Young People' Coping Behavior in Situation of a Personal Crisis

Abstract

The subject of the study is coping behavior in a situation of experiencing a personal crisis. The empirical object of the study was young people who are an important resource of socio-economic transformations in our society. The age period itself, from a psychological point of view, is a time of personality formation, active entry into new types of activities, social roles, self-realization. However, the postmodern world sets a very high pace of human existence, the change of life situations and orientations occurs abruptly, almost instantly, which causes a high stress load on young people, against the background of awareness of the mismatch of external circumstances and semantic structures of personality, there is an experience of a personal crisis, the negative consequence of which is its socio-psychological maladaptation. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it is based on the three-component model of L.G. Zhedunova, based on which methods were selected to diagnose the experience of personal crisis in young people. It turned out that more than half of the young people studied are in a state of experiencing a personal crisis. The peculiarity of their coping behavior is the predominant use of the strategies of "distancing" and "avoidance", they tend to ignore the strategy of "taking responsibility". They are also characterized by a tendency to exaggerate existing problems, an increased level of anxiety, low mood, passivity, poor health, increased sensitivity, impressionability, vulnerability, lack of leadership qualities, the predominance of intrapersonal conflict consisting in the confrontation of two contradictory traits – conformity and nonconformism, the predominance of motivation to avoid failures, a tendency to conflict behavior. The data obtained can be useful for both psychological consultants and representatives of psychological support services, since the identified features of young people in a state of experiencing a personal crisis can become targets of psychological assistance to overcome it.