In recent years, new types of educational institutions have appeared in the secondary education system: gymnasiums, lyceums, classes with advanced study of various disciplines in traditional schools, and new academic subjects have been introduced. New schools declare a higher level of education. And, indeed, students of such schools demonstrate a deeper assimilation of educational material, are characterized by a high level of learning. The question arises: at the expense of what resources are students ' success achieved? This is facilitated by the system of entrance selection of students, innovative training programs, selection of teachers and other factors. There is no doubt that new educational institutions are characterized by large academic loads. How does this affect the younger generation entering life? What is the socio-psychological cost of achieving a higher level of education?

This article uses the results of a study of the social well-being of secondary school graduates in Togliatti in the 1996-97 academic year. According to the "Graduate Questionnaire", 699 students of the final grades of 17 schools were interviewed (which is 15 % of the cohort of graduates of the city). In the study, a nested sample of general education institutions of the city was implemented, proportionally distributed by school types, by the number of graduates in the city districts, and evenly distributed over the territory. The average sampling error is 1.5 %. The distribution of the surveyed graduates by district allows us to correctly distribute the data to the totality of all graduates of the city within the representativeness error: 3% for the significance level of 0.05.

It should be noted that, despite its age, the provincial city of Togliatti, where the automobile giant is located, is a fairly advanced city in terms of pedagogical innovations of a substantive and organizational nature, there are non-state and private educational institutions in the city; among the educational institutions where the survey was conducted, there were 2 gymnasiums, 2 lyceums and 3 schools with advanced education. 47.6 % of the surveyed graduates study in classes with a particular specialization.

Social well-being in this study is understood as students ' self-assessment of various psychophysiological states experienced during the completion of school education. At the preliminary stage of the study, a scale of self-assessment of social and psychophysiological well-being was developed, which presents various types of bliss-

page 125

Table 1

Self-assessment of psychophysiological conditions by graduates (% of respondents who answered in the affirmative)

There are two levels of cognitive states: social well-being and self-assessment of health status.

The diagnosis of social well-being is based on an assessment of the level of personal anxiety. This anxiety determines an individual's sensitivity to stress. As a personality trait, it characterizes to one degree or another the tendency of students to experience fears and fears in most situations. Anxiety is associated with the expectation of social consequences of success or failure. It is also measured as a psychophysiological state. In particular, the standardized questionnaires of Spielberger and J. The Taylor scale, which became the basis of our developed scale, measures anxiety as personality traits and as emotional states, which allows us to assess the overall level of social (personal) and situational (somatic) anxiety (1, p. 52, 215; 2, p. 244-250). When applied to our problem, we identified the main psychophysiological states under study: personal and situational anxiety, and psychosomatic health conditions.

The analysis of health indicators was also carried out according to the data of professional examinations of the 11th grades for the 1996-97 academic year.

In connection with the above, the main hypothesis of the study is formulated. Probably, in different types of schools (new schools - gymnasiums, lyceums, specialized schools and ordinary - General education schools), the levels of social anxiety and self-assessment of experiences of psychophysiological states should be different. By assessing the difference, we can understand the "cost" (damage to health) of students ' advanced knowledge in advanced classes.

Let's look at some of the results of the study.

The questionnaire asked the question: "How often do you experience certain ailments?". From the answers to this question, it is obvious that the level of complaints of the surveyed graduates about various ailments is quite high. According to self-assessments, 69 % of respondents are often in a low mood, 61 % are irritable, 28 % of respondents experience a state of aggression from time to time. 23% of respondents have different fears in their academic and extracurricular environments (see Table 1).

These complaints are symptoms of hidden diseases and overwork-the consequences of a wrong lifestyle and environmental situation in the city. These self-assessments are indicators that Tolyatti Graduates have poor health. This conclusion is also confirmed by objective data. Here are some data from professional examinations of 11th graders for the 1996-97 academic year.

