Social maladjustment. What is social maladjustment in psychology and what are its signs? Social adaptation and maladjustment of adolescents

Social maladaptation is a modern illness of individuals. Despite the fact that all kinds of computers, telephones, and the ability to work and pay remotely contribute to alienation from society, this is of little use. A person needs communication, as well as compliance with certain norms of behavior. This way he can grow and develop.

What is social maladjustment?

The concept of social maladjustment belongs to three areas: psychology, sociology and pedagogy. When answering the question of what personal maladjustment is in psychology, a person’s ability to adapt to conditions dictated by a certain society is taken into account. More precisely, the individual has problems with adaptation, or he cannot correctly comply with the rules and norms of behavior in the social sphere.

Definition in psychology

In psychology, maladjustment is not just the inability to comply with social norms and rules of behavior, but also the danger of experiencing degradation. The bottom line is that the individual experiences difficulties in contact with the people around him.

Note! Many factors contribute to the development of this disease. There is no need to leave home - you can work via the Internet, pay bills remotely using a card, even purchases can be ordered by phone.

Types of social maladjustment

When an individual observes difficulties in communicating, being around other people, experiences internal discomfort and realizes that it is becoming more difficult for him to get used to new social groups, he suffers from this illness. Exist different types maladaptation, among which pathogenic, psychosocial and directly social are distinguished. A person deliberately avoids contact or, for example, shows an inappropriate, aggressive attitude towards others.

Medical

Medical, or pathogenic social, maladjustment is characterized not so much by changes in behavior as by a predisposition to them. It is noted that such a phenomenon can occur due to congenital characteristics or deficiencies, for example the level of mental development.

Psychological

Socio-psychological maladaptation is characterized by the development of the body, hormonal changes, and mental disorders. In addition, fears, especially those that form as phobias, contribute to the emergence of maladjustment.

Causes of social maladjustment

Personality maladjustment is a modern illness that affects people of any age, in particular schoolchildren. younger age, teenagers, adults. In many ways, the reasons for this deviation are laid down in childhood, when the child was not taught proper social contacts and communication. Also, the attitude of parents towards a growing child is of great importance at different stages of growing up. Still, there are other reasons for the development of maladjustment.

In children

The factors of social maladaptation of a child’s personality depend on the family atmosphere: in what conditions he was raised, what is the behavior of parents and other relatives towards the baby. The child experiences an inability to give himself an adequate assessment in the process of communication, emotional imbalance, and generally poor communication skills.

In teenagers

Signs of teenage maladaptation are expressed in high demands on others, inadequacy of perception of criticism, and readiness to humiliate the interlocutor. Along with hormonal changes, the teenager experiences emotional imbalance. All this can be exacerbated by so-called bullying during school years.

Note! In the process of communicating with peers, the teenager behaves passively or, on the contrary, aggressively, due to which the group “pushes” him beyond the boundaries of this society, or the child leaves it on his own, experiencing negative feelings from the experience.

In adults

In an adult, this disease develops due to diseases of the nervous system, as well as brain injuries and other physical disorders. Also, the occurrence of maladjustment is observed due to mental abnormalities, for example, with increased excitability or, conversely, weakness. Upbringing also matters, as well as temporary or permanent exposure to a hostile environment, which in itself discourages the individual from further contact with people who show even slight aggression.

Signs, symptoms and diagnosis of maladjustment

The inability to make acquaintances, maintain communication, discomfort due to being forced to be in society - all this is social and psychological maladjustment. The main signs of a person experiencing this social deviation:

In a state of maladaptation, an individual experiences difficulties in school or work if he has to obey strict rules, as well as constantly be in contact with a flow of people.
He does not feel the need to satisfy social needs.
There is a lack of communication skills.
Discomfort in the process of communicating or being among a group of people, regardless of the level of familiarity with others.

In general, the individual consciously withdraws from contacts and communication. It is noteworthy that modern technologies are quite conducive to this lifestyle, since you can work, communicate, pay for goods and services without leaving your home.

Levels of socio-psychological maladjustment

There are 4 levels of maladjustment:

The initial stage can be interpreted as the lower level, latent manifestations of signs of the disease;
“Half” level – i.e. some deviations in social behavior appear and disappear;
Steadily incoming - obvious social violations;
Entrenched maladjustment is a set of signs that complicate daily life individual.

