Psychological support for higher education students during the war: innovative online camp

Abstract

The Russian-Ukrainian war actualized the problem of the spread of destructive psycho-emotional conditions among people who found themselves in difficult life situations. This especially affected the most vulnerable categories of the population, including young people who are getting education in higher education institutions. Students from Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions are now studying at Berdiansk State Pedagogical University. Three of them have been at its epicenter from the first days of the war. Even when the students reached their parents, they still remained in the occupied territory, and some in the war zone, which led to different reactions to stressful situations. Experiencing these traumatic events depends on the individual development of psychological self-defense mechanisms, the insufficient formation of which affects the state of resilience as a personal resource. The article presents an overview of theoretical approaches accumulated in domestic and foreign scientific sources devoted to solving the problem of resilience. In particular, it is indicated that the war is a long-lasting and powerful factor of psychotrauma, which generally affects the psychophysical state of an individual; the importance of both the internal potential of an individual and external resources for the development of his/her resilience is emphasized; the characteristics of the structural components of resilience are presented. Based on a survey of higher education students, the psycho-emotional states of those ones who are in different life situations are characterized: in the temporarily occupied territories, in the territories controlled by Ukraine in the status of an internally displaced person and abroad and in the status of a refugee. Furthermore, the impact of their problems on their resilience has been established. The article emphasizes the importance of psychological support for students of higher education institutions as a social environment where it is possible to prevent the formation of negative patterns of behavior, help to survive, learn to perceive the surrounding reality and communicate with it. The article also reveals the role of a non-traditional form of psychological support for applicants – an online camp in the Telegram channel - in the formation of resilience. The approximate content of the work is given, which is aimed at developing its structural components: involvement, control, and risk acceptance. The practice of holding two camps confirms the thesis about the possibility of transforming stressfullife events into new opportunities for young people, regardless of the state of war in the country.