Oleksandra Koliada
student of the social and psychological faculty, National university of civil defense of Ukraine
Nataliia Onishchenko
Doctor of psychology, professor, head of the department, National university of civil defense of Ukraine
ORCID 0000-0003-3026-1650
DOI - https://doi.org/10.52363/dcpp-2024.1.7
Keywords: psychoemotional state; an injured child; war; traumatic event; traumatic experience.
The article is devoted to the psychological analysis of the perception of war by children of different ages. During the study, the issues of the impact of war on the mental state of the injured person are studied, the results of theoretical and empirical studies in the field of traumatization of a survivor in the conditions of an emergency of military origin are analyzed. The article provides data on the specifics of mental traumatization of children of various ages who have experienced war. It is indicated that age characteristics in the study of such a question are extremely relevant and important. In the process of a child's experience of war as a traumatic situation, special attention is paid to the study of the impact of accompanying factors on his mental state. This is especially true when a parent or other significant adult is present. Many studies indicate a direct dependence of the child's level of traumatization on the condition of an adult who was close to the young victim at the time of the traumatic experience.
The purpose of the article is to study the psycho-emotional state of children of different ages who experienced the war in different conditions: most children did not change their place of residence since the beginning of the war, the second group of children are those who moved at the beginning of the war, but at the time of the research had already returned home. It was established that the vast majority of children participating in the study were forced to change their place of residence, 6.4% of all interviewed children survived the occupation; almost half of the children survived shelling and bombing, and 3% saw the death of people as a result of shelling.
The results showed that children are most afraid of loud noises, such as explosions, and almost one in three children have problems sleeping. A general analysis of data on the psychological state of children affected by the war and living in active combat zones indicates a significant impact of traumatic events on their psyche and emotional state.