How to treat, correction methods

Depending on the form and nature of the disease, it is possible to soften the symptoms and then eliminate them. You should contact a psychologist as soon as possible. He will definitely advise you to establish social contacts and help the patient do this over time without fear.

Note! Training on developing hobbies will be useful, i.e. being among people with similar interests.

An optimistic attitude is important, which will be developed gradually. In the end, the person will live life to the fullest.

Prevention of social maladjustment

By closing off from the world, a person unknowingly complicates his life. Communication, study, work require adherence to social rules in order to achieve success. There is even a concept of “useful acquaintances,” which implies that every person is useful.

Communication is work, and there are also bitter experiences. It is necessary to make your social behavior as effective as possible, and at the same time learn to understand people.

Both children and adults are subject to maladjustment. The reasons lie in upbringing, hormonal changes, physical and mental abnormalities, as well as negative communication experiences. However, maladjustment can be corrected and stopped; professional help is needed.

Video

One of the areas of activity of a social teacher is the prevention of maladaptive behavior and SPD with maladjusted adolescents.

Disadaptation – a relatively short-term situational state resulting from the influence of new, unusual stimuli in a changed environment and signaling an imbalance between mental activity and the demands of the environment.

Disadaptation can be defined as a difficulty complicated by any factors of adaptation to changing conditions, expressed in an inadequate response and behavior of the individual.

The following types of maladjustment are distinguished:

1. In educational institutions, a social teacher most often encounters the so-called school maladjustment, which usually precedes social.

School maladjustment - This is a discrepancy between the psychophysical and sociopsychological state of the child and the requirements of schooling, in which the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities becomes difficult, and in extreme cases, impossible.

2. Social maladjustment in the pedagogical aspect - a special type of behavior of a minor that does not correspond to the basic principles of behavior universally recognized as mandatory for children and adolescents. It manifests itself:

in violation of moral and legal norms,

in antisocial behavior,

in the deformation of the value system, internal self-regulation, social attitudes;

alienation from the main institutions of socialization (family, school);

a sharp deterioration in neuro-mental health;

Increased teenage alcoholism and suicidal tendencies.

Social maladjustment – a deeper degree of maladjustment than at school. She is characterized by antisocial manifestations (foul language, smoking, drinking alcohol, impudent antics) and alienation from family and school, which leads to:

to a decrease or loss of motivation for learning, cognitive activity,

difficulties in professional determination;

a decrease in the level of moral and value concepts;

decreased ability of adequate self-esteem.

Depending on the degree of depth, deformation of socialization can be distinguished two stages of maladjustment:

Stage 1 social maladaptation is represented by pedagogically neglected students

Stage 2 represented by socially neglected teenagers. Social neglect is characterized by deep alienation from family and school as the main institutions of socialization. The formation of such children is influenced by asocial and criminal groups. Children are characterized by vagrancy, neglect, and drug addiction; They are not professionally oriented and have a negative attitude towards work.

The literature identifies several factors influencing the process of adolescent maladaptation:

heredity (psychophysical, social, sociocultural);

psychological and pedagogical factor (defects in school and family education)

social factor (social and socio-economic conditions for the functioning of society);

deformation of society itself

social activity of the individual himself, i.e. an active and selective attitude towards the norms and values of one’s environment, its impact;

social deprivation experienced by children and adolescents;

personal value orientations and the ability to self-regulate one’s environment.

In addition to social maladaptation, there are also:

2.. Pathogenic disadaptation – caused by deviations, pathologies mental development and neuropsychiatric diseases, which are based on functional-organic lesions of the nervous system (mental retardation, mental retardation, etc.).

3. Psychosocial maladjustment caused by the gender, age and individual psychological characteristics of the child, which determine their certain non-standardity, difficulty in educating, requiring an individual approach and special psychosocial and psychological-pedagogical correctional programs.

Today it is a fairly common concept that is used by researchers to denote the loss of the ability to organize successful and effective social contacts of a person with other people. Because of this demand for obtaining new information about this phenomenon, social maladaptation is recognized as a real phenomenon in the sociological, psychological and pedagogical fields. It is these areas that give different meanings to the concept.

Definition 1

So, social maladaptation is a term that researchers use to designate the complete or partial loss of a person’s ability to adapt to environmental conditions.

When a person experiences internal discomfort and loses adaptation skills, he cannot effectively interact with other people, which leads to isolation and the development of various mental illnesses and psychological disorders. At the same time, there are two ways in which a person’s behavior develops: either he deliberately avoids contacts due to fears, or he exhibits aggressive behavior in relation to others.

