic K, Kopilas V, Jovanovic T. War, emotions, mental health, and artificial intelligence. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1394045. [PMID: 39156807 PMCID: PMC11327060 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 07/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/20/2024] Open
Abstract
During the war time dysregulation of negative emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, frustration, sadness, humiliation, and hopelessness can overrule normal societal values, culture, and endanger global peace and security, and mental health in affected societies. Therefore, it is understandable that the range and power of negative emotions may play important roles in consideration of human behavior in any armed conflict. The estimation and assessment of dominant negative emotions during war time are crucial but are challenged by the complexity of emotions' neuro-psycho-physiology. Currently available natural language processing (NLP) tools have comprehensive computational methods to analyze and understand the emotional content of related textual data in war-inflicted societies. Innovative AI-driven technologies incorporating machine learning, neuro-linguistic programming, cloud infrastructure, and novel digital therapeutic tools and applications present an immense potential to enhance mental health care worldwide. This advancement could make mental health services more cost-effective and readily accessible. Due to the inadequate number of psychiatrists and limited psychiatric resources in coping with mental health consequences of war and traumas, new digital therapeutic wearable devices supported by AI tools and means might be promising approach in psychiatry of future. Transformation of negative dominant emotional maps might be undertaken by the simultaneous combination of online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on individual level, as well as usage of emotionally based strategic communications (EBSC) on a public level. The proposed positive emotional transformation by means of CBT and EBSC may provide important leverage in efforts to protect mental health of civil population in war-inflicted societies. AI-based tools that can be applied in design of EBSC stimuli, like Open AI Chat GPT or Google Gemini may have great potential to significantly enhance emotionally based strategic communications by more comprehensive understanding of semantic and linguistic analysis of available text datasets of war-traumatized society. Human in the loop enhanced by Chat GPT and Gemini can aid in design and development of emotionally annotated messages that resonate among targeted population, amplifying the impact of strategic communications in shaping human dominant emotional maps into a more positive by CBT and EBCS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kresimir Cosic
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Vanja Kopilas
- University of Zagreb Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Tanja Jovanovic
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States
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Walkowska A, Przymuszała P, Marciniak-Stępak P, Nowosadko M, Baum E. "To be culturally competent is to be willing to learn about the differences and to acknowledge them"- a qualitative study on Polish medical students' attitudes towards cross-cultural competence development. BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION 2024; 24:833. [PMID: 39090655 PMCID: PMC11295578 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-024-05830-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/29/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Changes in Polish demographic data with a growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse patients stipulate new directions in medical education to prepare future physicians to work effectively across cultures. However, little is known about Polish medical students' willingness to gain cross-cultural knowledge and skills, desire to get engaged in interactions with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, expectations and needs concerning cross-cultural training as well as challenges they face in the path to cultural competence. METHODS Therefore, in this study, we conducted and thematically analysed fifteen semi-structured interviews with medical students to broaden our understanding of medical students' perception of cross-cultural competence enhancement. RESULTS The conducted thematic analysis allowed for the development of four themes, which showed that Polish medical students perceived skills and knowledge necessary to facilitate culturally congruent care as indispensable to form quality patient-doctor relations, believed that lack of cultural sensitivity may lead to dangerous stereotype formation and insufficient competence may be the source of stress and anxiety resulting in confusion and lack of confidence. Finally, numerous suggestions have been made by participants on how to improve their cross-cultural competence. Students emphasized, however, the role of medical education with active and experiential learning methods, including simulation-based training, in the process of equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide best quality care to culturally diverse patients. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis indicated that Polish medical students seem to hold positive attitudes towards cultural competence development and view it as an important component of physician professionalism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandra Walkowska
- Centre for Foreign Language Tuition, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, 60-801, Poland
| | - Piotr Przymuszała
- Department of Medical Education, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 7 Rokietnicka St, Poznan, 60-806, Poland.
| | | | - Maria Nowosadko
- Centre for Foreign Language Tuition, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, 60-801, Poland
| | - Ewa Baum
- Department of Social Sciences and the Humanities, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, 60-806, Poland
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Nowakowska I, Pozzi M. Volunteering intentions during social crises: The role of considering the welfare of others and consequences of own behavior. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2024; 246:104289. [PMID: 38670039 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
In the current paper, we investigate how people with experience with volunteering in their lifetime intend to engage in hypothetical crisis volunteering in the future. We took into account two types of hypothetical social crises: a pandemic and a refugee crisis. We suggest that individual differences in considering the welfare of others (social value orientation) and consideration of future/immediate consequences play a role in the volunteer responses to crises. We also control for the willingness to volunteer in the proximal (a month) and distal (3 years) future, gender, age, and length of volunteer experience. We conducted two survey-based online studies in October 2023. We recruited N = 287 people for Study 1 (Poland) and N = 231 for Study 2 (Italy). Our results suggested that people who declare they want to remain volunteers intend to engage during social crises, but not necessarily in a proactive way. Furthermore, consideration of future consequences can result in proactivity, which was especially visible in the Italian sample. Consideration of immediate consequences can have twofold correlates - one might be the engagement in volunteering in case of a sudden emergency or refraining from the voluntary activity. These results can be used by people leading volunteer activities to predict what to expect from their volunteers and plan the volunteer recruitment and retention processes during crises.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iwona Nowakowska
- The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Institute of Psychology, Poland
| | - Maura Pozzi
- Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Department of Psychology, Italy; Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Brescia, CERISVICO Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life, Italy
