This study examines the key determinants of life satisfaction among students during the ongoing war. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on survey data from 936 participants, we find that online learning is a core condition for low levels of life satisfaction. In contrast, offline and mixed learning modes constitute both necessary and sufficient conditions for higher life satisfaction among Ukrainian students. These results suggest that maintaining traditional, in-person learning environments may help constrain the deterioration of students’ subjective well-being in conflict-affected contexts.
Life satisfaction is defined as an individual’s evaluation of their overall quality of life. Conflict can influence this form of subjective well-being in multiple ways. In specifying this influence, literature offers three main explanations: mental health deterioration, security concerns, and social networks disruption.
Determinants of life satisfaction during conflict
The mental health approach assumes that psychological health alters life satisfaction by defining an individual’s perception of and response to daily experiences. Good mental health is associated with more intense enjoyment from positive events across various life domains and, hence, greater overall life satisfaction. It also encourages more optimistic expectations about the future, enhancing even present well-being. From this perspective, conflict can reduce life satisfaction by causing multiple psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, and distress.
The security approach assumes that conflict erodes the feeling of safety through threats of occupation, missile attacks, and widespread destruction. Safety provides a critical sense of control and stability, allowing individuals to feel relaxed in their present circumstances and hopeful about the future and hence is foundational for maintaining satisfaction with life. In contrast, unsafety, especially when experienced over long periods, disables these regulative mechanisms, causing stress and anxiety, and as a consequence low life satisfaction. In line with this argument, empirical studies report a negative association between feelings of unsafety and subjective well-being, with correlation coefficients ranging from -0.19 to -0.33.
Finally, the social networks approach assumes that life satisfaction is closely linked to social relationships and interactions within a broader community. Social networks provide individuals with a sense of connectedness, promoting the feeling of being cared for or belonging to a network of mutual support. Positive interactions with others can also help manage stress, anxiety, and depression by facilitating the development of coping strategies and emotional regulations that ultimately contribute to higher levels of life satisfaction.
These same networks are, however, highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of war. On the one hand, war leads to displacement, which disrupts social ties and weakens overall support structures, particularly for young individuals. Displacement separates families and distances young people from their peer networks. On the other hand, war disrupts social networks among youth by necessitating a shift to online learning. This mode of learning erodes social connections, leading to a decline in the overall subjective well-being. It often causes social isolation, generating various fears among students, such as concerns about academic failure and the loss of communication opportunities. As a result, students engaged in online learning report a higher rate of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder compared to their peers attending in-person classes.
In summary, conflict can influence individuals’ life satisfaction through a variety of mechanisms. These mechanisms have not yet been examined in the context of Ukraine, despite their clear relevance. The ongoing war has generated widespread security concerns, contributed to severe mental health challenges, resulted in large-scale displacement and a shift to online learning. Collectively, these factors are likely to exert a substantial impact on life satisfaction among Ukrainians. This study focuses on Ukrainian students and examines how the aforementioned mechanisms influence their life satisfaction.
Data and variables’ choice
The analysis is based on data collected through an online survey conducted in November and December 2024. The survey targeted Ukrainian university students from all regions, excluding areas temporarily occupied by Russia. There can be a selection bias in the sample, given that participants may be more self-aware of their life satisfaction than non-participants. In total, 936 persons provided responses in this survey. Their age ranged from 16 to 25, with a mean age of 19.8 years. 63.4 percent of respondents were female, about half of them were employed at the moment the survey was conducted.
In this analysis, the dependent variable is life satisfaction, operationalized through a question asking respondents to rate their overall life satisfaction by using a scale from 1 “Completely dissatisfied” to 10 “Completely satisfied.” Variables measuring the respondents’ mental health include anxiety, with values ranging from 1 (“Not anxious at all”) to 10 (“Completely anxious”), and frequency of obsessive thoughts about war or death. Both obsessive thoughts variables use a Likert-type response scale, varying from 1 (“All the time”) to 7 (“Never”). Security concerns due to conflict are captured through perceived safety, ranging from 1 (Feel completely unsafe) to 10 (Feel completely safe). All questions asked respondents to position themselves on the proposed scale and, hence, reflect their personal perceptions of safety and preoccupation with thoughts about the war or death. Displacement after February 2022 is recorded as a binary variable, where a value of 1 indicates that the respondent had relocated due to the war either internally or abroad, and 0 indicates that they had not. Study format includes offline, mixed, and online learning modes. Due to identical values of mean, median and standard deviation of life satisfaction for the mixed and offline formats, this predictor is recorded into a binary variable, with “offline” and “mixed” coded as 1 and “online” coded as 0.
Method description
The intended impacts are analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which allows for both yes/no (crisp) and partial (fuzzy) membership in sets, meaning that elements can belong to a set to a certain degree, anywhere between 0 and 1. Membership scores are calculated using a logistic function with three anchors: the 20th percentile representing full non-membership, the 50th percentile representing the crossover point, and the 80th percentile representing full membership. These membership scores are further used to estimate how different factors, called conditions, work together to produce the same result, like high or low life satisfaction. This analysis assumes that what leads to high life satisfaction might be different from what leads to low satisfaction. Consequently, fsQCA identifies combinations separately for high and low levels of the outcome variable.
