Meaning-Making Coping Strategies in the Context of War and Anticipated War
A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study in Ukraine, Iran and Sweden. The project aims to deepen the understanding of the strategies people use to find meaning and cope with difficult emotional and existential situations during times of war or the threat of war.
Background and Rationale
The question of life’s meaning remains central to human existence, especially during crises such as wars and armed conflicts. While much is known about the psychological consequences of war, relatively little research has examined how individuals cope with such crises through meaning-making processes—both during and after these events. The role of spirituality, religion, and other ideological frameworks in coping warrants deeper investigation, particularly in terms of differences between religious and non-religious individuals and variations across cultural contexts.
Since 2013, our international research program Meaning-Making Coping with Crisis—involving professors, associate professors, and researchers from Sweden and 9 other countries—has investigated coping strategies in diverse crisis contexts. This collaboration has produced 4 books and 47 peer-reviewed articles in international journals.
As part of this program, we conduct extensive qualitative research in Ukraine, Iran and Sweden. Two scientific articles based on the Ukraine study have already been submitted to peer-reviewed journals. The findings of the qualitative studies will provide a strong empirical and theoretical foundation for the present project.
Contextual Framework
The current project addresses three distinct war-related contexts:
- Ukraine: For over three years, the population has endured the ongoing war with Russia, facing destruction, loss of loved ones, displacement, and persistent insecurity.
- Iran: In June 2025, after years of geopolitical tension with Israel and the United States, Iran experienced 12 consecutive days of aerial bombardments, causing loss of life, destruction of homes, and deep psychological trauma. Although active hostilities have paused, tensions remain extremely high. Many Iranians now live in an active anticipation of war, which can be psychologically as taxing as war itself.
- Sweden: After over two centuries of peace, Sweden now faces a passive anticipation of war. Continuous media coverage, preparedness campaigns, and cultural products focused on conflict have created heightened anxiety about a possible large-scale war, particularly involving Russia.
Although these contexts differ in religion, culture, economy, and direct exposure to violence, all three populations share the experience of living under active or passive anticipation of war.
Aim and Research Questions
The overall aim is to identify and compare meaning-making coping strategies used by individuals in Ukraine, Iran and Sweden to manage war-related stress and anxiety.
Key research questions:
- What coping strategies do people use to manage stress and anxiety in contexts of war or anticipated war?
- How do religious and non-religious individuals differ in their coping approaches?
- What similarities and differences emerge between the three cultural and geopolitical contexts?
Methodology
Preparatory Phase – Building on Completed Qualitative Studies
The project builds directly on the completed qualitative studies in Ukraine, Iran and Sweden which have already identified key themes and culturally specific coping strategies. These findings will guide the development of the survey instrument to ensure cultural and contextual relevance.
Main Study – Quantitative Cross-National Survey
A quantitative study is planned to obtain an appropriate sample for this project. In Ukraine, the most important institutions for collaboration in gender-based violence research include Gender Stream, Women in Cybersecurity, and the M.V. Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. These organizations are highly respected for their research and advocacy on gender equality, social issues, and security, and their participation is crucial to ensuring the quality and reliability of the data.
Data collection will be carried out using a combination of methods to ensure representativeness across regions and social groups in Ukraine. Surveys will be conducted through institutional networks and panels supported by the aforementioned organizations, and participants will be recruited using stratified and randomized sampling methods. This approach allows for the coverage of women and men of different age groups, professions and regions, including those working in sectors that have been affected by the feminization of workplaces during the war. Where possible, online surveys will be supplemented with telephone interviews to expand coverage, especially in regions with limited Internet access.
The Iranian study will be quantitative in design, and we will use surveys to collect data. The participants will include at least 120 individuals living in Tehran during the Twelve-Day War (13 June – 24 June 2025), who will be selected using the convenience sampling method (volunteer sampling type) and through posting a call on social media for inviting the potential research participants. The inclusion criteria will be as follows: 1. Living in Tehran when the Israeli strikes on Iran started; 2. Age between 18 and 60.
As this quantitative study is descriptive, we will investigate the extent to which the coping strategies found in the qualitative study is widespread. To this end, an online questionnaire will be designed and used for data collection. The questions included in the survey will be based on the findings obtained in the qualitative study already conducted in Iran, which identified the patterns of coping in times of war. After obtaining the opinions of two research experts in behavioural and social sciences, the questionnaire will be modified and finalized. The questionnaire items will be in Persian.
To analyse the data, we will perform different calculations, including cross tabulations (by gender, age group, work status, and religion) and cluster analysis. The data will be analysed using SPSS Statistics 27 (IBM, Chicago, IL, United States).
In this investigation, all the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki will be considered. The participation of the participants in this study will be voluntary, and informed consent will be obtained from them. Participants will be assured of the anonymity of the information they provided.
To obtain a relevant sample for this project, a quantitative study is planned. And to obtain a representative and randomly selected sample that can be representative for the Swedish population, the project will use the most well-respected subcontractor to collect the data, Kantar SIFO. It is important for the quality of the data and the trustworthiness in media when the results are presented. Kantar is the second largest research institute in the world. The subcontractor Kantar Sifo in Sweden, previous TNS Sifo, that is supposed to do the most critical part, namely, to collect the data in this study, is a Swedish company that offers market research and opinion polls. The company was founded already954 and has been doing research since then. In September 2016 the name was changed to Kantar Sifo.
The data collection will be done by a combination of data collecting methods to assure this representativeness. Data will be collected through their Internet Panel, an internet panel where the respondents have been randomly recruited from their own nation representative telephone interviews. These respondents in the telephone interviews were all selected from a randomly selected sample that is nationally representative. There is an option also to combine these web interviews with telephone interviews, for both fixed and mobile phones, to assure to obtain the full representativeness of the sample and make sure to reach to determined sample size.
