Background: The Russo-Ukrainian War has resulted in massive social, economic, and psychological burdens worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the associations between time spent on the war-related news and psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the mediating effects of rumination on the associations in people residing in Poland and Ukraine.
Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 1438 internet users in Poland and Ukraine, and collected data on levels of rumination, psychological distress, and the amount of time spent on and sources of the news of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping methods was used to evaluate the mediation effect. Multivariate linear regression was used to identify predictive effect of the source of the war-related news on psychological distress and rumination.
Results: The results showed a mediating effect of rumination on the association between the amount of time spent on the war-related news and psychological distress among participants in Poland (β = 0.16, p < 0.001) and Ukraine (β = 0.15, p < 0.001). Approaching the news from television was associated with rumination (β = 0.607, p < 0.001) and PTSD symptoms in Poland (β = 2.475, p = 0.009), while approaching news from the internet was associated with rumination in Poland (β = 0.616, p = 0.001).
Conclusion: The study identified the mediating effect of rumination and the associations of approaching the war-related news from television and the internet with mental health.
This study explores the process of navigating instability arising from sudden, co-occurring crises in the 2020s. We focus on the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine on growing material and relational uncertainty and risk among Polish citizens, accumulating in the loss of ontological security. To showcase the practical and narrative presence of risk at the micro-level, we operationalize the broad theorization of risk society using the categorization of material, relational and subjective dimensions within the ‘unsettling events’ model proposed by Kilkey and Ryan. We reconceptualize the third pillar, positioning subjectivity as a meta-category. Moreover, we extend the application of the framework of unsettling events, treating the Polish situation as a case study for examining societies facing compounding catastrophes.The analyzed qualitative longitudinal data comprised 70 in-depth interviews about the pandemic and conducted with Polish young adults (ages 18–35) and their parents in 2021; and asynchronous responses from 43 study participants collected shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022. Considering intergenerational and temporal lens, we identify the dominant patterns of meaning that interviewees attributed to the pandemic and war, thereby revealing materialities of unsettlement, relational gains and losses, and the erosion of ontological security.
Fear of evaluation and a negative view of the self are the core aspects of social anxiety. Self-compassion and self-esteem are two distinct positive attitudes toward the self, which are positively related to each other, well-being and good psychological functioning. It is less clear, however, how they interplay in socially anxious individuals and if self-compassion may reduce the negative effect of low self-esteem on social anxiety. The current research aimed at evaluating the directional links between those constructs to check if self-compassion mediates the effect of self-esteem on social anxiety. In this study, 388 adult participants with elevated social anxiety completed measures of self-compassion, self-esteem and social anxiety. As expected, both self-esteem and self-compassion correlated negatively with social anxiety and positively with one another, with lower self-esteem being a stronger predictor of social anxiety. Importantly, self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety. These findings suggest that self-compassion partially explains the negative effects of deficits in self-esteem on social anxiety. Practical implications of the research are discussed.
Evaluation practice is vital for the accountability and learning of administrations implementing complex policies. This article explores the relationships between the structures of the evaluation systems and their functions. The findings are based on a comparative analysis of six national systems executing evaluation of the European Union Cohesion Policy. The study identifies three types of evaluation system structure: centralized with a single evaluation unit, decentralized with a coordinating body and decentralized without a coordinating body. These systems differ in terms of the thematic focus of evaluations and the targeted users. Decentralized systems focus on internal users of knowledge and produce mostly operational studies; their primary function is inward-oriented learning about smooth programme implementation. Centralized systems fulfil a more strategic function, recognizing the external audience and external accountability for effects.