The health data of 657 school leavers from the Central District of Tolyatti were analyzed. The analysis showed that more than 70% of adolescents need various forms of health improvement, socio-psychological and even psychiatric care. There were 289 cases of chronic diseases and pathologies, of which the growth of diseases of the nervous system and musculoskeletal system (scoliosis) is particularly indicative. If approximately every second graduate suffers from chronic pathologies, then functional abnormalities of the body-

page 126

Table 2

Differences in assessments of psychophysiological states

every first, especially noticeable increase in decreased visual acuity, an increase in the thyroid gland and vegetative-vascular dystonia. A third of graduates attend physical education groups that are not included in the main one - preparatory and special ones. Every sixth graduate is exempt from physical education classes; 40 % of graduates are sent to health groups.

The current situation is aggravated by the tendency of early alcoholization and drug addiction of certain groups of students. According to the survey, alcohol is consumed: every day-0.3 %; several times a week-6.3 %; from time to time, including "on holidays" - 82.4 %; never drink - only 11 % of the graduates who answered. According to self-reports of graduates, they tried drugs once - 7.5 %, several times-15.2 %. 2.8% of graduates answered that they use drugs often, which is 20 people in the urban sample. The data provided is only a visible part of the" iceberg " of the problem raised. One can only guess at the hidden side of the mentioned processes, which cannot be revealed by a survey.

In different types of schools (new schools - regular schools), differences in self-assessments of health status were found in the following positions: emotional stress is experienced more acutely by graduates in new schools: it was noted by 65 % of graduates of new schools versus 54 % of pupils of regular schools; if in regular schools half of graduates experience a state of anxiety, then in new schools this indicator is higher the state of the body's response to Stress in the new school and regular were different; sleepy state in new schools was noted by 62% of respondents, in regular schools-59 %; headaches-42% and 39%, respectively. As an integral indicator of overwork, 82% of respondents experience fatigue in new schools, and 74% in regular schools. Moreover, the differences in the gradation of the "I often experience" scale are even more significant: they were noted by 48 % of respondents from new schools and 30% from ordinary ones.

Gender differences were identified. Young men from new types of schools are more likely and more acutely experiencing negative psychophysiological states related to social anxiety, which manifests itself in the characterological features of adolescents. The main direction of work with young people of new schools is their social and psychological adaptation.

The girls ' self-assessments of various psychophysiological states in different types of schools were distributed as follows::

1. Girls from new schools are more emotionally stressed than those from regular schools-68% and 59%, respectively.

2. The surveyed girls from new schools are more likely to have negative psychophysiological states: restless sleep - 33% against 30% of the usual ones; insomnia-24% and 20%, respectively; sleepy state-66 % and 62 %; headaches-55 % and 44 %.

3. Girls in new schools feel significantly more tired than in regular schools-90 % and 75 % (the difference is statistically quite significant).

page 127

Table 3

The value of graduates ' self-assessments of their states by school type

With significant overload, girls from new schools are more acutely manifested elements of depressive states, which leads to an increased background of experiences of psychophysiological states.

The level of differentiation by gender of self-assessments of psychophysiological states is high. For almost all components of our scale in the urban sample, the level of differences in the sexes of self-assessments of psychophysiological states is noticeable (see Table 2).

As a result of the study, it was possible to identify some factors on which well-being depends. Thus, a direct relationship was found between the assessment of well-being and the financial situation in the family of a teenager. Social well-being (dispositional anxiety) is directly related to the above-mentioned variable. The worse the level of financial situation in the family, the more acute and painful it is experienced by a teenager. It affects social well-being and the number of children in the family. It turned out that the more children in a family, the higher the self-assessment of students ' states. Obviously, where there are several children, the climate in the family becomes a significant value of life for a teenager. A sense of psychological security is formed.

The factor of academic achievement does not directly affect feelings of social well-being. According to our data, excellent students, good students and those who study satisfactorily experience social anxiety in approximately the same way.

Thus, negative experiences of social well-being are directly related to external demographic factors in the extracurricular life of adolescents - the financial situation in the family and the composition of the family.

