Social Work With Boarders Of Special Regime Boarding Schools

Abstract

In conditions of increasing criminalization of adolescent and children’s communities, propagation of asocial behaviors among the younger generation, the problem of social and educational rehabilitation of underage criminals in the conditions of restriction of freedom is still current. In our country, the leading position among the social institutes concerned with rehabilitation of adolescents and correction of their deviant behavior is taken by special regime boarding schools (SRBS). At the same time, the problem of organizing the social work with the boarders of SRBSs is still acute. This paper presents propositions that make a significant contribution to expanding the concept of social work with SRBS boarders. Theoretical, methodological and process foundations were developed for rehabilitation of deviant adolescents as a social work technology in the conditions of SRBS, where the aim is to form their social and personal resiliency as an individual personal resource providing return of adolescents to the society and subsequent successful socialization. The paper determines the subjects of social and educational rehabilitation in the conditions of SRBS and considers the terms of and. Causes and forms of manifestation of the deviant behavior in adolescent environment are identified.

Keywords: Social work, social and educational rehabilitation, deviant behavior, boarders of special regime boarding schools

Introduction

Social and economic transformations continuing in our country have not only positive, but also negative influence on the younger generation, manifesting in a growth of deviant behavior among adolescents. Adolescents are the most sensitive to social instability, “as uncertainty of guides in life is combined with crisis phenomena related to adulting and subjective hardships of personal becoming". Scientists are of an opinion that the deviant behavior among adolescents is caused by factors that determine inability of their adaptation to given conditions. In addition, researchers come to a conclusion that personal qualities of deviant adolescents develop as a result of adverse conditions of family upbringing and hardships in performance of their social role.

Laktionova (2016) characterized the adolescence, pointing to the fact that “it is years of coming into social environment without any experience in adaptation”. She notes that during those years, an active formative process of internal personal resources is ongoing that influences development of resiliency, which is a systemic characteristic of an adolescent, determining manifestations of their activity and adaptivity.

Analysis of Russian and foreign psychological, pedagogical and sociological studies into causes of deviant behavior among adolescents and the methods to prevent and overcome destructive behavioral forms has shown that the essential features of adolescent deviant behavior are determined by social and cultural development of a given society. One of the causes for interpretation of unexpected behavior of the younger generation as deviant lies in increasing social and cultural requirements to personal development of children and adolescents.

Problem Statement

Due to that, the problem of designing social work technologies for working with deviant adolescents in SRBSs is relevant and unresolved. Nesterova and Aster (2011) are of the opinion that “specifics of social work in penitentiary institutions is in the fact that its object is persons with high level of anxiety, isolated from society and devoid of their regular social status” (p. 42).

Research Questions

The subject of the research is a social work technology aimed at boarders of SRBSs.

We conducted a mass anonymized survey of educators working in SRBSs. The objective of the survey was to identify the level at which the educators understand the essence of social-educational rehabilitation of adolescents with deviant behavior. Over the half of educators surveyed (55 %), when selecting characteristics of individual professional activities are oriented towards the following indicators: obedience, discipline, responsibility in learning and in work. At that, the educators understand that such behavior of the adolescents is a result of their adaptation to the requirements and regime. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of educators surveyed (88 %) are convinced that social-educational rehabilitation of adolescents with deviant behavior is possible only on condition of deep personal changes (Paatova, 2018).

Due to that, when adolescents with deviant behavior are completing a rehabilitation course in special boarding schools, special personal qualities shall be formed in them that will then allow them to not only overcome hardships but will also help them in future development (Laktionova, 2016; Makhnach, 2016). Analysis of educational psychology literature on the research problem led the authors to a conclusion on a necessity to form social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior as a foundational condition for their successful social and educational rehabilitation.

The most broad and complete representation the phenomenon of human resiliency has got in psychological studies where several approaches to its definition were formed. Laktionova (2016), while studying the factors of resiliency in individual personal context considers the resiliency in the context of personal properties and qualities that allow them to adapt to disadvantageous conditions of life and activity. Makhnach (2016) in his research defined resiliency as “an ability of a person to overcome disadvantageous circumstances of life with a possibility to replenish and use for that all the internal and external resources, aptitude to life in all its manifestations, capabilities of more than existing, but developing despite disadvantageous events in life” (p. 52). Nesterova (2016), as a result of analysis of foreign studies dedicated to the concept of social resilience, comes to a conclusion that the social resilience is a personal capability to “survive and rebound after miseries and social isolation situations” (p. 74).

Building upon the research of Laktionova et al. (2004), the authors understand social and personal resiliency as an integrative personal quality that characterizes individual readiness to self-determination (moral, personal, social, professional) following their own life scenario, as well as a readiness to be responsible for the results of one’s decision concerning one’s self-determination in life (Paatova, 2018). Social and personal resiliency as an integrative personal quality performs a creative function, facilitating development of a person as a member of society, freely and responsibly determining one’s position among other people. Thus, the basis of deviant behavior among adolescents is formed by systemic violations in development of their individual social and personal resiliency, manifesting as a lack of capability to positive self-development in given life circumstances. While adolescents with deviant behavior are completing a rehabilitation course in special regime boarding schools, specific personal qualities shall be formed in them that will then allow them not only overcome hardships but will also help in future development (A. I. Laktionova, A. V. Makhnach and others). Analysis of educational psychology literature on the research problem, led the authors to a conclusion on a necessity to form social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior as a foundational condition for their successful socialization and positive self-actualization.

Purpose of the Study

Deviant behavior is seen by Paatova (2012) as a behavior that «deviates from moral norms of human communality and manifesting in various forms of social pathology. Deviant behavior among adolescents is a result of negative formation of personality under the influence of individual typological factors of personal formation during the adolescence and asocial direction of their close environment. The author holds that “deviant behavior is formed under the influence of a negative formation of the adolescent's world view and their inability to control their behavior and emotional state” (Paatova, 2012, p. 132).

