{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T19:16:29Z","timestamp":1792178189655,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]],"date-time":"2025-09-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758844800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, Canada"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000780","name":"European Union","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["CZ.02.01.01\/00\/23_025\/0008715"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CZ.02.01.01\/00\/23_025\/0008715"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000780","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Reports indicate that millions of people have been watching the Russian\u2013Ukrainian war that broke out on 24 February 2022. This research studies the relationship between watching the war and psychological reactions in 1260 university students who responded to an online questionnaire related to watching the war on various media forms. Data were collected from April to October 2022 from five national samples from Europe (Germany, Finland, and the Czech Republic) and North America (Canada and the U.S.). Since European countries are assumed to have greater ties with the countries at war, anxiety, anger, and denial while watching the war should be greater in European participants than in North American ones. Worry about the war should be greater when more hours are spent watching the war, and anxiety related to the war should decrease with self-efficacy. ANOVA results showed that European participants spent more hours watching the war, worried more, and experienced greater distress than North American ones. Path analysis showed that having relatives, friends, or colleagues in Ukraine or Russia was associated with worry about the war through hours spent watching it. Self-efficacy was negatively related to anxiety. Psychological distress related to watching the war was far-reaching, extending to countries beyond Ukraine and Russia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs15101319","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]],"date-time":"2025-09-26T09:35:49Z","timestamp":1758879349000},"page":"1319","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Watching the Russian\u2013Ukrainian War: Comparison Between Europe and North America"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Esther R.","family":"Greenglass","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Petra","family":"Begic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Petra","family":"Buchwald","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3765-8343","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Taina","family":"Hintsa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, 80100 Joensuu, Finland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4492-2843","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Krzysztof","family":"Kaniasty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15701, USA"},{"name":"Polish Academy of Sciences, 1 Defilad Square, 00-901 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3414-0020","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Petri","family":"Karkkola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, 80100 Joensuu, Finland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iva Pol\u00e1\u010dkov\u00e1","family":"\u0160olcov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, The Czech Academy of Sciences & Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1097\/JCN.0b013e318197a985","article-title":"Depression and coping in heart failure patients: A review of the literature","volume":"24","author":"Allman","year":"2009","journal-title":"Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Thurnbull, A. 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