Social maladjustment has a number of characteristics. These include increased irritability, deliberate avoidance of contact with others, the desire to spend most of the time alone, without communicating even with family members. In addition, a person withdraws so much into himself that he is no longer able to understand another and accept his point of view, or listen to someone else’s opinion.

Note 1

Maladjustment can be diagnosed at the moment when a person ceases to notice the most important events and phenomena occurring in the world around him. In addition, he moves into a reality invented by himself, partially replacing relationships with people with it. In this case, he loses not only the opportunity for full communication, but also for his own personal growth, since, by withdrawing into himself, he loses all the ways to find inspiration, new experience and knowledge.

Types of social maladjustment

Disadaptation is an integrative phenomenon. This means that it can be divided into several types, depending on the degree of distribution and the complexity of diagnosis. For example, T.D. Molodtsova identifies the following types:

Pathogenic type of social maladjustment;
Psychosocial maladjustment;
Social maladjustment.

A pathogenic type of maladjustment is defined not only as a process, but also as a result of various age-sex changes that an individual experiences. In addition, this type of maladjustment is influenced by personal characteristics, unfavorable manifestations of the emotional and volitional spheres, mental development and its features (or shortcomings).

If we talk about psychosocial maladaptation, it also includes characteristics of gender and age, disorders of the nervous system, and the manifestation of various fears, which are then formed in the form of phobias. To fight here, a real specialist is needed, since only he will allow a person to look deep inside himself, understand his fears and overcome them through therapy.

Social maladaptation manifests itself in several main types. Firstly, this is a violation of moral norms, a substitution of basic concepts about values and rules of behavior in society. secondly, antisocial forms of behavior, deviant behavior that harms not only the people around them, but also the deviant himself. Thirdly, this is a deformation of the individual’s internal regulation system, a distortion of the concepts of referent and value orientations. In addition, due to social maladaptation, social attitudes are deformed. The individual loses a sense of motivation to perform any activity, does not see the meaning in his further development and self-improvement.

Main forms of social maladjustment

Social maladaptation has several forms, which at the same time have a feature inherent in each: any type of maladaptive behavior or its form goes beyond the scope of normal behavior. In addition, there are also conditions that lead to the emergence of not only dangerous diseases, but also the desire to end one’s life (suicidal tendencies).

A number of works on psychology and social psychology describe the following forms of maladjustment:

Reaction to anxiety. The person experiences discomfort psychological level, and its intensification occurs precisely in a state of increased anxiety. Everyone struggles with it in their own way: someone starts drinking alcohol or smoking, which temporarily relieves stress. But this is only an illusion, since alcohol intoxication leads to other negative consequences;
A conscious feeling of compulsion is a so-called compulsive state. Despite the fact that a person may be aware of his problem, he feels that he simply must drink, starve, or abuse food, illegal drugs, or perform any specific actions. It is not easy for him to stop doing these actions because it becomes an addiction. In this case, only a specialist can help a person cope with a compulsive state.

Conflict behavior is also a form of social maladjustment. The lack of social connections and isolation leads to aggressive manifestations towards one’s family, acquaintances, colleagues or ordinary passers-by. Considering that the global Internet plays a big role in a person’s life today, he can splash out his aggression in in social networks, in comments and news. At the same time, he experiences impunity, because it is unlikely that anyone will look for a person from the Internet in real life. In this regard, he can threaten, extort money, persistently impose his point of view and suppress the will of other people. In this case, he again needs the help of a specialist in order to find the main reason for this behavior and eradicate it.

A person’s health, well-being and success are largely determined by his ability to adapt to environmental conditions and establish connections with people. Some people succeed very easily, others learn throughout their lives, and for some it turns into a real problem. Psychological maladjustment not only worsens a person’s quality of life, but can also cause the development of many psychological and social problems - from lack of social circle to the inability to work and support oneself.

Desocialization or social disadaptation is the complete or partial inability of a person to adapt to the environmental conditions and society existing around him.

The adaptation mechanism is one of the most important conditions for the successful existence of a person; thanks to it, from childhood he learns to observe certain norms, communicate in accordance with the rules existing in a particular society and behave according to emerging situations. Violation of this adaptation mechanism leads to a “breakdown” or absence of established connections between the individual and society; the person “does not fit” into the existing framework and cannot fully interact with others.

