Diagnosis and prevention of deviant behavior and optimization of social adaptation of university students

Abstract

Introduction. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to diagnose and prevent destructive behavior and social adaptation of university students. It is important to identify patterns of student adaptation development at the university, to find ways to prevent, and in the future, to correct behavior. For this, psychological and legal issues of prevention of destructive behavior become a support. The purpose of the work is to establish the patterns of development of social adaptation of students at the university for the prevention and diagnosis of destructive behavior. Methods. Based on the system and structural-level approaches, the research methods were determined: longitudinal and buffer slices of the empirical base. Such a design of the study made it possible to study the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of university adaptation. 1200 students of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Psychology of the first year of study took part in the study. The following methods were used to identify psychological patterns: methodology «Adaptation of students to higher education» (M. S. Yurkina), diagnostic test of the level of empathic abilities (V. V. Boyko), S. Maddi’s resilience questionnaire (adapted by D. A. Leontiev). Research results. The regularities of the development of university adaptation are established for the first time. A significant decrease in university adaptation among students in the first semester was revealed (p>0.001). The mechanism of the decrease in university adaptation is explained through the regularity of hysteresis. This is the effect of «lagging» adaptation, similar to a “loop”. When comparing faculties, differences were found: the Faculty of Law has on average higher adaptability than the Faculty of Psychology at the fourth stage (p>0.001). Diagnosis of university adaptability has the most prognostic value at the 4th month of testing. University adaptability is universal regardless of gender and age, but significant differences related to the specialty of training have been found. Conclusion. Based on previous theoretical and empirical studies, we conclude that it is necessary to use a set of models for the prevention of destructive behavior