Since February 24th, 2022, millions of Ukrainians have sought refuge in other, mainly European countries. Hungary, after Poland, is the second largest host of Ukrainian refugees. Only a portion of them are asylum seekers (~11.0% in Poland and ~ 1.1% in Hungary). The aim of the study is to compare the integrative acculturation attitudes between the war refugees residing in the two European countries. The comparison takes into account both the suffering of posttraumatic stress symptoms and social support. It is the first comparative study of this kind pertaining to the Ukrainian refugees in European countries. The data were obtained by a survey method using the modified CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) technique. The data analyzed were collected between November 21st and December 20th, 2022 from 728 adult Ukrainian individuals who crossed the borders of Poland and Hungary after February 24th, 2022. The research results show that refugees in Poland perceive significantly more social support and show stronger integrative attitudes than refugees in Hungary. The two samples do not differ regarding the presence of posttraumatic stress. The integrative attitudes proved not to be linked to gender and age, but linked to the host country. Besides social support and the host country, posttraumatic stress also proved to be a significant predictor of integrative attitudes.

This study sought to investigate the risk factors of poor psychosomatic health among students during the quarantine of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted on-line, on a sample of 1978 respondents in Poland. The study was carried out towards the end of the summer 2020 semester. The questionnaire used in the study was designed so that it allows for the observation of the main risk factors which have an impact on the students’ mental health. Variance analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to determine the predictors of mental health problems. The results indicate that average and high levels of psychosomatic disorders were observed among 61% of respondents. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that an increase in the level of educational burnout, a decreased life satisfaction, and use of negative strategies of coping with stress, were accompanied by a deteriorated mental condition of students. Moreover, it was observed that female respondents scored higher on the scale of disorders in comparison to males.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the functioning of society. Issues of deteriorating health were among the main problems resulting from restrictions such as self-isolation, social distancing, and remote education. The aim of this research was to attempt to probe the psychophysical condition of students after more than a year of remote education. The survey method (CAPI) was used to collect the data on a representative sample of 1000 students in Poland and 1022 in Ukraine. The research sample was selected in a randomly stratified manner, taking into account such characteristics as: gender, age, and place of residence. The results of the research showed that 44% of Polish and 50% of Ukrainian students experienced health problems. The burden of remote education mainly contributed to the reduction of physical fitness. Young Poles more often paid attention to the deterioration of mental well-being, and Ukrainians to the deterioration of their physical condition. Based on the conducted analyses, it was also established that health problems appeared more often among the females, students with lower social support and with lower trust levels. The main risk factors were Internet addiction, secondary effects of the pandemic, and negative remote education experiences. Research has shown that remote education and problems that arise in students’ households during the pandemic may have significantly contributed to the deterioration of their psychophysical condition.

Religiousness has a positive effect on the mental health of an individual and social groups in many difficult situations. In the conducted research, we wanted to check, inter alia, whether religiosity and social support are positively related to the mental health of students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Ukraine. The research was conducted at a time (August 2021) when the very contagious Delta variant was spreading over Europe, and numerous pandemic-related personal restrictions and obligations (such as using facemasks in selected places, social distancing, and obligatory self-isolation of the ill or those who had contact with the pathogen) were in force in both countries. For this purpose, a representative survey was carried out using the CAPI technique on a sample of 1000 students in Poland (50% boys and 50% girls in the age range 10–19) and 1022 in Ukraine (51% boys and 49% girls in the age range 10–18). The results of the research shows that depression measured by the PHQ-9 scale was experienced by 20% of students in Poland, and 13% in Ukrainian. Anxiety, measured with the GAD-7 scale, was experienced by 9% of the Polish and 6% of the Ukrainian students. The performed regression analysis showed that religiosity had no effect on the mental health of students. The main risk factor for mental disorders was the lack of social support.

Russia’s armed attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 started one of the worst refugee crises of the 21st century. It caused involuntary migrations of Ukrainians to other countries, mainly to Europe, and caused the refugees to face the challenge of integrating with the host countries’ labor markets. The aim of this study was to analyze the views of the Ukrainian refugees who migrated to two European countries: Poland and Hungary. We took into account self-esteem, social support, good job expectations, and submissiveness in the labor market. The data were obtained via a survey method using the modified CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interview) technique between 21 November and 20 December 2022 from 807 adult Ukrainian refugees. Results show that disability fosters lower self-esteem, self-assessment of resources, and job demands. Among those who have children, the mean value of self-esteem was higher than in the group without any children. No statistically significant differences were found in the area of professional work. According to the estimation of structural model results, expectations of a good job have a significant, negative effect on the tendency toward submissiveness. The assessment of personal resources and the level of self-esteem have a significant and positive effect on the expectations of a good job. Both a higher level of personal resources and a higher level of self-esteem resulted in higher good job expectations. The assessment of personal resources also has a positive effect on the level of self-esteem. We also found a direct relationship between personal resources, self-esteem, and the tendency toward submissiveness.