PSYCHOLOGICAL JOURNAL

SAMPLE FORMATION IN PSYCHODIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENT ADAPTATION: WHAT DOES AN ANALYSIS OF 95 UKRAINIAN STUDIES REVEAL?

2026-10-02T19:27:43+03:00

Background. The growing number of Ukrainian studies focusing on the adaptation and psychometric evaluation of psychodiagnostic instruments highlights the methodological importance of appropriate sample formation. Sample adequacy is determined not only by the number of participants but also by the extent to which the sample composition corresponds to the target population, the recruitment strategy employed, the objectives of the psychometric analysis, and the transparency of reporting. However, systematic evidence on sample formation and reporting practices in contemporary Ukrainian instrument adaptation studies remains limited.

Aim. To systematize current methodological recommendations for determining adequate sample size in the adaptation of psychodiagnostic instruments and to analyze practices related to sample formation, description, and justification in contemporary Ukrainian psychometric studies.

Methods. A total of 95 scientific publications reporting the adaptation, validation, or psychometric evaluation of psychodiagnostic instruments in Ukrainian samples were analyzed. The publications appeared in 78 scientific journals in psychology and related fields during 2024–2025. Studies were identified through a comprehensive review of journal issues supplemented by keyword searches. For each publication, sample size, participant characteristics, and completeness of sample reporting were analyzed. Participant categories were developed inductively through content analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and the findings were compared with current methodological recommendations for sample formation in psychometric research.

Results. The mean sample size was 355.1 participants (SD = 267.5), with a median of 276 and a range from 40 to 1,254. Samples of at least 200 participants were used in 69.6% of the studies, while 46.4% included more than 300 participants; samples of fewer than 100 participants were used in 6.3% of the studies. The most common category comprised samples described as “all willing participants” or samples for which participant characteristics were insufficiently specified (49.5%). Student samples accounted for 14.7% of the studies, while military personnel accounted for 9.5%. The findings indicate that most contemporary Ukrainian instrument adaptation studies generally meet commonly used quantitative benchmarks for sample size. However, numerical adequacy is frequently not accompanied by sufficient justification of sample composition, recruitment procedures, or correspondence between the sample and the target population.

Conclusions. The key methodological challenge in contemporary Ukrainian studies on the adaptation of psychodiagnostic instruments lies not so much in insufficient sample size as in limited transparency regarding sample formation, description, and justification. Sample planning should be guided by the specific objectives of the psychometric study, instrument characteristics, planned statistical procedures, and the target population rather than by a universal numerical threshold. The findings highlight the need for higher reporting standards regarding recruitment procedures, inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, and the limits of generalizability of psychometric findings.

Keywords: psychodiagnostics; psychometrics; psychodiagnostic instrument adaptation; psychometric validation; sample size; sample formation; psychological assessment; reporting standards.

Date of submission: 21.06.2026

Date of acceptance for publication: 21.08.2026

Date of publication: 30.08.2026

SCHOOL CURRENCY IN ADOLESCENTS’ EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: ASSOCIATIONS WITH MOTIVATION AND PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT

2026-10-02T17:11:26+03:00

Background. Adolescents in Ukraine face elevated anxiety, emotional dysregulation, and reduced motivation as a result of the full-scale war. Extracurricular activities (ECA) show protective potential, but existing school-based interventions rarely use a structured incentive mechanism to bridge external participation and internalized, autonomous motivation, and no validated token-currency instrument for this purpose has been described in the Ukrainian wartime educational context.

Objective. To describe the theoretical basis, design, and preliminary evaluation of a school token-currency system an extrinsic-incentive mechanism embedded within a broader psychological support program intended to encourage voluntary extracurricular participation and support the transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation among adolescents aged 10-16 years.