The causes of social maladjustment may be different; only some people suffering from such a disorder have various psychopathologies; for the rest, this condition occurs as a result of improper upbringing, stress or deprivation.

Disadaptation in children

The maladaptation of children in modern society is of particular importance. More and more children in developed and developing countries suffer from a variety of behavioral and mental disorders. Most of them cannot adapt normally to society and, as they grow and mature, the number of problems only increases. Moreover, according to experts, only a little more than half of these children suffer from neurological diseases and psychopathologies; in others, disruption of social adaptation occurs due to their living conditions, improper upbringing or lack thereof, as well as the influence of parents and the environment.

Social maladaptation of children and adolescents can have an extremely negative impact on their development - such children cannot establish normal contacts with their peers, and then with the people around them, they develop personality deformations, antisocial tendencies, they may develop a neurological disease or they will not be able to achieve any goals. - success in the future.

Timely correction of such disorders in children and adolescents helps them quickly overcome the state of maladjustment and learn all the necessary skills. In adulthood and in older adolescents, this requires much more time and effort - this is due both to less plasticity of the psyche and to the number of “skills” that need to be replenished.

This has been repeatedly confirmed by numerous studies and practical activities - children in early age those who were in a state of social maladaptation easily and quickly catch up and even outstrip their peers in development when placed in favorable conditions. But for adults who grew up in a state of maladjustment, it is much more difficult to assimilate the necessary information and “join” a more complex society.

Causes of maladjustment

Desocialization or mental maladaptation can occur due to psychological, physical or social reasons. The most significant today are considered to be social and socio-economic reasons, and disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system and mental characteristics can be corrected proper upbringing and development, but failure to comply with the rules of upbringing in society can lead to problems with social adaptation even with full physical and mental health.

Social psychological disadaptation occurs when:

Physical or biological disorders - brain injuries, diseases of the nervous system, infectious diseases, flowing with high temperature and intoxication.
Psychological disorders - features of the nervous system (weakness, excessive excitement, disturbance of volitional processes), character accentuations, and so on.
Social disorders - this factor is especially significant in childhood and adolescence. Improper upbringing and rejection of a child or adolescent by a family or team can lead to maladaptation and the development of serious mental disorders. Adults may also suffer from socio-psychological maladjustment if they find themselves in an unfamiliar and hostile environment, a situation of general rejection or trauma (for example, a mentally healthy, fully adapted adult placed in prison or an antisocial community).

Desocialization in childhood and adolescence can also be caused by some other factors, for example, keeping a child for a long time without parents or impaired communication at school.

Hospitalism in children is a pathological syndrome that develops in children who have been in a hospital or boarding school for a long time, forcibly separated from their parents and their usual social circle. A lack of communication leads to delays in physical and mental development, the formation of emotional disorders and social maladjustment. Such disorders arise due to the lack of sufficient attention from adults, as well as a lack of positive and negative stimuli from society. In such conditions, a child is left to his own devices and cannot fully develop.

Hospitalism syndrome in children develops not only when placed in a hospital, but also during a long stay in a boarding school, orphanage and other places where the child is deprived of his usual social circle.

Adolescents are more likely to experience school maladjustment. Desocialization develops when a student is “different” from other peers, and the reason for “expulsion from society” can be any distinguishing feature: low or high academic performance, external data, individual traits or something else. School maladjustment often occurs when a child’s familiar environment changes, a sudden change in his appearance or social factor, sometimes for no apparent reason. Rejection, ridicule from peers and lack of support from teachers and adults lead to a disruption in the establishment of social connections and loss of one’s place in society.

In addition to the above reasons, desocialization can occur due to nervous and mental disorders in children and adults:

autism
Schizophrenia
Bipolar personality disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder and so on.

Symptoms of desocialization

Social maladaptation manifests itself in a person’s inability to fully adapt to the conditions around him. There are complete and partial social maladjustment. With partial maladaptation, a person stops contacting or coming into contact with certain areas of life: does not go to work, does not attend events, refuses to communicate with friends. When it is complete, disturbances occur in all areas of life, a person withdraws into himself, stops communicating even with those closest to him and gradually loses touch with the reality around him.

