Peculiarities of the psychological state of internally displaced school-age children and adolescents in war conditions

Abstract

Since the war escalated on February 24^th, 2022, 1,148 children have been killed or injured, and nearly 5.9 million have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) according to UNICEF. The state of health of children who are IDPs requires the close attention of doctors and psychologists.

Purpose - to investigate the psychological and psycho-emotional state of schoolchildren and adolescents who are IDPs in the conditions of war in order to substantiate the strategy and tactics of the use of health-preserving technology.

Materials and methods. Psychological and psycho-emotional state of 1017 school-age children and adolescents who are IDPs aged 11-17 years and their parents (n=1231) who lived in Lviv and the Lviv region at the time of the study. In May 2022 anonymous questionnaire was conducted for them. The questionnaires were developed by the executors of the scientific research work «To study the age and gender characteristics of the predictors of the transformation of behavioral risk factors for the health of adolescents in the conditions of war».

Results. It was found that 53.9% of children were forced to be separated from their families, 21.3% were under shelling; 5.8±0.7% experienced the death of their relatives; 11.4±1.0% suffered from hunger, lack of drinking water and cold. One in three children felt helpless and despair, and one in five had panic attacks. At the same time, 85% of children believed that the horrors of war would end and everything would be fine. 23% of children experienced dizziness, headaches, heart palpitations, and abdominal pain when there was no reason for it. 26.5% of children sought medical help.

Conclusions. Almost a third of all interviewees had a constant feeling of anxiety, a fifth had panic attacks, a sense of danger, insecurity. Children had increased negative emotions compared to pre-war times. One third of the children’s mental health has deteriorated, but almost none of them have sought psychological support from specialists. Feelings of dizziness, headache, rapid heartbeat, abdominal pain, when there was no reason for this, were identified in every fifth child, which can be the basis for the formation of psychosomatic pathology. The factor that stabilized the psycho-emotional state of both children and their parents was the belief that the horrors of the war will end and everything will be fine, and almost 85% of the respondents answered this way. This indirectly indicates a sufficient potential for viability. The organization of a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychologists, doctors, and teachers is an actual form of medical and psychological assistance to school-age children and adolescents who are IDPs.

The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of all participating institutions. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies.

No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.