Media experiences during the Ukraine war and their relationships with distress, anxiety, and resilience

How Is the Fear of War Impacting Italian Young Adults’ Mental Health? The Mediating Role of Future Anxiety and Intolerance of Uncertainty

“…Furthermore, it also aligns with the most recent studies conducted on university students involved in war contexts [22] and, in particular, also with those carried out in places that are not directly involved in an armed conflict [48,49]. Considering the studies that reveal the link between media hyperexposure to distressing information/images and mental suffering [18,31] and, in particular, those specifically referring to images of war [27,29], the relationship between Fear of War and Psychological Distress-revealed in this study-could also be associated to the compulsive search for war-related information in young Italian adults [28], probably sustained by the high levels of uncertainty that the war is fueling. Although media hyperexposure was not investigated in the present study, it is a crucial aspect to be integrated into further research.…”

“…The destructiveness of war, however, can overcome geographical borders and upset the stability of entire continents [25] and, in terms of emotional suffering and distress, it can also impact individuals and communities that are not directly involved in it, as highlighted in a cross-cultural study that compared the situation in Ukraine with that in Poland and Taiwan [26]. Moreover, through television news and social media, media bombardment plays an important role [27] given that people are daily subjected to distressing images from multiple war zones. In the Italian context, young people are particularly hyperexposed to this phenomenon, as they are very active on social networks and use them to seek information on this conflict [28].…”

“…In the Italian context, young people are particularly hyperexposed to this phenomenon, as they are very active on social networks and use them to seek information on this conflict [28]. The literature also reports that daily exposure to images and information that are too distressing can fuel states of uncertainty and fear [27,29], as well as depressive, anxious, and post-traumatic symptoms even in subjects who are not directly involved [18,26,30], as already highlighted with reference to other potentially traumatic collective phenomena, including the recent pandemic [31,32]. Thus, in a historical moment in which youth distress has been reported to be growing for some time [33,34] and has been particularly increased by the pandemic trauma-so much so that, in Italy, there is talk of a youth emergency in terms of mental health [2][3][4]35]-war risks becoming a further potentially traumatic element that adds to specific contemporary sources of unease [36,37].…”

Social Media News Headlines and Their Influence on Well-Being: Emotional States, Emotion Regulation, and Resilience

“…They found that resilience and positive emotions were significantly decreased when individuals were exposed to negative news, while resilience and positive emotions were significantly higher when individuals were exposed to positive news [ 48 ]. Similarly, in a recent study, Malecki et al [ 62 ] found that negative media experiences about the Ukraine war were associated with lower resilience levels. Hence, it is clear that resilience is impacted by the valence of news.…”

“…Consequently, resilience is typically triggered by such events, and it is not surprising that research on resilience often focuses on its role during critical periods. Existing research that examined resilience in the context of news exposure has shown that the valence of news (positive or negative) can influence individuals’ resilience levels [ 48 , 62 ]. For instance, Giri and Maurya [ 48 ] examined individuals’ resilience and emotions when exposed to positive or negative news about COVID-19.…”