**10. Transformation of personal resourcefulness under the influence of chronic stress**

Results of testing the fourth hypothesis (H4).

We used a comparative analysis (a descriptive design) due to test the last fourth hypothesis (H4) regarding the decrease in the level of personal resourcefulness in a prolonged stressful situation. At this stage, 51 students took part and completed two surveys at an interval of 3 months. We carried out the first measurement in September 2022, 6 months after the start of a full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine. Some of these students, namely 43 persons (84.3%), were in the territory of Ukraine at the time of the survey, and eight persons (15.7%) found temporary protection in the territory of European countries. The second measurement was carried out at the beginning of December 2022 (after 9 months of war). We used Student's t-test for dependent samples. The results of the comparative analysis are shown in **Table 7**.

#### **11. Discussion of the results of testing hypothesis H4**

We can state a decrease in students' resourcefulness (t = 2.41; p < 0.019) due to a slight decrease in the number of psychological resources (p = 0.07) that are available for mobilization, and a significant increase in the level of emotional exhaustion (t = 2.51; p < 0.015). No differences were found in the frequency of use of resource restoration strategies (p = 0.2), which suggests that young people did not start using means to improve their condition more often. A prolonged stressful situation did not force them to replenish their own resources consciously by using a certain strategy. We got a contradictory picture: on the one hand, students assessed their existing resources as sufficient, that they are able to mobilize them in case of a worsening situation, and on the other hand, they feel emotional exhaustion, which is an indicator of a lack of resources. It can be explained by the fact that in the sample, 17.39% of people had a high level on the "Sufficiency of resources" indicator, despite 7.25% of

#### *Development of a Methodology for the Study of Resourcefulness as an Important Indicator… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112119*

people with a low level. We should also note that 15.94% of subjects had a high level of the general indicator of personal resourcefulness, and only 8.70% had low values. Therefore, we can say that after 6 months of the war, the students still felt their ability to mobilize resources. Only 10% of respondents demonstrated a high level of emotional exhaustion. People who highly value their potential resources are less sensitive to traumatization and more easily survive stressful situations [23]. Those who have fewer resources and find it difficult to overcome stressful situations are less able to increase their resource pool [22]. In addition, experiencing loss of power, lack of resources generates "loss spirals": resources are invested to restore their level, but this does not improve the situation, a person feels an even greater loss of important resources. "When resources are insufficient to begin with, resource investment may be enough to put a person over the edge, resulting in further losses" [23]. Here the question arises why individuals do not increase their strategic potential, why they do not apply strategies for restoring resources. We consider two prospective answers. First, it is possible that a high starting level of "sufficiency of resources" creates the "illusion of invulnerability." Individuals do not feel the need to seek out and learn new strategies. They are full of confidence that they will overcome the situation on their own; they are able to control their behavior and the development of events. The metacognitive experience of confidence strongly affects people's judgements and blocks certain cognitive functions (gathering additional data, checking information, checking ideas about reality, etc.) [48]. Secondly, the state of resource scarcity strongly narrows the behavioral repertoire of individuals and facilitates the simplification of response forms. More often than not, individuals with few resources take a defensive position in an attempt to conserve limited resources. They choose a strategy of storage rather than recovery or the search for new resources. They "decrease engagement with the broader environmental context, including potential access to other valued resources" [23].

## **12. Conclusion**

Therefore, we have proposed the author's model of personal resourcefulness as a metacognitive experience of available psychological resources, which includes a sense of the total amount of resources and mental energy, awareness of one's ability to mobilize, replenish and restore resources and knowledge of strategies for doing it. It was established that the general level of personal resourcefulness is a significant factor in all forms of well-being that were analyzed in the study (subjective, psychological, social and global).

According to the indicators of personal resourcefulness, we distinguished five types, namely: "high resourcefulness," "high-stress resistance," "inefficient use of strategies," "passivity in the search for resources," and "high emotional exhaustion." It was established that the highest indicators of various forms of well-being have individuals who belong to the types "high resourcefulness" and "high stress resistance." Individuals who belong to the type of "high emotional exhaustion" have the lowest level of well-being. Against the background of prolonged chronic stress, caused by a full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine, we observe a significant decrease in the level of personal resourcefulness, as Ukrainian students experience an increase in emotional exhaustion, overestimate their psychological resources as sufficient to overcome the stressful situation and do not expand the strategic potential of restoring resource. One of the research prospects is the development of the main variant of personal resourcefulness questionnaire, which will include the indicators of allocation, mobilization, replenishment and restoring of psychological resources. It is important for us to present the functioning of resourcefulness as a complex experience at three levels (cognitive and metacognitive and personal) to take into account indicators of the presence, sufficiency and availability of psychological resources.
