Secondary traumatic stress and chronic fatigue in students from families involved in military events

Abstract

The issue of mental health among students whose families are involved in military events, especially those whose close relatives are directly engaged in combat operations or reside in an area of active armed conflict, is becoming particularly relevant. The constant anticipation of danger to the lives of loved ones, emotional involvement, and empathetic experience of another person’s trauma creates conditions for the development of secondary traumatic stress (STS), which in its clinical manifestations is comparable to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Aim. To investigate the characteristics of STS and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in higher education students who reported having at least one close relative with a status related to participation in military operations or presence in a combat zone; to assess the intensity of emotional, cognitive, and somatic symptoms, as well as to analyze the relationship between indicators of secondary traumatization and the level of chronic fatigue.

Materials and methods. Empirical data were collected via standardized questionnaires assessing STS and CFS (Fukuda criteria), administered to 75 higher education students in Ukraine (years 1–5). Analysis of the respondents’ academic profiles allowed classification into five primary fields of study. The majority of participants were enrolled in medical and pharmaceutical programs (53.2 %), with substantial representation from psychological and humanities disciplines (18.6 %) and rehabilitation-related programs (15.8 %). Students from the natural sciences and pedagogical fields accounted for 5.2 %, while the remaining 7.2 % were distributed across other specialties with lower individual representation. At the time of data collection, all participants (100 %) were residing within Ukraine. The survey was conducted via Google Forms web-based application. Statistical processing included Pearson’s correlation analysis with interpretation on the Chaddock scale and significance testing via Student’s t-test. The study conducted a systematic review of 13 national and international publications indexed in the Scopus and PubMed databases (search period: 2020–2025).

Results. Of the 75 students surveyed, 68.0 % reported having close relatives involved in military operations or residing in the combat zone. These findings underscore the extensive familial exposure to the war among study participants and suggest an elevated vulnerability to STS, as well as to its associated psychophysiological sequelae. Regular obsessive thoughts about the possible suffering of relatives were reported by almost 70.0 % of respondents (options “sometimes” and “often” combined).

Conclusions. A strong direct correlation was established between STS indicators and CFS (r = 0.70, p < 0.001), indicating the formation of a unified psychosomatic complex in students whose relatives are in the combat zone. These findings confirm the need for comprehensive rehabilitation programs that simultaneously address both psychological and physiological components of distress.