PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF PREGNANT WOMEN DURING THE WAR

Abstract

Armed conflicts are an extremely stressful event and have not only socioeconomic problems, but also negative consequences for the social and mental of people’s health. Nowadays, due to the war, almost all the population of Ukraine was in stress conditions. But, in our opinion, the conditions of war will have a particularly negative impact on the level of anxiety and psychological pregnant women well-being. Since the state of pregnancy itself, even under favorable external conditions, causes serious changes not only to the body of women, but also in its way of life and perception of the world and makes the woman more vulnerable and more susceptible to the influence of the environment. And the results of this stress can have consequences for two generations – both for mother and child. Therefore, our research is devoted to influence of anxiety on psychological state and subjective well-being of pregnant women. In order to study the variables selected by theoretical analysis, the following methods to measure the level of anxiety, the level of psychological well-being and determine the type of psychological component of gestational dominance (PCGD) were used. The Spielberger-Hanin test was used to measure anxiety. Psychological wellbeing was studied using the C. Ryff questionnaire adapted by S.V. Karskanova. To determine the type of pregnancy experience, the V.I. Dobryakov pregnant woman attitude test was used, revealing the types of PCGD: optimal, hypogestognostic, euphoric, anxious, depressive. As to the level of anxiety, the non-pregnant group showed a moderate reactive anxiety level, whereas in the pregnant group it was high. Both groups showed moderate (average) levels of personal anxiety. Measurement on the reactive anxiety self-assessment scale revealed statistically significant differences between groups (p < 0,01). The level of psychological well-being of pregnant women was 8,02% lower than the level of psychological well-being of non-pregnant women. The difference between the groups was statistically significant (p < 0,05), which confirms our hypothesis that pregnancy in the conditions of war negatively affects the level of psychological well-being.