Delinquent behavior is “a behavior that is in contradiction with the norms and threatens social order and well-being of people around. Such behavior among adolescents is a result of pathogenic negative formation of personality under the influence of antisocial close environment. A distinctive feature of this social-educational phenomenon is existence of criminogenic value system in such adolescents” (Paatova, 2012, p. 133).

When adolescents arrive in special regime boarding schools, social work specialists shall help them adapt to the conditions of the regime institution.

Research Methods

The research was arranged and conducted employing the following methods: general theoretic methods of scientific knowledge (analysis, synthesis, comparison and contrast, generalization, systematization, grouping, etc.); general educational methods (analysis of documents and literature sources, studying the results of research activities); prognostic methods (modeling the educational and development program); empiric methodsconversation, observation, surveying, testing, questionnaire, educational experiment, statistical processing of data.

Findings

Paatova (2018), from analyzing the results of longitudinal research of boarders of SRBSs, identified generalized characteristics of passive and active deviant behavior among adolescents, namely: passive deviant behavior is a behavior that deviates from moral norms and rules of life and manifests in various forms of disapproval of existing social reality. A distinguishing feature of the passive deviant behavior is a non-integral world view, inability to control one’s behavior and emotional state in accordance with the common social and cultural norms. Active deviant behavior is a behavior that does not conform to legal norms and threatens social order, health and well-being of surrounding people. A distinguishing feature of the active deviant behavior is existence (acknowledgment, support, propaganda) of a crimiminogenic value system (Paatova, 2018).

The main technologies of social work in adaptation of deviant adolescents to the conditions of regime institutions include social support follow-up and social support of the deviant adolescents.

The social follow-up of deviant adolescents is a priority direction in activities of SRBSs that includes following a becoming and development of highly moral, creative, competent citizen of Russia, accepting the fate of their motherland as their own, understanding responsibility for the present and the future of their country, implanted in spiritual and cultural traditions of the multi-ethnic people of the Russian Federation.

Social follow-up is a process to create advantageous social-psychological conditions for successful learning and psychological development of pupils in the situations of interaction. This process assumes tracing changes in the dynamics of boarders’ development, their professional establishment, as well as timely identification of possible issues in behavioral and emotional spheres, in the system of adaptation.

Social support to deviant adolescents is provided during the education process by means of creating additional self-actualization space for the boarders, with accounts for class-hours and additional off-hours activities, interaction of specialists and social partners according to directions of social education, methodological support of social activities and formation of rehabilitation environment in regime SRBSs.

The social support of deviant adolescents in the special regime institutions is a special system of measures aimed at support, preservation or restoration of life conditions of the weakest convicts and risk groups that due to their weakness experience specific objective or subjective needs that inhibit normal containment in the penitentiary institution, preparation to outside life and post-penitentiary rehabilitation.

Social-pedagogical rehabilitation of adolescents with deviant behavior in special regime boarding schools is a specifically organized educational process that forms social and personal resiliency of adolescent deviants, resulting in changes in their personal values and meanings (acceptance of social and cultural norms, rules of life and formation of preparedness to manifesting their social and personal resiliency in various day-to-day situations) as a necessary condition for return to society and subsequent successful socialization.

According to the proposed definition, the goal of social and educational rehabilitation of adolescents with deviant behavior is formation of their social and personal resiliency (acceptance of social and cultural norms, rules of life and preparedness to manifesting their social and personal resiliency in various day-to-day situations) as a necessary condition for returning to society and subsequent successful socialization.

Thus, the objective of the social educational rehabilitation of adolescents with deviant behavior in formation of social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior are:

forming purpose-in-life settings which are socially-oriented and positively developing the personality;

forming stable and deliberate involvement into activities aimed at development of personal agency in accordance with the purpose-in-life settings;

forming preparedness of adolescents to manifesting social and personal resiliency in various day-to-day situations.

As a leading means for formation of social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior, the author identifies rehabilitating and educating situation, a specifically planned eventful personal-confirmatory situation that touches upon fundamental interests of the adolescent with deviant behavior thus forcing them to harmonize their social and personal resiliency.

Taking into account that the formative process of the social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior has specific functions and is built upon the foundation of general and specific principles, this process is performed in accordance with the developed methodology. The technology of forming social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior reveals the mechanisms and logic of formation of the social and personal resiliency in accordance with various levels of its formation (Paatova, 2017).

Conclusion

Summing up the above, it should be noted that the process of forming social and personal resiliency in adolescents with deviant behavior in a special regime boarding school is based upon mechanisms of construction of meaning that are unfolding following the logic of educational events, based upon communicative-pragmatic, collision-stress rehabilitating educational situation that reduces attraction of the traditional modes of behavior and requires adopting approved behavior patterns on behalf of the adolescent.

Implementation of the developed technology for formation of social and personal resiliency in deviant adolescents makes a significant contribution to expanding the concept of social work with deviant adolescents in conditions of special regime boarding schools. It enriches practical social education with reliable process tools and presents a real opportunity to practicing educators, social workers and social educators to efficiently resolve the problem of socializing the adolescents with deviant behavior. The proposed theoretic and methodological toolbox for content design and arrangement of rehabilitating educational situations facilitates adequate and differentiated actions on behalf of specialist in the social work when selecting and applying the means for formation of social and personal resiliency of deviant adolescents both in special regime boarding schools and in general education institutions.

References

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• Paatova, M. E. (2018). A concept of formation of social and personal resilience in adolescents with deviant behavior in special boarding schools [Doctoral Dissertation]. Education Adyghe State University.