Methods. Students were offered to earn digital school currency “E-coins” for organizing or participating in extracurricular activities done by other students. Students later could exchange their E-coins for various rewards. Before and after the integration, two surveys were conducted with the time difference of 6 months using the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). 120 students took part in the first survey and 125 in the second. Analyses focused on internal and external motivation subscales and MSPSS scores in 5-9 classes.

Results. Pre–post comparisons in the token-system group showed students from the 5th classes reported the highest scores for internal and external motivation, while older students reported the lowest (p<.01), 5th classes got the highest scores in MSPSS, 7th the lowest (p<.05).

At post-test, using Welch’s t-test, the token-system group showed significant increase in both internal motivation stimulation (p=.12) and identified regulation (p=.005), support from a significant other increased significantly among 6th class (p=.036) and 8th-9th class students (p=.034). However, perceived support from friends declined significantly among students from 5th classes (p=.030).

Conclusions. The token-currency system is a feasible, theoretically grounded incentive mechanism for encouraging extracurricular participation among Ukrainian adolescents during wartime; preliminary results are mixed, and controlled longitudinal research is required before the system can be recommended as an effective motivational bridge.

Keywords: token economy; school currency, motivation, extracurricular activities, perceived social support, adolescents, self-determination theory.

Date received: 23.06.2026

Date accepted: 21.07.2026

Date published: 30.08.2026

EFFECTS OF AN EIGHT-SESSION MULTICOMPONENT PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM ON EMOTION REGULATION AND PARENTAL BURNOUT IN UKRAINIAN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A CONTROLLED QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

2026-10-02T17:00:23+03:00

Background. Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder are at increased risk of emotional distress, emotion-regulation difficulties, and parental burnout. During the full-scale war in Ukraine, chronic caregiving demands coexist with disrupted rehabilitation services, displacement, instability of social networks, and pervasive uncertainty. Recent meta-analyses support the potential value of interventions directly targeting parental mental health, although effects vary according to intervention content, duration, study design, and selected outcomes. Structured Ukrainian-language programmes evaluated with a control condition and follow-up remain scarce.

Aim. To evaluate the preliminary effectiveness and safety of an eight-session multicomponent psychological support programme for emotion-regulation difficulties, parental burnout, subjective well-being, emotional depletion, resilience, and hope among Ukrainian mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Methods. A controlled non-randomized quasi-experimental design was used. Fifty-six mothers of children with a documented autism spectrum disorder diagnosis were included: 30 completed an eight-week group programme and 26 formed a no-additional-intervention control group during the primary observation period. The programme integrated psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioural elements, mindfulness practices, emotion-regulation exercises, work with social support, values, and future orientation; metaphorical associative cards served as adjunctive visual-reflective prompts. Assessments were conducted before and after the programme, with an additional three-month follow-up in the intervention group. Measures included the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004; Ukrainian adaptation: Sak & Fedotova, 2023), Parental Burnout Assessment (Roskam et al., 2018), modified BBC Subjective Well-being Scale (Pontin et al., 2013; Ukrainian adaptation: Karamushka et al., 2022), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007; Ukrainian adaptation: Shkolina et al., 2020), the emotional-depletion subscale of the Personal Resources Inventory (Savchenko et al., 2022), and the Hope subscale of WIPPF 2.0 (Peseschkian, 1985; Ukrainian adaptation: Serdiuk, 2022). Post-intervention group differences were examined using ANCOVA adjusted for baseline scores.

Results. At post-intervention, the intervention group had lower adjusted scores than controls for emotion-regulation difficulties, F(1, 53) = 16.85, p < .001, partial η² = .232; parental burnout, F(1, 53) = 8.69, p = .006, partial η² = .135; and emotional depletion, F(1, 53) = 6.63, p = .014, partial η² = .106. The intervention group had higher subjective well-being, F(1, 53) = 5.71, p = .024, partial η² = .093; CD-RISC-10 resilience, F(1, 53) = 16.25, p < .001, partial η² = .226; and hope, F(1, 53) = 6.44, p = .016, partial η² = .104. The largest within-intervention pre–post effects concerned emotion-regulation difficulties (d_z = −.83), subjective well-being (d_z = .80), emotional depletion (d_z = −.78), and CD-RISC-10 (d_z = .78). At three months, mean emotion-regulation and parental-burnout scores had not returned to baseline. Seven of 30 participants experienced a temporary increase in distress after early sessions; all episodes resolved within 5–7 days and no participant discontinued.