In order to better represent the differentiation of self-assessments of health status by graduates of different types of schools, we have done the following. Gradations of the questionnaire by psychophysiological states - "often experience", "occasionally experience", "sometimes experience", "almost never experience" - were transferred to a numerical scale to obtain average values for the studied states, as well as a standard deviation from the average values, showing the reliability of indicators. Grading "often experiencing" received a value of 2 points (high value of social anxiety); "occasionally experiencing" - 1 point; 0-corresponds to the intermediate position of the scale; -1 point - "sometimes experiencing"; - 2 points - "almost never experience" (low value of social anxiety). In accordance with the presented scale, the ordinal places of the values of psychophysiological states experienced by adolescents are obtained (see Table 3).

The most frequently reported negative state is fatigue (the average value for the entire sample is 0.83). Then follow in order: low mood (0.45); irritability (0.29); sleepy state (0.29); emotional tension (0.18). These are the top five indicators with high positive values. This is a high level of social anxiety. Next - tre-

page 128

situational anxiety (-0.03), inability to concentrate (-0.27), headaches (-0.36), aggression (-0.74), stomach pain (-0.82), restless sleep (-0.86), fear (-0.92), heart pain (-1.05), insomnia (-1.19). Indicators with a negative sign characterize the manifestations of medium and low levels of social and situational anxiety.

The ranking of the studied states shows a higher diagnostic value of the components of social anxiety, in contrast to psychosomatic (situational) anxiety.

Among the variables of social and personal anxiety, its highest values (low mood) are noted in high schools-0.64; in ordinary schools-0.49. A high background of emotional stress is typical for all types of new schools: gymnasium-0.49; lyceum-0.42; school with a specialization in education-0.32. The atmosphere in ordinary schools is much calmer - 0.07.

Among the indicators of somatic deviations that are variables of situational anxiety, there are differences between the types of educational institutions, but they are not statistically significant. The most significant indicator here is the feeling of fatigue among graduates of various types of schools: gymnasium-1.28; lyceum-1.06; school with specialization - 0.91; regular school -0.71. A derivative of the feeling of fatigue is the experience of a sleepy state: lyceum -0.57; gymnasium-0.39; school with specialization - 0.27; regular school - 0.24.

The results of the survey show that the overwhelming majority of young men and women, due to adolescent maximalism, are not inclined to put health in the first place in the system of life values and perceive it as an absolute value. Graduates do not realize the value of moral and psychophysical health. Among graduates, factors of social and personal anxiety are growing, which, on the one hand, lead to early health failures, and on the other, to disorders in the emotional and volitional sphere of the individual.

Thus, the main hypothesis of the study that graduates of new types of schools are more likely to experience negative psychophysiological states (especially with regard to social and personal anxiety) was confirmed. This fact is probably explained by the different educational attitudes of students in new and regular schools. One thing is certain - overloading with academic activities is manifested in the overwork of students in new schools. This begs the question: is the psychophysiological cost of the "race for education" in new types of schools adequate to the health and mental losses that are possible at the beginning of the life and professional path of graduates?

The data obtained by us on the self-assessment of the health of students in Togliatti coincide with the data of a study conducted among graduates of St. Petersburg in 1995 (3, pp. 44-45). Probably, we can speak about the general trend of deterioration of the psychophysiological health of school leavers and increasing social discomfort in modern Russian schools, including in connection with the differentiation of educational institutions.

list of literature

1. Metodiki psikhodiagnostiki v sporte [Methods of psychodiagnostics in sports], Moscow: Prosveshchenie Publ., 1990.

2. Heckhausen X. Motivation and activity / Translated from German. In 2 volumes, Moscow: Pedagogika Publ., 1986, vol. 1.

3. Social portrait of a graduate of a St. Petersburg school in the 90s. Graduate-95. St. Petersburg: Center for Pedagogical Information, 1995.

page 129

Permanent link to this publication: