Peculiarities of response to stressful events in military personnel and civilians in the conditions of the ongoing war in Ukraine

Background. The current war in Ukraine, with the widespread use of drones and other long-range weapons, with the tactics of «infiltration» of enemy groups and insidious information and psychological operations in the conditions of a single information space for the entire country, blurs the boundaries between the front line and the rear. This is especially acutely felt in the front-line Kharkiv region, where servicemen and civilians live and act in conditions of a common threat, but with different professional and role contexts of its perception. A comparative analysis of the characteristics of the response to stressful events of representatives of the mentioned categories will allow determining the priorities of medical, rehabilitation and preventive measures in the conditions of the current war. Purpose – to study the characteristics of the response of servicemen and civilians to stressful events during the current war in Ukraine, considering the gender of the respondents. Materials and Methods. During 2024–2025, 3,272 people were examined, including 2,317 civilians (1,511 men and 806 women) and 955 military personnel (906 men and 49 women), who were undergoing treatment in two medical institutions in the city of Kharkiv and were represented by patients of both non-psychiatric (1,988 people) and psychiatric (1,284 people) profiles. The main research tool was the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ). The obtained data were processed by methods of mathematical statistics (variance analyses) on a computer using spreadsheets «Excel 2016» (with the «Data Analysis» package). Results. It was found that among non-psychiatric patients (who in terms of mental health represent the general population), military personnel (compared to civilians) observed: a lower frequency of acute stress reaction and acute stress disorder (1.25 and 1.24 times, respectively, at p = 0.026) and 8.72% lower average values of the severity of post-stress symptoms according to the sum of SASRQ scores (p = 0.004). It was hypothesized that these differences are caused: on the one hand, by the psychological hardening of military personnel due to their constant presence in an environment of increased danger, and on the other hand, by the fear of stigmatization in their microsocial environment (unit). It was also shown that among patients with a psychiatric profile, there were no corresponding differences between military personnel and civilians (this is a consequence of the almost equally severe state of mental health in all patients in this category). In addition, it was shown that men (compared to women) had: a higher frequency of acute stress disorder (1.05 – 2.48 times, depending on the comparison groups, at 0.004 < p < 0.416) and higher average levels of severity of post-stress symptoms according to the sum of SASRQ scores (by 8.82–29.87%, depending on the comparison groups, at 0.003 < p < 0.062), which is likely a consequence of male respondentsʼ fear of returning to the front (in the military) and fear of mobilization (in civilians). Living in an urban or rural area did not significantly affect either the form of response to stressful events or the severity of post-stress symptoms. Conclusions. Among respondents with different attitudes towards military service and gender, civilian men react most severely to stressful events, which requires the development and dissemination of psychoeducational programs aimed specifically at this contingent (including because it is this contingent that forms the basis of the countryʼs mobilization reserve). At the same time, further research is needed into the phenomenon of relative resistance to stressful events in military personnel, since this phenomenon may be a consequence not so much of psychological hardening as of its dissimulation.