Teaching Staff’s Metacognitive Beliefs in Coping With War-Related Stress and Searching for Internal Resources

Abstract

Life in the conditions of war causes a number of psycho-traumatic situations, which often acquire an acute and permanent character. In such situations, a person cannot fully think objectively, because in stressful conditions, the rational sphere of the personality is obscured, and emotions take over. In the crisis and rapidly changing situations of wartime, a person relies on past experience and a system of worldview and value beliefs that are not always consistent with reality and, as a result, cause him/her emotional anxiety and nervous tension. The purpose of the study is to determine the level of influence of a number of stress factors caused by wartime realities on a person using the example of a professional group of teachers. In situations of danger, the teacher realises his human and professional vocation to help, advise, and support. Actually, this circumstance testifies not only to the need for the viability of this professional group and the need to be a resource, but also to the desire to encourage and promote the acquisition of resilience in their students, the ability to establish effective interaction, taking into account their experience of acute stress and psycho-traumatisation.The analysis of empirical data proved a moderate level of personal anxiety among teachers against the background of a high level of situational anxiety of teachers in wartime conditions. Quite often, the emotions and feelings experienced by teachers in stressful situations are devalued by them, they are not sufficiently understood, and ultimately have no way out. The analysis of teachers' metacognitive beliefs made it possible to determine the level of development of reflective competence, and to illustrate the range of individual differences in the choice of metacognitive judgments and beliefs, and ultimately to outline certain strategies for the influence of stressful events on the psyche of people of this professional category.The indicated results of the study actualise the need for the development of psychological support measures for specialists of this professional category in psycho-traumatic situations of wartime. A productive conceptual idea in the implementation of these measures is the resource approach. In each specific situation, the teacher uses and develops his/her individual set of internal resources.