Impact of War on Ukrainian University Students and Personnel: Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

This study aims to discern significant shifts in the impact ofwar on university students and academic personnel, from thewar’s onset (March–April 2022) to eight months later(November–December 2022). Our research questions focus onthe individual experiences affected by warfare, changes inmental health status, and factors accounting for these observedchanges. This research is a repeated cross-sectional survey, con-ducted in two waves, in March and November 2022. Findingsrevealed a significant increase in the general fear of war(t(1018.4) = −9.79, p < .001), emotional and physiological reac-tions to war remained stable overall but escalated amongthose with relatives in the armed forces and decreased in sub-sets not experiencing significant shifts in well-being and emo-tional reactions to war. Burnout levels increased (t(723.2) =2.06, p = .040), but decreased among those reporting nochange in well-being due to the war. Results also reveal a sig-nificant increase in: being in blockade and/or under shelling(χ2(1) = 12.737, p < .001); lost (χ2(1) = 11.644, p < .001) anddead relatives (χ2(1) = 14.248, p < .001); worsening of chronicdiseases (χ2(1) = 11.838, p < .001); relatives in armed forces(χ2(1) = 889.360, p < .001). Conversely, resilience did not signifi-cantly increase, although a trend toward its improvement overtime was observed. Given the unpredictable and prolongednature of the conflict and changes in the impact of the war,our study shows that more regular follow-up studies areneeded.