War trauma and strategies for coping with stress among Ukrainian refugees staying in Poland

The Russian military aggression against Ukraine resulted in a humanitarian crisis. There was a mass exodus of war refugees. More than 17 million people have left Ukraine since the war broke out. The refugees who came to Poland and other countries have experienced war trauma. The study aims to diagnose mental health disorders with the use of the RHS-15 scale. Yet another aim of the study is the observation of strategies for coping with stress. The CAWI on-line survey method was used to carry out the study. The research sample was selected using purposive sampling. The research sample consists of 737 respondents. The analysis of responses on the RHS-15 scale has shown that depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD were observed among 73% of respondents, whereas 66% of the respondents display psychological distress. The analyses have shown that higher levels of mental health disorders were observed among women and refugees who do not speak Polish. Younger respondents experienced a higher psychological distress. The results of the study also indicate that the refugees more often implemented problem-focused strategies. The analysis has shown that the respondents who followed active strategies scored the lowest on RHS-15. The emotion-focused strategies, such as praying, diverting attention by becoming involved in different activities or taking sedatives were not effective. The highest levels of disorders were present among the refugees who indicated resignation. The collected observations indicate that the main problem which might hinder their adaptation could be mental health issues, which in turn impact the general deterioration of health and the quality of life.