Background War-related stressors may differentially affect individuals who remain in a war zone versus those living abroad. Distinguishing these impacts is essential for understanding trauma responses among the war-affected population.Aims To compare post-traumatic stress, moral injury, core-belief disruption, and post-traumatic growth and depreciation among Ukrainians living inside versus outside Ukraine during the war.Methods A cross-sectional propensity score–matched design was used among 7,065 war-affected participants; 287 lived abroad. Strong measurement invariance was confirmed. Propensity scores were based on gender, age, education, and war-exposure indicators. One-to-one matching yielded 235 pairs (/ = 470), with all standardized mean differences <0.10. Outcomes included PTSD symptoms, post-traumatic growth and depreciation, moral injury, and core-belief disruption. MANOVAs and follow-up ANOVAs with Benjamini–Hochberg correction were applied.Results Participants abroad reported higher all PTSD symptom clusters, greater total severity, and substantially higher rates of probable PTSD (PCL-5 ≥ 33). Total post-traumatic growth was similar across groups, though “new possibilities” was slightly higher abroad. All depreciation domains, moral-injury shame and trust, and core-belief disruption were significantly elevated among participants abroad.Conclusions Living abroad during an ongoing war is associated with higher distress, more depreciation, and greater disruptions in moral and belief systems, despite physical distance.
Mezhenska et al. (Tue,) studied this question.