THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND SOME INDICATORS OF THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION IN WAR CONDITIONS

The article is devoted to studying the relationship between education and the state of the population’s mental health in wartime. Referencing the results of studies conducted by foreign and Ukrainian scientists, the authors note that in EU countries the level of education is associated with the content of work, the nature of employment, professional status and prestige, as well as with the level of wealth. Thus, people with a higher educational attainment have more prestigious jobs and higher incomes, which, firstly, create conditions for well-being and, secondly, provide wide access to mental health resources and professional help. It is emphasized that in Ukraine there is no stable relationship between the level of education, the prestige of work, and the level of wages, and therefore the level of education cannot be considered a determinant of mental health. Instead, involvement in the educational process forms strong social networks and coping skills and can be a resource, increasing the level of psychological and social resilience. The article considers the results of a study conducted by the Department of Sociology and Psychology at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, devoted to monitoring the mental health of the population of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region during the period of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine (two waves of the study in 2023 and 2024; n = 730 and n = 543, respectively). We conducted a secondary analysis of the second wave data aimed at identifying the relationship between education and mental health indicators. The results of the analysis proved that, in wartime, a high level of education is not a guarantee of mental health. In addition, Ukrainian realities are such that neither the level of education nor the stability of employment determine the level of material security. At the same time, we note that continuous involvement in education does have a positive effect on mental health and is an important factor in the psychological resilience and subjective well-being of participants in the educational process.