Profiles of mental health indicators among Ukrainian people recently bereaved in the context of the full-scale Russian invasion :

Abstract

Most bereavement research is focused on psychopathology, overlooking that mental health also includes well-being. This study is the first to examine mental health profiles based on ICD-11 Prolonged Grief (PG) symptoms, posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and well-being in a sample of Ukrainians bereaved during the full-scale Russian invasion. Participants were 290 adults (M age = 34.28, SD = 9.1 years), who had lost a loved one on average 5.3 months earlier. Over a third (35%) had lost a partner or child, due to illness (43%) or war (40%). The majority of participants (55%) scored above the threshold of clinically relevant PG symptoms. Latent profile analyses identified three distinct mental health profiles: (1) low PG symptoms/low PTS symptoms/high well-being (13%), (2) moderate PG symptoms/low PTS symptoms/moderate well-being (57%), (3) high PG symptoms/low PTS symptoms/low well-being (30%). People evidencing the third profile were more likely to have experienced the loss of a close person (partner or child) and to have been forcibly displaced compared to people in other profiles. Notably, the distribution of these profiles differs from previous studies, where profiles marked by low symptoms and high well-being were typically most common. Moreover, PG and well-being appeared to lie on opposite ends of a single continuum rather than functioning as distinct dimensions, providing limited support for the dual-continua model. This pattern suggests that Ukrainians may be facing unique challenges due to ongoing war-related stressors. Identifying those most in need of support and highlighting potential intervention targets are particularly important in under-resourced populations where access to care is limited.