Project title

Youth Resilience in Ukraine (YRU): Longitudinal trajectories of youth mental health, relationships, and resilience -evidence for policy and practice

Research question

How does the war affect Ukrainian young people’s mental health, relationships, and resilience over time?

Project description

How does growing up in a country at war shape the lives of children and young people? In Ukraine, an entire generation is coming of age under conditions of prolonged uncertainty: repeated air alarms, disrupted education, displacement, family separation, and the chronic stress of daily life during wartime. These experiences have profound consequences for mental health, sleep, relationships with parents and peers, and the ability to study, plan, and feel hopeful about the future.

Iuliia Pavlova follows young people from different Ukrainian regions over time, combining surveys with information from parents, stress data, and data on air alarms and attacks. The study seeks to understand which young people are most at risk, which factors help them cope and recover, and what communities can do to support them. Its findings will be shared through research publications, policy briefs, and practical recommendations for education and support systems in Ukraine.

Selected publications

  • Haque, U., Tayebi, S., Bukhari, M. H., Wang, S., Fiedler, N., Ruano, A. L., Pavlova, J., & Barrett, E. S. (2026). Geospatial insights of health vulnerability during the Ukraine war. Nature Health. 1-12
  • Carl, J., Salin, K., Barnett, L. M., Foweather, L., Jurak, G., Martins, J., Müller, I., O’Brieng, W., Venetsanouh, F., Singhi, A., Elsborg, P., Goss, H., Lundvall, S., Pavlova, I., D’Annap, C., Vlček, P. et al. (2026). Alignment of physical education curricula with physical literacy across Europe: an observational mapping study with country-level predictors. The Lancet Regional Health–Europe, 65.
  • Skinner, A. T., Pavlova, I., Godwin, J., Reilly, E. B., & Georgiades, A. (2026). Hair cortisol concentrations among youth in Ukraine: Associations with war experiences and post-traumatic-stress symptoms. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 107761.
  • Marvi, K., Sikder, I. U., Wang, S., Espinoza, J., Fiedler, N., Pavlova, J., … & Haque, U. (2025). Machine learning reveals drivers of cold-related illness during energy infrastructure attacks in Wartime Ukraine. Scientific Reports.
  • Pavlova, I., Krauss, S., McGrath, B., et al. (2023). Individual and contextual predictors of young Ukrainian adults’ subjective well‐being during the Russian–Ukrainian war. Applied psychology: health and well-being. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12484
  • Pavlova, I., Rogowska, A. (2023). Exposure to war, war nightmares, insomnia, and war-related posttraumatic stress disorder: A network analysis among university students during the war in Ukraine. Journal of Affective Disorders, 1(342), 148-156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.09.003
  • Rogowska, A., Pavlova, I. (2023). A path model of associations between war-related exposure to trauma, nightmares, fear, insomnia, and posttraumatic stress among Ukrainian students during the Russian invasion. Psychiatry Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115431