Risks and obstacles: The only and limited risk we foresee is related to data gathering. However, hiring the market research institute SIFO/KANTAR will minimize this risk.
The questionnaires will be developed in Ukrainian, Persian and Swedish, translated into English as well, consisting mainly of closed-ended questions items and will be based on validated instruments adapted to ensure cultural relevance.
It should be noted that the questionnaires will primarily consist of questions derived from the results of the qualitative studies that have already been conducted in each country. These qualitative questions, in turn, were informed by our previous international research on meaning-making coping. Consequently, the overall context of the qualitative questions in all three countries was largely the same, although the responses varied and revealed new themes. The questions included in the survey questionnaires will therefore be based not only on the findings from these country-specific qualitative studies but also on the broader results of our earlier research in the field of meaning-making coping. In this way, the survey will allow us both to build on prior knowledge and to facilitate cross-country comparisons of the results.
The survey will include:
- Standardized scales for coping, meaning-making, and religious/spiritual and existential orientation.
- Measures of war-related stress in both active and passive anticipation contexts.
- Demographic and socio-economic variables.
Statistical analyses will compare results within and across countries, and between religious and non-religious respondents.
Significance
The project will provide:
- A comparative framework for understanding coping strategies under different war anticipation contexts.
- Insights into how religion, spirituality, and culture interact in meaning-making coping.
- Practical recommendations for culturally appropriate psychosocial support.
About the researchers
Fereshteh Ahmadi (responsible researcher) is Professor of Sociology at the University of Gävle, Sweden. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Uppsala University in 1995 and was appointed associate professor there in 2001. From 2000, she worked concurrently as a senior lecturer at the University of Gävle and as a researcher at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, before being appointed professor at the University of Gävle in 2009. Since then, she has developed an extensive body of research at the intersection of coping, health and culture.
Her work addresses a wide range of topics, including migration and ethnicity, aging, Islamic feminism, and the role of music in coping strategies. A major focus of her scholarship is meaning-making coping, where she leads several international projects exploring how individuals use cultural, spiritual, and existential resources to handle life crises. These projects have examined coping in the contexts of cancer, COVID-19, bereavement, and war, with research collaborations spanning Brazil, China, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, the Philippines, and Turkey.
In addition to her international projects, Professor Ahmadi directs the Diversity Barometer, which analyses attitudes toward ethnic diversity and integration in Sweden. She has also conducted studies on children’s existential questions and the relationship between music and coping. Through her contributions, she has advanced the understanding of cultural dimensions of health and coping, offering valuable insights into how people in different societies confront adversity and search for meaning.
Munobwa has Ph.D. in social work. He is lecturer on the Social Work Programs at the Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies - Department of Social Work and Criminology. He has been in the research group Mening-making coping with Crisis and contributed in divergent ways to this research.
Cetrez is Professor in psychology of religion, at Uppsala University. His principal areas of research in order of priority are: 1) the health of forced migrants; 2) coping and resilience; 3) terrorism, conflict and genocide, and; 4) identity, youth and values. These four areas are linked, as they all deal with issues of meaning-making, and culture.
Akhavan is an Associate Professor in Public Health and a researcher at the National Board of Health and Welfare, as well as a research affiliate at AHA, University of Gävle. Akhavan has been one of the main researchers in the project Meaning-Making Coping with Corona, which is part of the international research programme Meaning-Making Coping with Crisis.
Nataliia Melnyk, Ph.D. in Pedagogical Sciences (Didactics, 2011), is Acting Dean and Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation at the Faculty of Psychology, Communications, and Translation, State University “Kyiv Aviation Institute.” Her research focuses on comparative didactics, teaching methodologies, sociology, psychology, and sociolinguistics. Her current projects address the transformation of higher education in Ukraine under wartime conditions, societal changes during periods of instability, coping strategies among Ukrainians in conflict, the role of national and cultural identity in fostering psychological resilience, and the sustainability of democracy under the threat of war.
Saeid Zandi earned his Ph.D. in Counseling from Allameh Tabataba'i University, Iran, in 2024. Since 2014, he has provided counseling services in clinical and organizational settings, specializing in marriage and family counseling, couple therapy, career counseling, and human resource psychology. Dr. Zandi serves as a Research Affiliate at the Department of Social Work and Criminology within the Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies at the University of Gävle, Sweden. His primary research interest lies at the intersection of cultural psychology, positive psychology, and existential psychology. He explores how individuals search for and create meaning, build resilience, and thrive after experiencing adversity and stressful events. Specifically, he investigates how culture potentially influences an individual's inner strengths and meaning-focused coping resources when navigating adverse life experiences, such as illness, crises, loss, and psychological trauma. Additionally, Saeid Zandi has conducted research in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, with a particular focus on organizational ethics, professional ethics, and work ethic.
Zahra Darvishpour (Bagherishad)
Zahra Darvishpour is PhD candidate in Gender Studies and part-time Lecturer in Social Work. She is researcher and educator with expertise in honour-related violence, masculinity, youth issues, and social crises. She has led projects on gender and migration, focusing on unaccompanied minors and single mothers, and delivers lectures and training to promote understanding and practical skills in times of crisis.
Expected Results
The project aims to deepen the understanding of the strategies people use to find meaning and cope with difficult emotional and existential situations during times of war or the threat of war. The results are expected to contribute new knowledge about how cultural and existential resources are utilised in crisis situations and to provide important insights for the development of future support and health promotion initiatives.
This page was last updated 2025-12-05