Signs of social maladjustment:

Aggression is one of the most characteristic signs. Maladjusted children become aggressive because they simply do not understand how to behave and take a defensive position in advance. Adolescents and adults also use verbal and nonverbal aggression, manipulation, and lies to quick achievement goals. In this state, they make no attempts to establish interaction with others and do not try to understand what norms and rules exist in this society.
Closedness is another characteristic feature. A person stops communicating with others, he completely withdraws into himself, hides from people, and prevents attempts to start a relationship with him.
Social phobia – fear of communication, large numbers of people, the need to talk to someone, and so on gradually develops. It becomes more and more difficult for a person to do something that goes beyond the scope of his daily affairs; he begins to be afraid to visit an unfamiliar place, go somewhere, start a conversation with stranger or even leave the house.
Deviant behavior - lack of social contacts leads to ignoring the norms and rules existing in society. This often results in deviant or antisocial behavior.

Correction

Social maladjustment is characterized by a loss of connections with society and the outside world, and if this condition is not corrected in time, then complete destruction of the personality or its underdevelopment is possible.

Correction of social maladjustment begins with establishing the causes of its development and depends on the age of the patient.

People who have desocialization syndrome in adulthood are recommended to receive help from a psychotherapist or psychologist, attend trainings, make sure to establish social contacts, work with their own behavior, fears, and so on.

Maladjusted children need long-term joint work of parents or educators, teachers and psychologists. It is necessary to assess the degree of developmental delay, understand what has changed in the child’s psyche due to social maladjustment and correct these disturbances.

Prevention of school maladjustment, pedagogical and social neglect in children and adolescents today is the most important task of modern society.

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Social maladaptation is a complete or partial loss of the subject’s ability to adapt to the conditions of society. That is, this is a violation of a person’s relationship with the environment, which is characterized by the impossibility of his positive social role in certain social conditions corresponding to his potential.

Social maladjustment is characterized by several levels that reflect its depth: latent manifestation of maladjustment phenomena, maladaptive “perturbations,” destruction of previously formed adaptive mechanisms and connections, entrenched maladjustment.

Socio-psychological maladjustment

Adaptation literally means adaptation. This is one of the most significant concepts in biology. Widely used in concepts that treat the relationship of individuals with their environment as processes of homeostatic balancing. It is considered from the point of view of its two directions: adaptation of the individual to the new external environment and adaptation as the formation of new personality qualities on this basis.

There are two degrees of subject adaptation: disadaptation or deep adaptation.

Socio-psychological adaptation consists in the interaction of the social environment and the individual, leading to an ideal balance between the values and goals of the group in general and the individual in particular. In the course of such adaptation, the needs and aspirations, interests of the individual are realized, his individuality is discovered and formed, the individual enters a socially new environment. The result of such adaptation is the formation of professional and social qualities of communications, activities and behavioral reactions accepted in a particular society.

If we consider the adaptive processes of a subject from the perspective of the socio-psychological process of inclusion in activity, then the main points of activity should be the fixation of interest in it, establishing contacts with individuals who surround, satisfaction with such relationships, inclusion in social life.

The concept of social maladaptation of a person means a breakdown in the processes of interaction between a subject and the environment, which are aimed at maintaining a balance within the body, between the body and the environment. This term appeared relatively recently in psychology and psychiatry. The use of the concept of “maladaptation” is quite contradictory and ambiguous, which can be traced mainly in assessing the place and role of maladaptive states in relation to such categories as “norm” or “pathology”, since the parameters of “norm” and “pathology” in psychology are still little developed.

Social maladaptation of an individual is a rather versatile phenomenon, which is based on certain factors of social maladjustment that complicate the social adaptation of an individual.

Factors of social maladjustment:

relative cultural and social deprivation (deprivation of necessary goods or vital needs);

psychological and pedagogical neglect;

hyperstimulation with new (in content) social incentives;

insufficient preparedness for self-regulation processes;

loss of already formed forms of mentoring;

loss of the usual team;

low degree of psychological readiness to master the profession;

breaking dynamic stereotypes;

cognitive dissonance, which was caused due to a discrepancy between judgments about life and the situation in reality;

character accentuations;

psychopathic personality formation.

Thus, speaking about the problems of socio-psychological maladjustment, we mean a change in the internal and external circumstances of socialization. Those. social maladaptation of a person is a relatively short-term situational state, which is a consequence of the influence of new, unusual irritating factors of the changed environment and signals an imbalance between the demands of the environment and mental activity. It can be defined as a difficulty complicated by any adaptive factors to transforming conditions, which is expressed in inadequate reactions and behavior of the subject. It is the most important process of socialization of the individual.