The quality of results is evaluated using consistency and coverage. Consistency measures how reliably a specific combination of the selected predictors produces a particular outcome, such as high or low life satisfaction. A high consistency score indicates that nearly all cases with this combination of conditions experience the same level of life satisfaction. Coverage indicates how much of the outcome is explained by that combination of conditions. Conventionally, thresholds of 0.8 for consistency and 0.6 for coverage are used to identify meaningful configurations.
Analysis and results
The fsQCA procedure includes the identification of both necessary and sufficient conditions. Necessary conditions refer to predictors that consistently occur whenever individuals exhibit high levels of life satisfaction. Sufficient conditions, in contrast, are specific combinations of conditions that can generate the outcome, meaning that their presence is enough for high life satisfaction to emerge.
Table 1 shows the results of the necessity analysis. The offline and mixed learning has the consistency of 0.866 and the coverage of 0.652. The consistency indicates that 86.6 percent of students who experienced these study modes also reported high life satisfaction. The coverage shows that these two learning modes explain 65.2 percent of the cases with high life satisfaction. Together, these numbers suggest that offline and mixed learning formats are a necessary condition for high life satisfaction in this context. However, the opposite outcome, i.e. the online learning, does not constitute a necessary condition for low life satisfaction.
Table 1. Results of the Necessity Analysis
| Conditions | High Life Satisfaction | Low Life Satisfaction | ||
| Consistency | Coverage | Consistency | Coverage | |
| Anxiety | 0.463 | 0.541 | 0.643 | 0.577 |
| ~ Anxiety | 0.638 | 0.700 | 0.488 | 0.411 |
| Offline/mixed learning | 0.866 | 0.652 | 0.602 | 0.348 |
| ~ Offline/mixed learning | 0.134 | 0.305 | 0.398 | 0.695 |
| Displacement | 0.656 | 0.549 | 0.702 | 0.451 |
| ~ Displacement | 0.344 | 0.601 | 0.298 | 0.399 |
| No death thoughts | 0.687 | 0.664 | 0.570 | 0.423 |
| ~ No death thoughts | 0.403 | 0.550 | 0.548 | 0.573 |
| No war thoughts | 0.621 | 0.708 | 0.417 | 0.365 |
| ~ No war thoughts | 0.443 | 0.498 | 0.667 | 0.575 |
| Feels safe | 0.583 | 0.631 | 0.533 | 0.442 |
| ~ Feels safe | 0.484 | 0.575 | 0.555 | 0.505 |
Note: In fsQCA, the opposite of an outcome or condition is shown with a tilde (~). For example, ~offline/mixed learning represents online learning instead of offline/mixed learning, and ~anxiety indicates the absence of anxiety. This notation makes it easy to distinguish between the presence and absence of conditions or outcomes in the analysis.
The sufficiency analysis indicates that high life satisfaction cannot be reduced to any single condition. Instead, specific combinations of multiple conditions yield this satisfaction as summarized in Table 2. The study format appears in five out of six sufficient combinations (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6), acting as a near-universal condition.
More specifically, Combination 1 suggests that students feel satisfied with their life when they continue studying in an offline/mixed mode and experience no obsessive thoughts about the war, even if they have thoughts about death. Configuration 2 indicates that young people still maintain high life satisfaction during displacement, provided their anxiety levels remain low, they feel safe in their new place of residence, and they continue studying on campus. In Configuration 3, the negative effects of displacement can be mitigated by the absence of death-related thoughts. However, other conditions, including offline study mode and high levels of perceived safety, must be maintained to ensure high life satisfaction.
Alternatively, Configuration 4 shows that in the absence of displacement, students exhibit indifference to the mode of study. However, to compensate for the lack of safety in such situations, it is essential that students do not experience anxiety or obsessive thoughts about the war or death. Configurations 5 and 6 suggest that displacement or a sense of insecurity in one’s place of residence can be mitigated through improved mental conditions. Specifically, individuals who maintain low levels of anxiety and avoid obsessive thoughts about the war are able to sustain high life satisfaction, even in the face of displacement, as long as they can continue studying offline in their new location (Configuration 5). Similarly, for students who remain in their home environment and face reduced safety levels, high life satisfaction can still be achieved if they maintain low anxiety, refrain from thinking about the war, and have access to offline/mixed learning opportunities (Configuration 6).
