Psychological condition and civic identity of the internally displaced children from East Ukraine

Abstract

The internally displaced persons from East Ukraine, both adults and children, are influenced by the traumatic events. Children constitute an especially vulnerable group. Their socio-psychological adaptation and integration in the Ukrainian society are hindered by at least three main factors. The first one is the hostilities in the east of Ukraine whose witnesses and participants are the displaced persons exposed to a high risk of posttraumatic stress disorders development. The second factor is the difficulties in adaptation of the displaced persons to a new place of residence, and the third one is lack of consolidated political identity among lots of displaced persons, lack of pro-Ukrainian views on the future of the state where they live, which considerably aggravate their psychological problems. The survey of the public mood among the secondary school students including the displaced ones, which was carried out on the Donbas territory liberated from the Russian occupation in 2014, revealed the following trend: the students who believe that Ukraine can be preserved as a unitary state experience positive feelings two-three times more often than their opponents do. The pro-Ukrainian views of the students considerably improve their emotional state, and the opposite views worsen it. The recovery of the displaced persons from the emotional trauma will proceed faster if they identify the state whose citizens they are and become aware of their national identity. At the same time, the integration of the population of East Ukraine in the Ukrainian community must be based on patriotic education of the children in all the regions of Ukraine. The adults should realize the necessity of such education and care about proper conditions for it. Implementation of the socio-psychological projects, which could demonstrate the need for the integration, can be a starting point for the de-velopment of cohesion of Ukrainians. Another effective way to promote unification of Ukrainians is children’s camps, where children from different parts of Ukraine could not only spend their holidays but also learn how to solve everyday life problems and be educated in the national traditions. The psychological support for the displaced children must be complex and take into account social, political and psychological components of the process of their integration in the Ukrainian society.

Key words: internally displaced persons, posttraumatic stress disorders, socio-psychological adaptation, patriotic education, civic identity.