Causes of social maladjustment

Social maladjustment of the individual is not a congenital process and never occurs spontaneously or unexpectedly. Its formation is preceded by a whole stage-by-stage complex of negative personality developments. There are also 5 significant reasons that influence the occurrence of maladaptive disorders. Such reasons include: social, biological, psychological, age, socio-economic.

Today, most scientists consider social causes to be the primary source of behavioral deviations. Due to improper family upbringing, violation interpersonal communication there is a so-called deformation of the processes of accumulation of social experience. This deformation more often occurs in adolescence and childhood due to erroneous upbringing, poor relationships with parents, lack of mutual understanding, mental trauma in childhood.

Biological causes include congenital pathology or brain injury, which affects the emotional and volitional sphere of children. Children with pathology or previous trauma are characterized by increased fatigue, difficulty in communication processes, irritability, inability to perform long-term and regular exercise, and inability to exercise volitional efforts. If such a child grows up in a dysfunctional family, this only strengthens the tendency towards deviant behavior.

Psychological reasons occurrence is caused by the peculiarities of the nervous system, character accentuations, which, under unfavorable circumstances of upbringing, form abnormal character traits and pathologies in behavior (impulsivity, high excitability, imbalance, unrestraint, excessive activity, etc.)

Age-related reasons are the lability and excitability characteristic of a teenager, accelerating the formation of hedonism, the desire for idleness and carelessness.

Socio-economic reasons include excessive commercialization of society, low family income, and criminalization of society.

Social maladjustment of children

The significance of the problems of social maladaptation of children is determined by the current situation in society. The current situation that has developed in society should be considered critical. Recent studies show a sharp increase in such negative manifestations among children as pedagogical neglect, lack of desire to learn, mental retardation, fatigue, Bad mood, exhaustion, excessive activity and mobility, lack of focus in mental activity, problems with concentration, early drug addiction and alcoholism.

It is obvious that the formation of the listed manifestations is directly influenced by biological and social circumstances, which are closely interconnected and determined, first of all, by the transforming living conditions of children and adults.

The problems of society directly affect the family in general and children in particular. Based on the research conducted, we can conclude that today 10% of children are characterized by various developmental disorders. Most children from infancy to adolescence have some kind of illness.

For social adaptation of an adult young man influenced by the conditions of its formation in childhood and adolescence, its socialization in the social environment of children. Therefore, a significant problem of social and school maladjustment of the child arises. Its main task is prevention - prevention, and correction, i.e. methods aimed at correction.

A maladjusted child is a child who differs from his peers due to problems with adaptation in the living environment, which affect his development, socialization processes, and ability to find solutions to problems that are natural for his age.

In principle, most children quite quickly and easily, without any particular difficulties, overcome the states of maladjustment that they encounter in the process of life.

The main reasons for violations in the social adaptation of children and their conflict may be personality or mental characteristics, such as:

lack of basic communication skills;

inadequacy in assessing oneself in communication processes;

excessive demands on the people around them. This manifests itself especially acutely in cases where the child is intellectually developed and is characterized by mental development above average in the group;

emotional instability;

the predominance of attitudes that impede communication processes. For example, humiliating the interlocutor, demonstrating one’s superiority, which turns communication into a competitive process;

fear of communication and anxiety;

isolation.

Depending on the reasons for the occurrence of violations in social maladaptation, the child can either passively submit to being pushed out of his circle by peers, or he himself can leave embittered and with a desire to take revenge on the team.

The lack of communication skills is a fairly significant barrier to children's interpersonal communication. Skills can be developed through behavioral training.

Social maladaptation can often manifest itself in a child’s aggression. Signs of social maladaptation: low self-esteem along with inflated demands on peers and adults, lack of desire to communicate and fear of communication, imbalance, manifested in sudden changes in mood, demonstration of emotions “in public,” isolation.

Maladjustment is quite dangerous for children, as it can lead to the following negative consequences: personal deformations, delayed physical and mental development, possible brain dysfunction, typical nervous system disorders (depression, lethargy or excitability, aggressiveness), loneliness or self-alienation, relationship problems with peers and other people, to suppress the instinct of self-preservation, .

Social maladjustment of adolescents

The process of socialization is the introduction of a child into society. This process is characterized by complexity, multifactoriality, multidirectionality and poor forecasting in the end. The socialization process can last a lifetime. One should not deny the impact of the innate qualities of the body on personal properties. After all, the formation of personality occurs only as a person is included in the surrounding society.

