The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

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  • Vol. 21, No. 2, 2026

  • Psychological consequences of combat stress in military personnel: The relationship with self-efficacy

  • Received 11.11.2025,
  • Revised 25.02.2026,
  • Accepted 30.03.2026
  • Published 16.04.2026
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Vol. 21, No. 2, 2026
  • exhaustion; fatigue; post-traumatic manifestations; self-efficacy; somatic symptoms
  • https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-26-21-2-27-38
  • Pages 27-38

The relevance of this study stems from the need to analyse post-traumatic disorders and their relationship with self-efficacy, given the conflicting approaches in scientific research and the limited amount of data available on military personnel carrying out combat missions. The aim of the study was to determine the level of psychological consequences of war-related stress in military personnel, to establish relationships between various symptoms and the consequences of stress, and to analyse their link with self-efficacy indicators. Psychodiagnostic methods were used to conduct the study, which enabled the assessment of the intensity of symptoms of acute stress disorder: the National Stressful Events Survey Acute Stress Disorder Short Scale (NSESSS); post-traumatic stress disorder: the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5), The Short Screening Scale for DSM-IV PTSD; fatigue: Fatigue Assessment Scale – FAS; and psychosomatic disorders: Patient Health Questionnaire-15 – PHQ-15, Giessen Complaint List – GBB-24, specifically cardiac and gastric complaints, pain in various parts of the body, and psychosomatic exhaustion. Self-efficacy was assessed using the following scales: General Self-Efficacy Scale – GSEF and Allgemeine Selbstwirksamkeit Kurzskala – ASKU. The study results indicated the simultaneous presence of moderate acute stress, a significant proportion of positive screening for post-traumatic stress disorder, increased fatigue, and a noticeable somatic burden (particularly regarding the “pain” and “exhaustion” components). The level of self-efficacy for the vast majority of participants remained at moderate to high levels. Regression analysis demonstrated that somatic manifestations are determined by a combination of age and stress-traumatic load, whilst fatigue is predominantly caused by stress-traumatic factors and is partially mitigated by behavioural self-efficacy. The practical value of the results lies in the possibility of their implementation for timely monitoring to identify military personnel with critical indicators of psychological trauma and to provide them with the necessary timely assistance; the development of psychological recovery and rehabilitation programmes for military personnel, where the priority is to address the consequences of traumatic stress as a key factor in somatisation, whilst the development of behavioural self-efficacy serves as an additional resource for strengthening their psychophysiological resilience

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