Resilience in the Face of the Ongoing War in Ukraine and Coping Strategies Adopted by Polish Students of Modern Languages in Higher Education

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 shattered Western illusions of peace and security, raining tensions on both a macro and micro level. This article was thus inspired by how the war had affected Philology students in Poland, specifically emphasising the city of Rzeszow, which lies close to the Ukrainian border. The aim assigned to the research project was to investigate levels of resilience among students and how this correlates with stress levels and to further investigate the potential coping strategies adopted by the students to mitigate their anxiety levels. What has been shown is that there is a correlation between the proximity of students to graduation and the levels of anxiety they felt about their future employment prospects and that the most common method for coping with stress was to become actively involved in assisting in the most immediate manifestation of the cause of the stress, in this case assisting refugees.