Scientific novelty. This research offers empirical support for a short programme designed to help Ukrainian mothers adjust to raising a child with autism and cope with the changes brought about by war. The programme differs from similar programmes, which mainly concentrate on educating mothers in ways to effectively raise their child, as it addresses issues relevant to the mothers, including emotion regulation, resources, burnout and meaning.

Practical significance. This group-support programme is a promising tool that may provide a standard structure for inclusive resource centres, rehabilitation services, and psychological services when delivered by professionals trained in risk identification and with provisions for ongoing monitoring of clients for distress. The results from this study warrant conducting a full-scale randomizedsed trial of this intervention against an active control.

Conclusions: Participation in the programme resulted in better subjective well-being, resilience, and hope, whereas the occurrence of emotion-regulation difficulties, burnout and emotional depletion was significantly reduced. However, due to non-random assignment, the sample size was small, the data were self-reported, and there was a lack of follow-up on the control group; hence, the results are merely indicative until further research can isolate the effect of the metaphorical cards and other programme components.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; mothers; emotion regulation; parental burnout; psychological intervention; resilience; subjective well-being; quasi-experiment.

Date received: 16.06.2026

Date accepted: 23.07.2026

Date published: 30.08.2026

PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF-MOBILIZATION AS A PERSONAL RESOURCE OF SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN WARTIME UKRAINE

2026-10-02T02:08:35+03:00

Background. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are among the population groups most affected by the chronically resource-depleting environment created by the full-scale war in Ukraine, and identifying the personal resources that support their adaptation is a priority for psychological research and practice.

Objective. To examine psychological self-mobilization – the meta-regulatory capacity to activate and coordinate personal resources – as a personal resource of the socio-psychological adaptation of IDPs.

Methods. 166 adult IDPs residing in hosting communities across Ukraine (92.2% women; age M = 48.9, SD = 13.2) completed the Psychological Self-Mobilization Scale (PSMS) together with measures of resilience (CD-RISC-10), self-efficacy (GSE), coping (Brief-COPE), perceived social support (MSPSS), continuous traumatic stress (CTSR), PTSD risk, subjective well-being (BBC-SWB), sociocultural adaptation (SCAS-R), community-integration indicators, and a displacement and loss questionnaire.

Results. Despite a severe cumulative loss profile, the mean PSMS score did not differ from the pooled validation benchmark. Self-mobilization correlated with lower continuous traumatic stress (r = −.50) and PTSD risk (r = −.49) and with higher subjective well-being (r = .69), sociocultural adaptation (r = .69), and community integration (r = .24). In hierarchical regressions, it predicted mental-state stabilization, social functioning, and well-being over and above resilience, self-efficacy, and social support (ΔR² = .07–.09; β = .44–.51), while perceived support retained an independent contribution. The provisional PSMS interpretive bands clearly differentiated adaptation levels, and repeated displacement was associated with lower self-mobilization (r = −.22).

Conclusions. Psychological self-mobilization acts as an integrative personal resource of IDP adaptation with incremental value beyond its stand-alone component resources; the PSMS can serve as a practical screening tool in psychosocial support programs for displaced populations.

Keywords: psychological self-mobilization; personal resources; internally displaced persons; socio-psychological adaptation; resilience; self-efficacy; social support; wartime Ukraine.

