As part of the flagship project Behaviour Crisis in Lab, researchers from the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków will search for and verify the specificity of young people's psychological functioning and strategies for coping with stress - in times of simultaneous co-occurrence of many global and personal crises in their lives.

Professor Bernadetta Izydorczyk from the Institute of Psychology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, national consultant in the field of clinical psychology, tells PAP - Science in Poland that currently, as a society, we are experiencing the phenomenon of cumulative stress.

'In psychology, the phenomenon of cumulative stress is generally defined as the simultaneous co-occurrence of many crises in a person's life. These crises occur in a specific social, economic, climatic and broadly understood personal situation. Generally, the co-occurrence of many global crises at the same time is called a polycrisis', she says.

She explained that 'polycrisis is a contemporary time of overlapping crises: pandemic, war, especially (but not only) in Ukraine, the issue of dealing with the problem of refugees, the economic and climate crises, crises related to social exclusion and various personal crises that coexist in the life of every person'. 'On the one hand, we have global crises that coexist next to each other, on the other hand, we have personal crises that coexist at the same time and that overlap', says Professor Izydorczyk.

In a situation of ongoing polycrisis, young people may be particularly vulnerable to experiencing the psychological phenomenon called cumulative stress in psychology. According to the expert, research clearly shows that if many crises occur at the same time, their effect is more cumulative, has a greater impact on health, including mental health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations warn of the tendency for young people’s mental health to deteriorate and for many health problems to coexist in them, also in terms of a decline in well-being, general mental condition, which manifests itself as a whole spectrum of mental and emotional disorders, also, and perhaps especially, in the young generation.

Professor Izydorczyk points out that during the pandemic, as a society, we were dealing with a widespread and long-term phenomenon of social alienation resulting from the need for isolation.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, she says, 'most of the activity of young people moved to the Internet, and this is not the same as life based on building everyday real social relationships and connections, so necessary for the development of a person entering adulthood'.

In her opinion, this social isolation has significantly limited the possibilities of fulfilling the basic developmental task of a person entering adulthood.

Scientists from the Jagiellonian University now want to scientifically examine how young people emotionally and socially experience this 'polycrisis period' caused by the pandemic and the period of social isolation, and how they experience the so-called global crisis situations that overlap and occur at the same time: the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, the economic crisis, crises of social exclusion.

In the study, they ask how the polycrisis situation can affect the psychological and social functioning and roles of young people entering adulthood.

According to researchers from the Jagiellonian University's Behaviour in Crisis Lab, the research (especially psychological research) results and epidemiological data available to date are not sufficient to determine the effects of exposure to cumulative stress and a polycrisis situation on mental health.

They want to check whether situations of pandemic crisis, war, and exclusion crises have developed a polycrisis generation - a generation that would function differently than if these stressors and cumulative stress had not occurred.

The researchers want to use not only surveys in the research, but also specialist, standardised psychological methods.

'Of course, not all people who experience cumulative stress have to experience various mental and emotional disorders', Izydorczyk says. She explains that at one extreme there are people who have gone through crises in a so-called healthy way. In general, these are people whose psychological and social resources allowed them to overcome the crisis and carry out developmental tasks in the further life cycle without obvious mental disorders.

She adds that at the other extreme there will be people presenting a whole spectrum of various psychopathological symptoms and mental disorders. There will also be people who will probably be in the middle of this scale, with various difficulties in emotional life and building social relationships, but not symptoms confirming the occurrence of a specific type of mental disorder. They will cope with everyday life situations, but their satisfaction with the quality of life, especially emotional life and the fulfilment of their needs will not be satisfactory.

‘An important indicator of satisfaction with coping with cumulative stress and a polycrisis situation will be, among other things, the so-called experienced quality of a given person's mental life, a good, health-promoting mental condition, constructive strategies for coping with stress, one's own identity. This is what we want to verify.

'Based on epidemiological data, we assume that there will be people who suffer from various mental disorders and will need psychotherapy, but there will also be those who only need psychological and social support, education and awareness so that these young people can fulfil their roles in the future in a way that will give them the opportunity for satisfactory development, satisfaction with the quality of their own life in personal and social relationships. This is the generation that will create an adult community in the near future', Izydorczyk says.

The research results may be useful for co-creating health policy and education programmes in Poland, especially for young Poles. 'The results of longitudinal study conducted on a large representative sample can show when and how to direct prevention, psychological and psychotherapeutic help, so that young people's entry into adulthood is associated with health and a good quality of life', says Izydorczyk.

In her opinion, it will be much more necessary to expand broadly understood health prevention in education, in schools and places where children, adolescents and young people can be shown the importance of not only the world of intellect, but also the world of emotions and their role in the life of every person.

The planned longitudinal study will be conducted on a large nationwide sample of young Poles aged 18-29. It will begin in September and will be repeated in one year on the same representative sample of young Poles.

PAP - Science in Poland, Anna Mikołajczyk-Kłębek

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