Academic staff have long faced chronic occupational stress, but armed conflict significantly amplifies psychological risks. While student mental health has been widely studied, little is known about academic staff, particularly in wartime settings. This study examines depression and symptom‐attributed functional difficulty among 429 Ukrainian academic staff during the ongoing full‐scale war. In a cross‐sectional online survey conducted between December 2023 and February 2024, we used the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ‐9) to assess depressive symptoms. Nearly one‐third of participants reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms, with 28% experiencing high symptom severity. Symptom‐attributed functional interference was common and increased monotonically with depressive symptom severity. Men reported higher depression scores, while women were more represented in the highest categories of symptom‐attributed functional difficulty. Participants from relocated universities reported lower depression scores, suggesting a potentially protective role of institutional responsiveness. Migration was positively associated with psychological distress, although patterns varied by displacement experience. These findings underscore the significant mental health burden facing academic staff in conflict zones and highlight the importance of context‐sensitive institutional support. Proactive strategies, particularly in adaptive academic environments, may help mitigate distress. Future longitudinal and mixed‐methods research is needed to explore the long‐term impacts of war on academic well‐being and inform sustainable mental health interventions in higher education.
Tsybuliak et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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