Psychological distress among Ukrainian displaced persons 2 years after the full-scale invasion: a contextual...

This study characterized depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in a convenience sample of Ukrainian displaced persons approximately 2 years after the full-scale invasion and explored associations with selected settlement-related indicators.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between February and August 2024 among displaced Ukrainian adults (N = 241 with complete DASS-21 data), who completed the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 in Ukrainian, Russian, or English. Mean subscale scores were contextualized using published general-population reference values from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Poland, and Italy, and exploratory associations with housing stability, employment status, and host-country language proficiency were examined.

Mean depression, anxiety, and stress scores fell within the mild to moderate range and were generally higher than available European reference values, although these benchmark comparisons should be interpreted cautiously because the reference samples differed in timing, sampling frame, country context, and gender composition. A supplementary sex-composition sensitivity analysis using Polish female reference values suggested that the depression comparison was robust, whereas anxiety was attenuated and stress was modest. Within-sample analyses showed no meaningful association between distress and either language proficiency or employment status. Housing stability showed a tentative association with anxiety, driven primarily by lower anxiety among participants reporting long-term rather than medium-term housing.

These findings suggest continuing psychological distress among Ukrainian displaced persons in this convenience sample, while underscoring the need for longitudinal, representative research that directly measures trauma exposure, uncertainty, and structural settlement conditions.