Features of Protective and Coping Behavior of Students in the Digital Educational Environment: the Influence of the Gender Factor

The article examines the features of protective and coping behavior of students in the digital educational environment, depending on the gender factor. The introduction of digital technologies has actualized the issue of overcoming stressful situations by students, for whom the digital space is one of the main platforms for interaction. In this regard, the issue of studying coping with difficulties in a digital environment, the objective conditions of which are different than in real life, is extremely acute. Given that the repertoire of coping strategies varies in the real world depending on gender, it is natural to assume that there are or are not differences in protective and coping behavior in the digital space. The aim of the work was to study the characteristics of protective and coping behavior of students in a digital educational environment, depending on the gender factor. In 2023, students of higher and secondary vocational educational institutions in Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region were interviewed. The answers of 137 people who were taken for further work had the highest degree of reliability. The average age of the respondents is 19 years, among them 104 girls and 33 boys. All the study participants were tested using the following diagnostic techniques: the methodology of the study of satisfaction with the digital educational environment of the university (M. G. Sorokova, M. A. Odintsovo, N. P. Radchikova), the questionnaire “SACS” (S. Hobfall), a questionnaire for studying the Plutchik-Kellerman-Conte lifestyle index. The results of the study confirm the dependence of the choice of coping strategies and mechanisms of psychological protection in the digital space on the gender factor. Significant differences were revealed in the indicators of such strategies as the search for social support, impulsive and antisocial actions and the following protective mechanisms: displacement, projection, hypercompensation.