Mechanisms of students' self-realization in volunteer activities

Problem and objective. For the development of modern students as competent social actors, there is a problem of stimulating their volunteer work by expanding the possibilities for their self-realization. The aim of the study is to determine the features of the construction of volunteering, which activate the personal resources and abilities of students. Research methods. The study used methods of conceptual reconstruction of the developing opportunities of volunteering, questionnaires, focus-group method, content analysis, thesaurus analysis, Self-actualization test (SAT) (version of POI Shostrom), and project method. The experimental work involved 184 students at the survey stage and 96 students at the testing stage, studying at the Belgorod State National Research University and Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov (Russia). For processing of data the authors used methods of parametric statistics and significance of differences analysis on Student's t-test. Results of the study. The data obtained from student surveys reflected subjectively significant features of volunteering, causing their desire for self-realization. As a result of the conceptual reconstruction of these data, the authors identified a set of psychological mechanisms of self-realization: expressive, inclusive, multi-contact, comparative, consolidating, facilitative, cognitive-reflexive, role, intentional, contemporaneous, trust, risky, sense centric, and action-leading. Involvement of students in work on their own volunteer projects was highlighted as an organizational mechanism for their self-realization. According to the testing results, students of project volunteering, KEYWORDS compared to students of event volunteering, had higher self-regard (temp=5,8), self-acceptance (temp=5,5), inner directed (temp=5,1), feeling reactivity (temp=4,8), nature of man (temp=4,3) synergy (temp=3.9). Conclusion. The identified mechanisms of students' self-realization in volunteering do not have exact terminological analogues in research and in its totality represent a detailed picture of the conditions for their self realization in this sphere. The obtained result has practical and educational value, allows activating subjectively significant possibilities of volunteering for student involvement and retention in it.