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Background: The military conflict in Ukraine that started in 2014 was accompanied with many changes in the political, economic and social spheres. It brought informal volunteering activities (i.e. one form of social capital) to emerge, function and later to be formalized, in order to support soldiers and their families. This situation is unique given the transitional setting of Ukraine, which has led to comparably low levels of social capital and negative indicators of health and well-being. This thesis aims to explore social capital during military conflict in contemporary Ukraine and to analyze the associations between social capital and well-being, as well as the distribution of social capital among Ukrainian women and men. Methods: The study combines a qualitative and quantitative research design. A case study was conducted using qualitative methodology. Eighteen in-depth interviews were collected with providers and utilizers of volunteering services. Grounded Theory and social action ideal types methodology of Weber were used for the analysis. The quantitative research utilized two secondary datasets. The World Health Survey was utilized to analyze the association between social capital and physical and mental well-being for women (n=1723) and men (n=910) by means of multivariate logistic regression. The European Social Survey (wave 6) was used in order to investigate access to social capital and the determinants of gender inequalities in the access with a sample of 1377 women and 797 men. Multivariate logistic regression and postregression Fairlie's decomposition analysis were used to analyze the determinants of the inequalities. Results: The key findings of this thesis show that social capital transforms during military conflict and takes particular forms in transitional settings. There are positive and negative effects on well-being connected to crisisrelated volunteering. The associations between social capital and well-being vary for women and men in favour of women. Social capital is unequally distributed between different social groups. Some forms of social capital may have stronger buffering effect on women than men in Ukraine. Access to social capital can be viewed as an indicator for social well-being, and thus social capital can be used both as a determinant and an outcome in social capital and health research. Conclusion: Informal social participation, i.e. volunteering might play an important role in societal crises and needs to be considered in social capital measurements and interventions. Social capital measurements utilized in stable societies do not evidently capture these forms, i.e. it is not taken into account. The associations between social capital and well-being depend on the measurements that are used. Since social capital has both positive and negative effects on well-being, this should be considered in research, policies and practices in order to prevent negative and promote positive outcomes. In Ukraine, as well as in other settings, social capital is an unequal resource for different societal groups. Reducing gender and income inequalities would probably influence the distribution of social capital within the society. ; Bakgrund: Den militära konflikten i Ukraina som startade 2014 fick många politiska, ekonomiska och sociala konsekvenser. Konfliktsituationen triggade bland annat framväxten av omfattande informella volontärverksamheter (en form av social kapital) som senare formaliserades, för att stödja soldater och deras familjer. Denna situation är relativt unik, med tanke på Ukrainas postsovjetiska historia med jämförelsevis låga nivåer av socialt kapital och negativa indikatorer för hälsa och välbefinnande. Denna avhandling syftar att undersöka betydelsen av socialt kapital under pågående militär konflikt i Ukraina, samt att analysera sambandet mellan social kapital och välbefinnande, såväl som fördelningen av social kapitalt mellan kvinnor och män i Ukraina. Metoder: Studien kombinerar en kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskningsdesign. En fallstudie genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa metoder. Arton djupintervjuer med volontärer samt mottagare av volontärstöd genomfördes. Analysen genomfördes med hjälp av Grundad Teori och Webers sociala idealtyper. Den kvantitativa forskningen är baserad på två sekundära datamaterial. Världshälsoorganisationens (WHOs) World Health Survey användes för att analysera sambandet mellan socialt kapital och fysiskt och mentalt välbefinnande för kvinnor (n = 1723) och män (n = 910) med hjälp av multivariabel logistisk regression. European Social Survey (våg 6) användes för att undersöka tillgången till socialt kapital och bestämningsfaktorer för ojämlikhet i tillgången till socialt kapital mellan kvinnor (n = 1377) och män ( n = 797). Analysen genomfördes med hjälp av multivariabel logistisk regression och post-regression Fairlie decomposition analys. Resultat: Resultaten i denna avhandling visar att social kapital transformeras under pågående militär konflikt och antar särskilda former i övergångssamhällen som Ukraina. Det finns både positiva och negativa effekter på välbefinnande relaterat till volontärarbete under pågående samhällskris. Sambanden mellan social kapital och välbefinnande varierar för kvinnor och män till förmån för kvinnor. Vissa former av socialt kapital kan ha en starkare skyddande effekt för kvinnor än män i Ukraina. Resultaten visar också att socialt kapital fördelas ojämnt mellan män och kvinnor. Tillgången till socialt kapital kan betraktas som en indikator för socialt välbefinnande och socialt kapital kan därmed användas både som determinant och ett utfall i studier om socialt kapital, hälsa och välbefinnande. Slutsats: Informellt socialt deltagande, dvs volontärarbete, kan spela en viktig roll i samhällskriser och behöver beaktas i såväl mätningar som interventioner av socialt kapital. Mätningar av socialt kapital i "stabila" samhällen fångar nödvändigtvis inte dessa former av socialt kapital. Sambandet mellan social kapital och välbefinnande beror till stor det på vilka mått för socialt kapital som används. Eftersom socialt kapital har både positiva och negativa effekter på välbefinnande bör det tas i beaktande i forskning, policy och praxis för att kunna förhindra negativa effekter och främja de positiva effekterna. I Ukraina, liksom i andra samhällen, är socialt kapital en ojämn resurs för olika samhällsgrupper. Att minska klyftor mellan könen och inkomstgrupper skulle troligen påverka fördelningen av socialt kapital i samhället.