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Koubová A, Kimhi S. Prediction of individual, community and societal resilience in the Czech Republic compared to Slovakia during the war in Ukraine. BMC Public Health 2024; 24:583. [PMID: 38395773 PMCID: PMC10885445 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-18075-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The present study examines, as research questions, which and to what extent psychological and demographic variables significantly predict individual, community, and societal resilience among a sample of Czech Republic adults (N = 1,100) six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The research tools included the following scales: Societal, community, and individual resilience; hope, well-being; morale; distress symptoms; a sense of danger; and perceived threats. The results indicated the following: (a) Correlation analysis shows that resilience is significantly and positively correlated with supporting coping factors and significantly and negatively correlated with suppressing coping factors. (b) A comparison of supporting coping indicators (hope, well-being, and morale) and suppressing coping indicators (distress symptoms, sense of danger, and perceived threats) in the Czech Republic with those variables in Slovakia and Israel indicated that Israel reported higher resilience, higher supporting coping indicators, and lower suppressing coping factors. Three-path analysis among the Czech sample indicated that the best predictor of SR was the level of hope, the best predictor of CR was morale, and the best predictor of IR was the sense of danger. In an attempt to explain these findings in the discussion section, we refer to the background of Czech society and a possible connection to the findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Koubová
- Institute of Philosophy , Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
| | - Shaul Kimhi
- Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Israel School of Public Health, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Nowakowska I. People act when they feel obliged. Prosocial intentions toward Ukrainian refugees in Poland during the first two weeks of the war in Ukraine. CURRENT ISSUES IN PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY 2024; 12:217-224. [PMID: 39184904 PMCID: PMC11339850 DOI: 10.5114/cipp/177007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In February 2022, Poland became one of the most engaged countries in accepting Ukrainian refugees. Based on the norm activation model, the study, performed during the first two weeks of the war, examined the prosocial intentions of Poles toward Ukrainians in relation to the individualizing moral foundations (harm/care and fairness/reciprocity), as well as beliefs about the obligation of individual citizens to help. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE The study was designed to investigate the views of Poles on helping Ukrainians in times of tension. On the second day of data collection, the war in Ukraine began. Therefore, the study shows the intentions of Poles to help refugees from Ukraine in the first days of full-scale war. A total of 139 people aged 18-71 years from the general public participated (102 females) in an online survey distributed through social media channels. RESULTS The results show that individual obligation belief fully mediates the effect of individualizing moral foundations on prosocial behavior intentions. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results, it could be concluded that during a refugee crisis, in line with the norm activation model, highlighting the personal obligation to provide support can be important to motivate people to help others in need. The effect of a sense of personal obligation is more important than the effect of an underlying individualizing morality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iwona Nowakowska
- Institute of Psychology, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland
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Chudzicka-Czupała A, Chiang SK, Tan CM, Hapon N, Żywiołek-Szeja M, Karamushka L, Paliga M, Dubniak Z, McIntyre RS, Ho R. Association between mental health, psychological characteristics, and motivational functions of volunteerism among Polish and Ukrainian volunteers during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20725. [PMID: 38007575 PMCID: PMC10676412 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47840-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The Russo-Ukrainian War has led to a humanitarian crisis, and many people volunteered to help affected refugees. This cross-sectional survey study investigates the relationships between the psychological impact of participation, coping mechanisms, and motivational functions of volunteering during the Russo-Ukrainian War among 285 Ukrainian and 435 Polish volunteers (N = 720). Multivariate linear regression was used to examine relationships between motivational functions and psychosocial and demographic characteristics. Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher Hyperarousal and Avoidance, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress, Problem-focused, Emotion-focused, and Avoidant coping, as well as total scores of Hardiness and Psychological Capital than Polish counterparts. Linear regression analysis found that Impact of the Event Scale results, Coping with Stress, being a female, unemployed, and religious were significantly associated with higher motivational functions. Ukrainian volunteers could significantly reduce negative feelings and strengthen social networks and religious faith by volunteering, while Polish volunteers were significantly more likely to gain skills and psychosocial development from helping others.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Soon-Kiat Chiang
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Clara M Tan
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Nadiya Hapon
- Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine
| | - Marta Żywiołek-Szeja
- Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University, Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815, Warsaw, Poland.
| | - Liudmyla Karamushka
- G. S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
| | - Mateusz Paliga
- Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
| | - Zlatyslav Dubniak
- Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine
| | - Roger S McIntyre
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Roger Ho
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Institute for Health Innovation and Technology (iHealthtech), National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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Zimba O, Gasparyan AY. Refugee Health: A Global and Multidisciplinary Challenge. J Korean Med Sci 2023; 38:e60. [PMID: 36786089 PMCID: PMC9925328 DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2023.38.e60] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The ongoing war and evolving humanitarian crisis in Ukraine have forced millions of women, children, and elderly people to flee the war zones and relocate across Poland, other European countries, and elsewhere in the world. As a result, numerous health issues have emerged in the host countries, ranging from the refugees' low immunization coverage to psychological distress and multimorbidities. Humanitarian support and multidisciplinary approach to the issues may help to improve the refugees' health and well-being. Involving relocated medics in rehabilitation and medical care of their compatriots may offer psychosocial and health benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olena Zimba
- Department of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology, University Hospital in Krakow, Krakow, Poland
- National Institute of Geriatrics, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Warsaw, Poland
- Department of Internal Medicine N2, Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine.
| | - Armen Yuri Gasparyan
- Departments of Rheumatology and Research and Development, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching Trust of the University of Birmingham, UK), Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, UK
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