Following the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in February 2022, thousands of people selflessly joined in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and those left behind in the war zones. What drove the volunteers? What motivated them to contribute their time and often financial resources? How did voluntary activity affect their mental health? Above all, how to help effectively so as not to lose motivation and to protect oneself from excessive stress and burnout? Agata Chudzicka-Czupała, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Katowice Branch, and Nadiya Hapon, Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv seek answers to these questions. Their study is co-financed by the Foundation for Polish Science in the programme FOR UKRAINE, and it is not only cognitive. They will also help to develop practical recommendations for NGOs and local governments on how to take care of and support volunteers’ well-being.
“Our research addresses the consequences of providing support to Ukrainian war refugees on the mental health of volunteers, as well as the study of psychological and social intentions to volunteer. Previous publications have shown that in the first initial stage, people are primarily motivated to offer volunteering services by their personality traits and their values. We used a tool to investigate the sources of motivation, which allowed us to identify several different individual and social functions of volunteering. These include the desire to gain career-related experience, to act for personal empowerment and psychological development, to protect by reducing one’s negative feelings or personal problems, to act in accordance with important personal values such as altruism and humanitarian concern for others, to strengthen or create social relationships, and to act following the principles of one’s religion,” Chudzicka-Czupała says.
The researchers surveyed over 1000 people providing support to refugees in Poland and Ukraine. The results indicate that there are some differences in motivations between Polish and Ukrainian volunteers. Ukrainian volunteers were more likely to seek to reduce negative feelings, strengthen social networks, and realize religious values through volunteering. Volunteers from both countries followed their personal values, and their motivation to work for war refugees was not related to the desire to develop a career.
Can Helping Others Trigger Negative Emotions?
Moreover, the researchers studied volunteers’ mental health. “We could not separate the possible negative consequences of volunteering from the study. These included examples such as severe physical fatigue, large amounts of time spent on volunteering activities, addictions, neglecting one’s own needs, sleep deprivation, experiencing negative emotions related, for example, to the inability to bring relief to others or interpersonal conflicts within the team, lack of satisfaction from the activity, general anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. To date, few studies focused on the psychological consequences of participating in voluntary services provided to victims of war. Therefore, our study helps to fill this gap,” Hapon indicates.
The researchers examined the severity of depression (apathy, lowered self-esteem, abandonment of interests), anxiety, and stress concerning participation in refugee volunteering. They were interested in the volunteers’ subjective severity of post-traumatic stress and the coping strategies they undertook to deal with stress. “As expected, volunteers from Ukraine experienced depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress significantly more often than volunteers operating in Poland, but even here, the percentage of those who experienced negative consequences was high. Indicators of stress and post-traumatic stress were significant, especially for intrusions such as recurring images and memories of difficult situations, images of mothers with children, elderly people being forced to flee, or emotional agitation, as well as depression,” Chudzicka-Czupała explains.
Workshops and a Handbook
The researchers are also looking for links between motivations for volunteering and the negative, psychological consequences of volunteering. “We believe that our work will be an important step toward building a system of care for the wellbeing of volunteers. We can already boast of several tangible results of our project. Two important events have taken place in Ukraine. The first was a series of workshops for Ukrainian volunteers and leaders of NGOs using volunteers, which happened in April 2023 in Kyiv, Ternopil, Kremenets, and Lviv, with the remote participation of volunteers from Zaporizhzhya, a city under constant fire from the Russian army. The second significant event was the Ukrainian-Polish scientific conference “Psychology in the Face of the Russian-Ukrainian War,” which occurred in Lviv on May 19–20, 2023. Moreover, we published a guidebook for volunteers in Ukrainian on how to deal with stress and negative emotions,” Hapon reports.
Reinforcing Civil Society
The researchers organized three similar workshops for volunteers and NGO leaders from Poland in Katowice. “Another important outcome of the project is a dedicated website in Ukrainian and Polish hosted on the SWPS University server. There, we will publish a report with the results of our research, along with key recommendations for volunteers, organizations, and local governments. A diagnostic tool will also be available on the website to test the motivation and predisposition to participate in volunteering of those interested in such activity and to test the intensity of stress related to participation in previous volunteering activities and the coping strategies used. Using this tool will enable organizations and volunteers to gain insight into the sources of their motivation and to learn about their psychological resources. Moreover, we deem it important to survey volunteers periodically, namely when recruiting for specific tasks. The website as a whole will provide a compendium of knowledge to increase care for the motivation and psychological well-being of the people who are helping others. The consequence of this will be the strengthening of long-term commitment to volunteering, which will translate into the proper functioning of civil society,” Chudzicka-Czupała emphasizes.
Dr Hab. Agata Chudzicka-Czupała, Professor at SWPS University, is a industrial and organizational psychologist and health psychologist, and university lecturer. She studies the determinants of human well-being and effective performance in difficult situations. She is interested in stress management, and the role of trust, bonding, and community in teams. She directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Social Activity & Well-being Research FEEL & ACT WELL. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including books; winner of national and international awards for scientific activities. Privately, she is a wife and mother of two daughters. She enjoys mountain walks, cycling, swimming, and gardening, interested especially in manifestations of intelligence in animals and plants, which she admires.
Prof. Dr. Hab. Nadiya Hapon is a psychologist and her research interests include social psychology, personality psychology, and the study of human mental health during wartime. She conducts empirical research and is involved in teaching and community outreach. She has received numerous awards for her scientific and teaching activities. She authored many scientific publications, including three monographs, and edited four collections of articles. Privately a wife and mother of two sons. She is interested in poetry, especially Polish poetry. She enjoys looking after animals and has three West Siberian Laikas. She enjoys gardening and its therapeutic effects.
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