One of the prerequisites for the formation of personality is interaction with other subjects who transfer accumulated knowledge and life experience. This is accomplished not through simple mastery of social relations, but as a result of the complex interaction of social (external) and psychophysical (internal) developmental inclinations. And it represents the cohesion of socially typical traits and individually significant qualities. It follows from this that personality is socially conditioned and develops only in the process of life, in a change in the child’s attitude to the surrounding reality. From this we can conclude that the degree of socialization of an individual is determined by many components, which, when combined, form the overall structure of the influence of society on an individual. And the presence of certain defects in each of these components leads to the formation in the individual of social and psychological qualities that can lead the individual in specific circumstances to conflict situations with society.

Under the influence of socio-psychological conditions of the external environment and in the presence of internal factors, the child develops maladaptation, manifested in the form of abnormal - deviant behavior. Social maladaptation of adolescents arises from violations of normal socialization and is characterized by deformation of the referent and value orientations of adolescents, a decrease in the significance of the referent character and alienation, first of all, from the influence of teachers at school.

Depending on the degree of alienation and the depth of the resulting deformations of value and reference orientations, two phases of social maladjustment are distinguished. The first phase consists of pedagogical neglect and is characterized by alienation from school and loss of referent significance in school while maintaining a fairly high reference significance in the family. The second phase is more dangerous and is characterized by alienation from both school and family. The connection with the main institutions of socialization is lost. The assimilation of distorted value-normative ideas occurs and the first criminal experience appears in youth groups. The result of this will be not only a lag in learning, poor performance, but also increasing psychological discomfort that adolescents experience at school. This pushes adolescents to search for a new, non-school communication environment, another reference group of peers, which subsequently begins to play a leading role in the process of socialization of adolescents.

Factors of social maladaptation of adolescents: exclusion from the situation of personal growth and development, neglect of the personal desire for self-realization, self-affirmation in a socially acceptable way. The consequence of maladaptation will be psychological isolation in the communicative sphere with a loss of the sense of belonging to its inherent culture, a transition to attitudes and values that dominate the microenvironment.

Unmet needs can lead to increased social activity. And it, in turn, can result in social creativity and this will be a positive deviation, or it will manifest itself in antisocial activity. If she does not find a way out, she may seek a way out by becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs. The most unfavorable development is a suicide attempt.

The current social and economic instability, the critical state of the healthcare and education systems not only does not contribute to the comfortable socialization of the individual, but also aggravates the processes of maladaptation of adolescents associated with problems in family education, which lead to even greater anomalies in the behavioral reactions of adolescents. Therefore, the process of socialization of adolescents is increasingly becoming negative. The situation is aggravated by the spiritual pressure of the criminal world and their values, rather than civil institutions. The destruction of the main institutions of socialization leads to an increase in crime among minors.

Also, the sharp increase in the number of maladjusted adolescents is influenced by the following social contradictions: indifference to smoking in high school, lack of effective method combating absenteeism, which today has practically become the norm of school behavior, along with the ongoing reduction in educational and preventive work in government organizations and institutions that deal with leisure and education of children; replenishment of juvenile gangs of criminals due to teenagers who have dropped out of school and are lagging behind in their studies, along with a decrease in social relationships between families and teachers. This makes it easier for teenagers to establish contacts with juvenile criminal groups, where illegal and illegal activities develop freely and are welcomed; crisis phenomena in society that contribute to the growth of anomalies in the socialization of adolescents, along with a weakening of the educational influence on adolescents of public groups that should exercise education and public control over the actions of minors.

Consequently, the increase in maladjustment, deviant behavior, and juvenile delinquency is the result of the global social alienation of children and youth from society. And this is a consequence of a violation of the immediate processes of socialization, which have become uncontrollable and spontaneous in nature.

Signs of social maladaptation of adolescents associated with such an institution of socialization as school:

The first sign is poor academic performance in the school curriculum, which includes: chronic underachievement, repeating a year, insufficient and fragmentary acquired general educational information, i.e. lack of a system of knowledge and skills in studies.

The next sign is systematic violations of an emotionally charged personal attitude towards learning in general and some subjects in particular, towards teachers, and life prospects related to learning. Behavior can be indifferent-indifferent, passive-negative, demonstrative-dismissive, etc.

