Women’s reproductive health during wartime represents a multidimensional issue that requires an interdisciplinary approach. The war environment exacerbates the psychological and physical challenges women face, amplifying the need for psychological safety to support their reproductive health. This study presents a conceptual model of psychological support tailored to the unique needs of women during armed conflict.The objective: to develop a conceptual model of psychological support for fostering for women during armed conflict, particularly in the context of their reproductive health and sense of psychological safety.Materials and methods. An empirical study was conducted from May to November 2024 using an online survey. All participants provided informed consent to participate in the study, which ensured compliance with the necessary ethical standards. The empirical part of the study involved 624 women. The sample consisted of women living in their own homes in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Zakarpattia, Vinnytsia and Lviv regions of Ukraine, as well as women who were forcibly displaced and are in such European countries as Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia and Austria. The age of the study participants ranged from 22 to 45 years. 312 women lived in Ukraine at the time of the study, and another 312 women were abroad, which is 50%/50%. The majority of the participants in the total sample were young mothers. Among the women who remained in Ukraine, 60% were employed, while among those who were abroad at the time of the study, only 10% were working. The following methods were used: Maddi Resilience Scale; “Prognosis-2” methodology by Rybnikov for assessing nervous-psychic stability; Schubert’s risk-taking propensity scale; Rotter’s locus of control questionnaire; Janoff-Bulman’s basic beliefs scale; the “Psychological Safety Diagnostics” method. For statistical analysis, data processing was conducted using standard computer software packages, including the “Data Analysis” toolkit in Microsoft Excel for Windows 2007 and IBM SPSS software. The computed statistical parameters included the arithmetic mean (M), the standard error of the mean (m), and the level of significance for differences (p). The reliability of the obtained data was assessed using the Student’s t-test, with a significance level considered reliable at p ≤ 0.05 (95% confidence level). This integrated methodological and statistical approach ensured robust analysis and enhanced the reliability of the study’s findings. Statistical analysis, including the use of Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) and the Kruskal–Wallis test, was carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics. The qualitative component included semi-structured interviews to explore personal narratives and individual determinants of psychological safety.Results. The empirical analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in the overall sense of psychological safety between women who remained in Ukraine and those who migrated (p > 0.05). However, qualitative findings highlighted diverse personal and situational factors influencing psychological safety. The study identified three primary determinants: locus of control, psychological resilience, and risk acceptance. These findings were integrated into a conceptual model designed to enhance psychological safety and address women’s unique needs based on age, social categories, and wartime experiences.Conclusions. The proposed model of psychological support for women in wartime emphasizes restoring psychological safety through targeted interventions addressing personal determinants such as resilience, locus of control, and risk acceptance. Understanding reproductive health is considered as a continuation of the psycho-emotional state which is associated with a sense of psychological safety. The developed model is based on the results of an empirical study of the sense of psychological safety in women who remained in Ukraine and those who were forced to move to European countries. The main attention is paid to restoring the sense of psychological safety of women based on key personal determinants (locus of control, mental resilience, risk-taking). The need for interdisciplinary cooperation is emphasized – involving specialists from different fields to provide comprehensive assistance to women in preserving their reproductive health. The model emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary approach involving experts in psychology, health care and social services to provide comprehensive psychological assistance, including through online consultations, depending on the context and taking into account modern achievements. Further research should focus on women’s reproductive health during war, with an emphasis on examining the relationship between the sense of psychological safety and women’s reproductive health under war-induced stress.
Cherepiekhina et al. (Thu,) studied this question.