Resilience and Personality Characteristics of High School Students and Students

Introduction. The research is devoted to the study of resilience and such personal characteristics of high school students as locus of control, anxiety and stress tolerance. The research results make it possible to clarify the factors contributing to and hindering the development of such an important personal resource as resilience, as well as to identify the features of the formation of psychological phenomena associated with the dynamics of personal adaptation to the educational environment and self-determination in youth. Materials and methods. The following methods were used: the S. Muddy resilience test adapted by D. A. Leontiev, E. I. Rasskazova; the questionnaire «Level of subjective control» (USC) by E. F. Bazhin, E. A. Golynkina, A.M. Etkind; the scale for assessing the level of reactive and personal anxiety by C. D. Spielberger adapted by Yu. L. Khanin; the self-assessment test of S. Kouhen's stress tolerance and G. Willanson in the adaptation by J. N. Vorobeitchik. The sample is represented by students of senior (10-11) grades of secondary schools in St. Petersburg and students of 1-2 courses of the St. Petersburg State University of Railways of Emperor Alexander I. The total number of participants was 64 people, including 32 high school students aged 16-17 years, 32 students of 1-2 courses of different fields of study aged 18-20 years, with the same number of boys and girls in each sample. Results. The results allowed to identify differences in indicators of resilience, anxiety and stress tolerance, similarities and differences in the structure of relationships between indicators of resilience, locus of control, anxiety and stress tolerance of high school students and students. Discussion and conclusion. Differences in the factor structure of the relationships between the indicators of resilience, locus of control, anxiety and stress tolerance of high school students and students may indicate the dynamics of the formation of resilience, control and self-regulation of behavior in adolescence. The similarity of the factor structure of indicators reflecting the links between resilience, locus of control, anxiety, and stress tolerance in high school students suggests that resilience, as the most important personal resource, allows a person to effectively overcome stressful situations and counteracts the tendency to often experience severe anxiety for relatively small reasons. The characteristics of the locus of control, appearing initially as variables related to resilience, stress tolerance, and anxiety, become an independent factor in adolescence, reflecting the control of social and personal behavior.