On March 4, 2025, an event took place at the premises of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting under its auspices, with the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine taking an important place on the agenda.
The content of the event was a presentation of recommendations for the media aimed at reducing the negative impact of media content on the mental health of children and adolescents in two areas: preventing the use of gender stereotypes in children’s content (prepared and presented by the NGO Women in Media) and preventing media trauma in the context of war. Researchers at the Department of Psychology of Mass Communication and Media Education of the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine developed the latter. They were presented by Liubov Naydonova, Deputy Director of the Institute, Doctor of Psychology, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, and member of the Public Council of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting.
The media industry’s recommendations for preventing media traumatization of children in war are the result of and are based on empirical data obtained during the implementation of two research projects – “War mental health crisis coping: evidence-based media psychoeducation for family and community health promotion during economic recovery” (“War mental health crisis coping: Evidence-based media psychoeducation for family and community health promotion during economic recovery”, 2023-2026), which is part of a long-term program to support Ukrainian research groups by the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the US National Academy of Sciences with the support of external partners, and a study commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to develop a technology for assessing the level of media trauma in schoolchildren during the war in distance learning (2023-2024).
Focus group interviews with teenagers conducted under the first project program made it possible to identify the most severe stressors in media coverage of the war: corruption, which, according to teenagers, reduces the army’s resources to counter enemy aggression and injustice against the military.
Presenting the results of the second study, the speaker emphasized that the data obtained by applying the sets of diagnostic methods developed within the framework of the study to assess the level of media trauma as part of war trauma for three age groups of children – 4-7, 8-13 and 14-17 years old – and parents, show the seriousness of the problem of media trauma of children during the war, which manifests itself as a deterioration in the psycho-emotional state due to the repeated experience of uncontrolled memories of an event provoked by media consumption. The data also makes it possible to differentiate adverse effects depending on the age of children, thus making media recommendations more targeted and effective.
L. Naydonova emphasized that the recommendations will also be based on analyzing more than 20 foreign studies of the media trauma of war conducted from 1973 to 2018.
The audience was interested in the program of psychological support for children of active military personnel, “Support Groups for Children of Military Personnel,” announced by L. Naydonova during the presentation, which is implemented by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine in cooperation with the NGO “Women’s Power of Ukraine”. At the request of the moderator and the participants of the discussion, the head of this public organization, senior researcher at the Department of Psychology of Mass Communication and Media Education of the Institute, PhD in Psychology Natalia Umerenkova, who was present at the event, presented it.
It should be added that the importance of the event was evidenced by the participation of the Head of the National Council O. Gerasymiuk, MP, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Head of the Subcommittee on Information Policy and European Integration Y. Kravchuk, Advisor to the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Child Rehabilitation D. Gerasymchuk, member of the National Council, Head of the Working Group on the Creation of Rules for the Protection of Children in the Media O. Nitsko (moderator of the discussion). The discussion of the presented recommendations and the problems raised by them was also attended by representatives of media actors, public associations and organizations, state bodies dealing with children’s rights, and professional psychologists.
Thanks!
Our editors are notified.