BACKGROUND: The effects of war as well as military conflict include long-term physical and psychological harm to children and adults. Social relations and trust play a role in peace building and conflict resolution. Social capital is believed to facilitate institutional and interpersonal trust as well as safety and security, and thus may become an important resource in times of military conflict. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to analyse how social capital may be transformed due to a military conflict in contemporary Ukraine and to explore the role of voluntarily services in this change. Further we aim to discuss the possible influence of social capital transformation on mental health in times of military conflict. METHODS: A qualitative case study design was chosen to explore it. In-depth interviews were chosen as a method for data collection. Informant's selection criteria were: either to be involved in volunteering activities in the city of Khmelnitsky (which is the place of research) or to receive volunteering help. 18 interviews were conducted. Informants were reached by snowball sampling. Interviews are collected, transcribed, translated and analyzed using constructive Grounded Theory approach of Charmaz. RESULTS: Our results show that social capital transforms during military conflict experiences. The changes happen both in cognitive and structural components since they are connected. The most important changes occur in bonding social capital, where new formation such as brotherhood, emerges and replaces previous bonding ties with family and friends. In addition, voluntarily acting actors (those who normally belong to bridging social capital) transform into relations with bonding entities. New forms of social capital are thus generated through the existence of voluntary services, and these networks provide essential social support in times of military conflict. Perceived support softens negative emotional responses to traumatic events. In line with the stress-buffering model, our results support that the formation of new social capital in times of military conflict may protect against the negative mental health effects of these experiences.

The positive health effects of volunteering are quite well described in the lite- rature; however, potential negative effects of volunteering are less explored. Volunteering got attention in Ukraine because of the recent political crisis that brought military conflict to the Eastern part of the country in 2014. In- formal volunteering has transformed into a formal one. In order to be able to organize volunteering that promotes well-being, it is important to have more in-depth knowledge about motives behind volunteering as well as the positive and potential negative effects of it. We explore the case voluntary work in of one of the cities in Ukraine. Military conflict context has its own specifics and different motives make people act voluntarily. There are goal-oriented, val- ue-oriented, affectual and traditional motives present in our data. The data shows that involvement in volunteering brings positive returns on well-being of the providers such as enlarging the circles of friendship and expanding the networks volunteers involved in; brings positive emotions into life; compen- sates the efforts and gives meaning to life. However, the negative effects of volunteering are also present. They are physical tiredness and a lot of time spent on volunteering activities; becoming disconnected from the ordinary (non-volunteering) world; unsafety; neglect of own needs and experiences of negative emotions out of the involvement in volunteering activities.

BACKGROUND: Social capital is one of the social determinants of health, but there is still a lack of studies comparing its significance for health in different cultural settings. This study investigates and compares the relations between individual cognitive social capital and depressive symptoms and self-rated health in Sweden and Ukraine for men and women separately. STUDY DESIGN: Two cross-sectional nationally representative surveys of adult populations were used for the analysis. Data from the Ukraine's World Health Survey and the Sweden's National Public Health Survey were analyzed in this comparative study. METHODS: The independent variable, cognitive social capital, was operationalized as institutional trust and feelings of safety. Depressive symptoms and self-rated health were used as the outcome variables. Crude and adjusted odds ratios and the 95 % confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression. The model also adjusted for socio-demographic and lifestyle variables. RESULTS: Institutional trust is higher in Sweden compared to Ukraine (31 % of the Swedes vs. 12 % of the Ukrainians reported high trust to their national government/parliament). There is a strong association between self-rated health and institutional trust for both sexes in Sweden (odds ratio/OR = 1.99; 95 % CI = 1.58-2.50 for women and OR = 1.82, CI = 1.48-2.24 for men who reported low institutional trust compared with those with high institutional trust) but only for women (OR = 1.88, CI = 1.12-3.15) in Ukraine. Trust thus seems to be more important for self-rated health of women and men in Sweden compared to their counterparts in Ukraine. Significant associations between depressive symptoms and institutional trust were not observed in either country after adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. A lack of feeling of safety increased the odds of having depressive symptoms among women (OR = 1.97, CI = 1.41-2.76) and men (OR = 3.91, CI = 2.19-6.97) in Sweden. The same association was observed for poor self-rated health among Swedish women (OR = 2.15, CI = 1.55-2.99) and men (OR = 2.75, CI = 1.58-4.80). In Ukraine, a lack of feeling of safety did not show any significant association with self-rated health or depressive symptoms for men, but it increased the odds of depressive symptoms among women (OR = 1.72, CI = 1.13-2.62). CONCLUSIONS: In general, individual cognitive social capital is higher in Sweden than in Ukraine, and there is a stronger association between cognitive social capital and self-rated health in Sweden than in Ukraine. Interventions aiming to increase cognitive social capital for health promoting purposes might be favorable in Sweden, but this is not evidently the case in Ukraine.