Psychological Self-Mobilization of Ukrainians in Wartime: A Resource-Integrative Approach and a Conceptual Model of Stabilizing Mental State and Social Functioning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31108/3.2026.10.1.9Abstract
Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has produced a prolonged, multi-vector, resource-depleting living environment in which stressors are chronic, repeatedly escalating, and weakly bounded in time and space. Under such conditions, sustained adaptation depends not only on separate personal traits or isolated coping strategies but on an integrative capacity to activate, coordinate, and renew resources while maintaining effective functioning across social and professional roles. This theoretical paper analyses contemporary approaches to constructs adjacent to self-mobilization –hardiness, resilience, self-efficacy, and coping – within the Conservation of Resources (COR) perspective, and proposes a resource-integrative approach and a conceptual model of psychological self-mobilization.
The model is structured in the logic "context – process – outcome.” Wartime is conceptualized as a complex of stressors, losses, and resource deficits that generates cumulative resource load, including secondary stressors (material losses, displacement, disrupted social ties, and occupational disorganization) and chronic uncertainty. Psychological self-mobilization is defined as a meta-regulatory process that (a) activates and aligns resources, (b) initiates goal-directed behaviour, (c) sustains agency and self-regulatory controllability of mental state and behaviour, and (d) optimizes resource expenditures and recovery through managed transitions across the phases “mobilization – action – recovery.” Two interrelated outcomes are specified: (1) stabilization of mental state as dynamic maintenance and restoration of functional level; and (2) preservation of social functioning as role effectiveness, social connectedness, and agency. The model is complemented with a socio-ecological dimension (resource corridors/barriers) and outlines empirically testable hypotheses for further validation.
Keywords: psychological self-mobilization, war, hardiness, resilience, self-efficacy, coping, mental state stabilization, agency, resource corridors
Accepted: 08.03.2026
Reviewed: 16.04.2026
Published: 20.05.2026
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Олег Кокун
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
