Anxiety and watching the war in Ukraine.

Publisher: Wiley Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0107305 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1464-066X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00207594 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2014- : Chichester : Wiley
Original Publication: 1966-<1978>: Paris : Dunod

Anxiety*/epidemiology ; COVID-19*/epidemiology; Male ; Female ; Humans ; Ukraine/epidemiology ; Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology ; Europe

On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. Millions of people tuned into social media to watch the war. Media exposure to disasters and large-scale violence can precipitate anxiety resulting in intrusive thoughts. This research investigates factors related to anxiety while watching the war. Since the war began during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, threat from COVID-19 is seen as a predictor of anxiety when watching the war. A theoretical model is put forward where the outcome was anxiety when watching the war, and predictors were self-reported interference of watching the war with one's studies or work, gender, worry about the war, self-efficacy and coronavirus threat. Data were collected online with independent samples of university students from two European countries close to Ukraine, Germany (n = 348) and Finland (n = 228), who filled out an anonymous questionnaire. Path analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings showed that the model was an acceptable fit to the data in each sample, and standardised regression coefficients indicated that anxiety, when watching the war, increased with interference, war worry and coronavirus threat, and decreased with self-efficacy. Women reported more anxiety when watching the war than men. Implications of the results are discussed.
(© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Union of Psychological Science.)

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Certificate #:e2022-082 Faculty of Health, York University

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Self-efficacy; Watching the war

Date Created: 20231228 Date Completed: 20240319 Latest Revision: 20240319

20250114

10.1002/ijop.13099

38152950