The Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has had a measurably greater impact on the mental health of people in Europe than the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 and the Corona lockdown in 2020. This is the result of a study by an international team of researchers led by psychologist Julian Scharbert and Mitja Back from the University of Münster. The result was published in the specialist magazine “Nature Communications”.
The start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine almost two years ago led to a widespread collective decline in well-being – regardless of the age, gender, political orientation or other characteristics of the people surveyed, the University of Münster announced the results.
People in Europe have lower well-being
The study, carried out from the end of 2021 to summer 2022, made it possible to examine daily mood trends in the weeks before the outbreak of war. “It is not normally possible to study such dramatic events in a precise time window at the same geographical latitude,” said Professor Back. The data is unique. The researchers focused on people in Europe and a two-month time frame around the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022.
The data used comes from the “Coping with Corona” project, which surveyed the well-being of people worldwide during the corona pandemic. Data was collected from October 2021 to August 2022 in collaboration with 50 scientists.
The result shows that people in Europe had a significantly lower level of well-being compared to the rest of the world. There was no direct connection between strong concern and active solidarity such as willingness to donate or participation in demonstrations. When the war in Ukraine had a particularly high profile on social media, there was, on average, poorer mental health among those surveyed.
“In addition to the obvious consequences of war such as escape or interrupted supply chains, there is a less obvious dimension: the impact of daily news and images on the psyche,” said Scharbert, according to the statement. “Our data suggests that political and social actors should also focus on mental health in times of crisis – especially of people who are already more vulnerable to stress.”
A note from the study authors: People in Ukraine and Russia are probably under greater psychological stress – however, no data is available for these countries.
