ISSN 2520-6265 (print)
ISSN 2520-6273 (online)
AND COPING STRATEGIES DURING THE WAR
Authors:
A. B. Kovalenko, DSc.in Psychological Sciences, Professor,
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
ORCID: 0000-0001-6458-5325
Researcher ID: O-7330-2019
E-mail: akovalenko@knu.ua
A. V. Yermolenko, higher education student specialty C4 “Psychology”
Institute of Postgraduate Education
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
ORCID: 0009-0004-8952-3891
E-mail: alinka7777@meta.ua
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/upj.2025.2(24).4
Article Information
Issue: 2(24) 2025, pages: 73-98
Language: Ukrainian
Received: 10.10.2025
1st Revision: 16.10.2025
Accepted: 19.10.2025
The article analyses correlations between the civilian population’s posttraumatic growth and their coping strategies during the war. Posttraumatic growth is considered as a complex and multidimensional process that reflects positive personality changes developing after experienced traumatic events. Posttraumatic growth covers five main components: changed attitudes towards others, increased personal strength, seeing of new opportunities, increased value of life and spiritual changes. Each of these components changes more or less depending on individual experience, available resources and chosen coping strategies.
The performed empirical study showed that posttraumatic growth was not a direct consequence of trauma, but was associated with used coping strategies, searches for meaning and subjective meaning of experienced events. There were certain correlations between adaptive or avoidant coping strategies and posttraumatic growth, which indicated that the avoidance strategy was adaptive by its nature, respondents’ sense of control over a situation during the war was reduced and they were not able to fully influence events. Statistically significant differences were found between the studied indicators in men and women: traumatic events impacted more deeply on women, at the same time they had higher post-traumatic growth compared to men. This can be associated with women’s greater tendency to experience internal changes after traumatic events and to search for meaning for them. The degree of personal traumatization and probability of post-traumatic growth did not correlate. The performed regression analysis revealed that a higher level of self-distraction, frequent use of humour and search for meaning contributed to stronger post-traumatic growth. Gender also was a significant predictor, since the index of post-traumatic growth was significantly lower in men compared to women. The study results confirmed the important role of coping strategies in post-traumatic growth, which allowed us to consider them as a resource for personality development.
Key words: post-traumatic stress disorder, stress, coping strategies, post-traumatic growth, humour, search for meaning.
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