Педагогические науки/6. Социальная педагогика

Professor Popov V.A.

Vladimir State University named after Alexander and Nikolay Stoletovs, Russia

ACTUAL MEANS OF ANTIDEVIANT PREVENTION OF YOUTH

A new generation of people has already grown in Russia who are not in the know of the specific features of the Soviet time and who are mastering the ideology and laws of market relations and postindustrial period. This fact cannot be ignored otherwise if modern social tendencies, rather contradictory sometimes, are not systematized and objectificated, they can intensify youth’s disorientation in the system of humanist values and even distort their comprehension of social norms.

Young people in contemporary Russia confront quite a contradictory phenomenon: on the one hand the interrelations within the paradigms “an individual – a society”, “a child – an adult” have become more democratic; on the other hand, the process of self-actualization and self-realization has become more difficult, not speaking about the aggravation of psychical, psychological and moral well-being of an individual.

The spectrum of social risk factors, young people are exposed to, constantly widens. Alongside with already familiar destructive habits, like smoking and alcohol, young people, teenagers and even children are under a very strong impact of nationalist and extremist ideas, antisocial youth subcultures and religious sectarianism. Drug abuse is strongly provoked by psychoactive substances like energizing drinks, herbal stimulants, codeine-based medications which are on sale and within an easy access to young people. Family financial problems and economic stress instigate morally socially unstable and immature youngsters to stealing, robbery, vandalism; uncontrolled access to the Internet exposes children to immoral and violent programmes, stimulates their dependence on computer games; uncontrolled migration intensified marginal processes and enlarges the number of homeless children. Thus, we can’t but say that spontaneous, uncontrolled process of upbringing is ousting the moral influence of the elder generation and positive national traditions from the every-day life of a young people and prevents them from choosing prosocial life strategies. Education, as an important social value and the process of people’s integration into the national culture no longer takes the lead.

The family function of children’s social protection and control of their school and out-of-school activities has considerably lessened too. The economic crises in the country at large and every other family in particular aggravates the generation gap and bring down parental supervision and responsibility. Consequently, poor attachment to parents becomes one of social risk factors. Statistics shows that more and more children are brought up in a one-parent family and every third child is born out of wedlock; the number of orphans doesn’t decrease while the number of children’s abuse increases.

Moral disorientations of youth can be traced back to conservative system of education, lack of adequate learning conditions, a general pessimistic atmosphere of the daily life of the family, the town, the country at large.

Studies have confirmed a negative impact of mass media, especially TV and Internet, on youth and children, alongside with the other social and environmental influences. The main concern of parents and educators here is how to provide informational and computer security of teenagers and children. Some external controls are available so that the parents can block certain channels but for the most part parents and care-givers are responsible for supervising children’s television viewing, Internet goggling, playing computer games and exposure to aggressive, violent programmes. It is not just to computerize educational institutions and help pupils master new informational technologies; they should be taught the skills of self-preservation in the flood of antihuman information.

It is really urgent to intensify children’s process of upbringing with reference to all possible risk factors, they are exposed to, and which can provoke social deviations. Facing the social deviation problem head on require all the collective energies of legal, medical, psychological, social and pedagogical institutions; state and local governments must work together in an earnest and dedicated effort to realize anti-deviant prevention programmes and to solve this difficult and pervasive problem.

Child-centered prevention programmes can be carried out on school-based platform and directed at families, neighborhoods, communities – all the contexts in which children live. This comprehensive multilevel approach has emerged from an examination of risk factors that either place children at a higher risk for deviant behavior or protect them from the negative environmental or any other influence. Coordinated school system efforts can help divert most children from anti-social behavior, keeping them in school and out of the juvenile justice system. School-wide primary prevention activities may include teaching conflict resolution, emotional literacy and anger management skills on a school-wide or universal basis. Such interventions have the potential not only to establish a positive school climate, but to divert mildly students at risk of anti-social behavior. The best that can be done for children and youth with behavioral problems is to keep them engaged at school where teachers and psychologists develop their skills, maintain a positive influence, and prevent involvement with disruptive groups during school hours. Schools can offer a variety of sport clubs; art and drama classes where children can realize their potentials and develop talents.

Prevention of social deviations is “a many-sides traffic”. Multilevel approaches can be applied by educators, lawyers, doctors, psychologies in their effort to help problem children of different age-groups, social and cultural backgrounds to find alternatives to antisocial behavior. Prevention must fit with each child’s developmental level and take into consideration the critical influences present at different stages and in different contexts of a child’s life. The earlier prevention work begins – the better, because antisocial behavior in early childhood is the most accurate predictor of delinquency in adolescence. Antisocial children can be identified as early as three or four years of age, if the antisocial behavior pattern is not altered in time, it can become chronic. Primary prevention and early intervention are the best hopes of diverting children from deviant behavior.

The results of the research carried out by the department of social pedagogics and psychology of Vladimir State University have confirmed that a multilevel prevention programme should include collective, group and individual forms of interaction with children and their parents and imply behavioral and academic support, mentoring and skill development. Prevention strategies, both primary and secondary, also include small-group social-skill lessons, behavioral contracting, specialized tutoring, counseling and mentoring. Approbation of the educational conception of formation of the moral, ethical and cultural values of pupils has shown that multilevel pedagogical prevention should exist as an independent means of solving problems of alcohol and drug abuse, computermania, relationship problems, cultic subgroups, etc.

Successful realization of the primary pedagogical prevention needs a specially trained personnel which implies:

- Training of students for both professional and voluntary work;

- Constant conducting of anti-deviant prevention programmes on part of the educators;

- Qualified help of the authorities in organization of the systematic prevention work with pupils and their parents;

- Integration of the prevention components into each subject taught at school;

- Organization of extra-curriculum activities of pupils by class tutors with reference to social risk factors.

Effective prevention requires a strong partnership and open communication between parents, teachers, school administration, law enforcement, community leaders and children. The actual directions of the prevention work may be of general and particular character.

The general level of prevention implies: well-defined family and child-centered youth policy; moral upbringing of youth with reference to multilevel prevention components; usage of the national and international pedagogical experience in the federal prevention programmes; making the profession of an educator (a teacher, a sociologist, a psychologist) more prestigious; informational security of youth.

The particular level implies prevention of: psychoactive substances usage; crime and deviant behavior; destructive structures: cultic groups, religious sects, criminal groups; alcohol abuse, illicit drug abuse, computermania, etc.; migrants’ desocialization.

Prevention of social deviations should be of multilevel cyclical character and take into consideration individual peculiarities of a person, social and cultural risk factors of the environment; it should encourage young people to acquire a high socioeconomic status, offer positive educational, social and cultural activities to provide youth with alternatives to antisocial, deviant behavior.

If educational and other structures of the society do not carry out prevention work, it may bring to moral deprivation of an individual and cause the degradation of the whole country, undermine its stability and national security.