Pathopsychological Characteristics of Adaptability of Students of Lugansk State Pedagogical University in Conditions of Prolonged Stress

Relevance. A high level of adaptation of students of higher educational institutions is required to ensure academic success, actively establish and maintain social ties, form new and expand previously acquired competencies. In addition to the standard requirements imposed by the environment on students of higher educational institutions, there are additional factors in the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic that affect the effectiveness of social adaptation. This is primarily the formation of personality (the development of higher mental functions) in the context of two phases of active military conflict with a break for a frozen one. According to our research, the main factors contributing to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder among children and adolescents in the Lugansk People’s Republic include extreme stressors such as combat exposure, terrorist attacks, anticipation of further attacks, sudden death or severe injury of a relative or close friend, and witnessing serious injury or violent death.

Intention. To assess the pathopsychological characteristics of adaptability of students of Lugansk State Pedagogical University under conditions of prolonged stress.

Methodology. We have examined 124 students of Lugansk State Pedagogical University using a Multi-level Personality Questionnaire «Adaptability». The scales of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th levels were used to assess the condition of students. The indicators were evaluated on the following scales: maladaptation disorders, asthenic reactions and conditions, psychotic reactions and conditions, personal adaptive potential, behavioral regulation, communicative potential, moral normativity. All female subjects, aged 17 to 39 years, are undergraduate students of 1-4 courses or graduate students of 1-2 full-time courses.

Results and discussion. According to the testing results, two-thirds of the students demonstrated a low level of personal adaptive potential. Nearly half had a low level of behavioral regulation, and more than one-third showed low communicative potential. Over a quarter of the students exhibited pronounced maladaptive disturbances, while more than half had moderate adaptive issues. The prevalence of pronounced psychotic reactions and states was significantly lower than that of asthenic reactions (6.46% and 27.42%, respectively). In the moderately expressed range, psychotic reactions and states were more prevalent than asthenic ones (74.19% and 56.45%, respectively). The structure of personal adaptive potential and maladaptive disturbances varied across different years of study.

Conclusion. Given the results, it is necessary to develop psycho-pedagogical conditions for the harmonious development of students’ personal qualities in a prolonged stress environment, with the aim of fostering psychologically resilient individuals capable of withstanding contemporary social and political challenges.