The third sign is regularly recurring anomalies of behavior during school learning and in the school environment. For example, passive-refusal behavior, lack of contact, complete refusal of school, persistent behavior with violation of discipline, characterized by oppositional defiant actions and including active and demonstrative opposition of one’s personality to other students and teachers, disregard for the rules adopted at school, vandalism at school .

Correction of social maladjustment

In childhood, the main directions for correcting social maladjustment of the individual should be: development of communication skills, harmonization of interpersonal communication in the family and in peer groups, adjustment of certain personality traits that impede communication, or transformation of the manifestations of traits in such a way that in the future they cannot negatively affect communication. sphere, adjusting children’s self-esteem to bring it closer to normal.

Currently, trainings that are especially popular in the correction of social maladaptation are: psychotechnical games aimed at developing various mental functions that are associated with transformations in consciousness, and role-playing socio-psychological training.

This training is aimed at resolving the internal contradictions of the subject in the conditions of practicing certain skills in performing specific social functions (formation and consolidation of the necessary social and cultural norms). The training takes place in the form of a game.

Main functions of the training:

training, which consists in the development of skills and abilities necessary for learning, such as: attention, memory, reproduction of received information, foreign speech skills;

entertaining, serves to create a more favorable atmosphere during the training, which transforms training into an exciting and entertaining adventure;

communicative, which consists in establishing emotional contacts;

relaxation – aimed at relieving emotional stress;

psychotechnical, characterized by the formation of skills to prepare one’s own physiological state in order to obtain more information;

preventive, aimed at preventing unwanted behavior;

developmental, characterized by the development of personality from different sides, the development of character traits through playing out all possible situations.

Social-psychological training consists of a specific psychological impact, which is based on active methods of working in groups. It is characterized by the intensity of the individual’s preparation for a more fulfilling and active life. The essence of the training is specially organized training for the purpose of self-improvement of the individual’s personality. It is aimed at solving such problems as: mastering social and pedagogical knowledge, developing the ability to know oneself and others, increasing ideas about one’s importance, and developing a variety of abilities, skills, and abilities.

Training is a whole complex of sequential classes with one group. Tasks and exercises are selected individually for each group.

Prevention of social maladjustment

Prevention is a whole system of socially, economically, and hygienically oriented measures that are carried out at the state level, by individuals and public organizations to ensure a higher degree of public health and prevent diseases.

Prevention of social maladaptation is scientifically determined and timely actions that are aimed at preventing potential physical, sociocultural, psychological clashes in individual subjects belonging to the risk group, preserving and protecting people’s health, supporting in achieving goals, and unlocking internal potential.

The concept of prevention is to avoid certain problems. To solve this problem, it is necessary to eliminate existing causes of risk and increase protective mechanisms. There are two approaches to prevention: one is aimed at the individual, the other at the structure. In order for these two approaches to be as effective as possible, they should be used in combination. All preventive measures should be aimed at the population as a whole, at specific groups and at individuals at risk.

There is primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Primary – characterized by a focus on preventing the occurrence of problematic situations, eliminating negative factors and unfavorable conditions that cause certain phenomena, as well as increasing the individual’s resistance to the effects of such factors. Secondary – designed to recognize early manifestations of maladaptive behavior of individuals (there are certain criteria for social maladjustment that contribute to early detection), its symptoms and reduce their effects. Such preventive measures are taken in relation to children from risk groups right before problems arise. Tertiary – involves carrying out activities at the stage of an already established disease. Those. These measures are taken to eliminate an existing problem, but at the same time, they are also aimed at preventing the emergence of new ones.

Depending on the reasons for the maladaptation, the following types of preventive measures are distinguished: neutralizing and compensating, measures aimed at preventing the occurrence of situations that contribute to the occurrence of maladjustment; elimination of such situations, monitoring of preventive measures taken and their results.

The effectiveness of preventive work with maladjusted subjects in most cases depends on the presence of a developed and comprehensive infrastructure, which includes the following elements: qualified specialists, financial and organizational support from regulatory and government bodies, relationship with scientific departments, specially created social space for the purpose of solutions to maladaptive problems, in which their own traditions and ways of working with maladjusted people should be developed.

The main goal of social preventive work should be psychological adaptation and its final outcome - successful entry into a social group, the emergence of a feeling of confidence in relationships with members of the collective group and satisfaction with one’s own position in such a system of relations. Thus, any preventive activity should be targeted at the individual as a subject of social adaptation and consist in increasing his adaptive potential, at the environment and at the conditions for the best interaction.