Date of manuscript submission: 21.06.2026

Date of recommendation for publication: 20.08.2026

Date of publication: 30.08.2026

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM FOR MOTIVATION AND MENTAL HEALTH OF ADOLESCENTS IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

2026-10-01T14:04:36+03:00

Background. The mental health and motivational functioning of adolescents living under prolonged wartime conditions constitute an important challenge for educational and psychological support systems. Extracurricular activities may provide meaningful contexts for social interaction, self-expression, competence development, and psychological resource activation; however, their integration with theoretically grounded psychological interventions remains insufficiently systematized. The present study addresses this gap by combining extracurricular activities with resource-oriented and motivational approaches to adolescent psychological support.

Aim. The study aimed to develop and theoretically substantiate a modular psychological support program for adolescents aged 10–16 years that integrates extracurricular activities with structured psychological interventions and to conduct a preliminary evaluation of its implementation in relation to motivation, anxiety, empathy, perceived social support, and emotion regulation.

Methods. The study involved 341 students in grades 5–9 from schools in the Kyiv region during the 2025–2026 academic year. The program was theoretically grounded in the BASIC Ph model of coping and resilience and Self-Determination Theory. Standardized measures included the Academic Motivation Scale, Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale, Pediatric Symptom Checklist, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The developed program comprised diagnostic, psychoeducational, activity-based, and monitoring modules and differentiated extracurricular activities according to adolescents’ psychological profiles. The pre- and post-implementation assessments represented partially overlapping anonymous repeated cross-sectional samples from the same private-school population. A non-equivalent public-school sample was used for cross-sectional comparison. Data were analyzed using independent-samples Welch’s t-tests, one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post-hoc comparisons, Pearson correlations, and Cohen’s d effect sizes.

Results. The findings demonstrated a mixed pattern of outcomes. Following the four-month implementation period, the private-school post-implementation sample showed higher amotivation (d = −0.25) and greater difficulties in emotion regulation (d = −0.32), providing no support for a uniform improvement in motivational or emotional-regulation outcomes. At the post-implementation assessment, students from participating private schools reported lower anxiety (d = −0.50) and higher intrinsic motivation across knowledge, achievement, and stimulation dimensions (d = 0.27–0.36) than the non-equivalent public-school comparison group. However, because baseline data were unavailable for the comparison group and school type was confounded with program exposure, these differences cannot be attributed to the intervention. Intrinsic motivation was positively associated with empathy (r = .39, p < .001) and perceived social support (r = .45, p < .001), whereas anxiety was positively associated with internalizing symptoms (r = .69, p < .001) and emotion-regulation difficulties (r = .56, p < .001). Accordingly, the hypotheses concerning overall pre–post improvements in anxiety and other targeted outcomes were not supported, whereas the hypothesized associations between intrinsic motivation, empathy, and social support were confirmed.

Conclusions. The study resulted in the development of a theoretically grounded and empirically informed prototype of a modular psychological support program integrating extracurricular activities, psychoeducation, resource activation, and continuous monitoring. Its conceptual contribution lies in combining BASIC Ph resource channels with Self-Determination Theory and in differentiating extracurricular activities according to adolescents’ psychological profiles and needs. The preliminary empirical findings do not provide sufficient evidence of program effectiveness and should be interpreted considering the non-randomized design, anonymous repeated cross-sectional samples, non-equivalent comparison group, reliance on self-report measures, and absence of individual-level intervention-dosage tracking. The findings nevertheless identify theoretically relevant relationships among motivation, social support, empathy, anxiety, and emotion regulation and provide a basis for further refinement of the intervention. Controlled longitudinal studies with matched or randomized groups, repeated measurements, extended follow-up, and participant-level monitoring are required to determine the program’s effectiveness and potential beneficial or adverse effects under wartime educational conditions.

Keywords: adolescent mental health; intrinsic motivation; extracurricular activities; psychological support; emotion regulation; perceived social support; resilience; school-based intervention; Self-Determination Theory; BASIC Ph model.

Date of manuscript submission: 15.06.2026Date of recommendation for publication: 21.07.2026
Date of publication: 30.07.2026