Table 2. FsQCA Combinations for High Life Satisfaction
| Combinations | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Anxiety | ○ | ○ | ○ | ○ | ||
| Offline/mixed learning | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| Displacement | ● | ● | ○ | ● | ||
| No death thoughts | ○ | ● | ● | |||
| No war thoughts | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Feels safe | ● | ● | ○ | ○ | ||
| Consistency | 0.844 | 0.842 | 0.840 | 0.914 | 0.847 | 0.896 |
| PRI | 0.768 | 0.798 | 0.805 | 0.890 | 0.803 | 0.860 |
| Solution Coverage | 0.168 | 0.267 | 0.287 | 0.083 | 0.225 | 0.175 |
| Unique coverage | 0.039 | 0.051 | 0.073 | 0.016 | 0.007 | 0.003 |
| Overall solution consistency | 0.837 | 0.840 | ||||
| Overall solution coverage | 0.527 | 0.523 | ||||
Notes: The black circles (●) denote the presence of a condition, while the empty circle (○) indicates the absence of a condition; empty cells indicate a “does not matter” situation in which the condition may be either present or absent. Every column represents a separate configuration of conditions meeting sufficiency criteria.
In the case of low life satisfaction, fsQCA identifies four configurations (see Table 3). Again, the study format acts as a main condition as it appears in three out of the four combinations (Configurations 1, 2 and 3). Online learning should be combined, however, with other conditions to lead to low life satisfaction. In particular, Configuration 1 implies that students report dissatisfaction with life when they are deprived of the opportunity to study on-campus (offline) and experience frequent thoughts about death. This holds true even when students report feeling safe in their place of residence. Configuration 2 suggests that displacement is associated with low life satisfaction, especially when combined with online learning, high anxiety levels, and frequent thoughts about war. Configuration 3 indicates that even those students who do not experience obsessive thoughts about war and feel safe in their place of residence, report low life satisfaction if they have been displaced and study online. However, as Configuration 4 illustrates, displacement and online learning are not the only factors that jointly relate to low life satisfaction. Even when students avoid displacement and have access to offline learning, low life satisfaction can still be observed among those who experience increased levels of anxiety and persistent obsessive thoughts related to war, despite not having thoughts about death.
Table 3. FsQCA Combinations for Low Life Satisfaction
| Combinations | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Anxiety | ● | ● | ||
| Offline/mixed learning | ○ | ○ | ○ | ● |
| Displacement | ● | ● | ○ | |
| No death thoughts | ○ | ● | ||
| No war thoughts | ○ | ● | ○ | |
| Feels safe | ● | ● | ||
| Consistency | 0.883 | 0.949 | 0.860 | 0.873 |
| PRI | 0.860 | 0.944 | 0.817 | 0.830 |
| Solution Coverage | 0.137 | 0.186 | 0.069 | 0.053 |
| Unique coverage | 0.043 | 0.099 | 0.027 | 0.053 |
| Overall solution consistency | 0.899 | |||
| Overall solution coverage | 0.319 | |||
Notes: FsQCA produces three metrics for measuring coverage in configurations (Brush et al., 2024): raw coverage, unique coverage, and solution coverage. Raw coverage quantifies the proportion of memberships in the outcome explained by each term of the solution, reflecting the explanatory power of individual configurational solutions. Unique coverage quantifies the portion of overall coverage that derives exclusively from a specific path. Finally, solution coverage measures the proportion of memberships in the outcome explained by the complete solution and is partially analogous to R-squared in regression analysis. A threshold of 0.60 or higher is considered statistically sufficient for coverage.
Conclusions
Overall, avoiding shifts to online learning during conflict appears as a key condition for ensuring students’ life satisfaction. This finding aligns with previous research suggesting that online learning can diminish subjective well-being. Anxiety serves as an additional mechanism linking life satisfaction to the repercussions of war, while perceived security acts as a substitutive condition for obsessive thoughts about war or death in influencing satisfaction with life. In other words, students must either feel secure or avoid obsessive thoughts about war and death to preserve high life satisfaction during the war.
The findings also reveal that displacement from one’s usual environment does not significantly affect students’ life satisfaction, provided they are able to continue learning in regular educational settings with offline or mixed learning formats. This aligns with previous research indicating that young individuals who maintain fulfilling relationships with peers and educators are better equipped to adapt to crisis situations and preserve life satisfaction. Lastly, if the safety condition is not met, and young individuals feel unsafe, likely due to avoiding displacement, it is crucial to shield them from the psychological impacts of war, such as anxiety and obsessive thoughts about war. This can be achieved, for instance, by providing on-campus psychological support and programs that help young people cope with anxiety and thoughts related to the war or death. In cases where these conditions cannot be met, it becomes essential to ensure that students feel secure, even through displacement, while also maintaining access to offline or mixed learning formats in order to preserve their subjective well-being.
Considering the increased role of offline and mixed learning in maintaining students’ life satisfaction, governments and educational authorities should support universities with the necessary resources, training, and regulatory flexibility to maintain on-campus education. Universities should adopt flexible and safety-conscious strategies that ensure continuity of education while minimizing risk. This may include establishing designated safe zones for learning and providing flexible academic schedules with options such as staggered class times, evening or weekend sessions to reduce exposure to war-related dangers. Where full campus access is not feasible, institutions should use blended learning approaches—such as combining limited in-person teaching with offline resources like printed materials or pre-loaded digital content. These measures can help preserve on-campus education and hence keep Ukrainian students satisfied with their lives during the war.
Photo: depositphotos.com/ua
