Eventful growing up of children with different levels of health: A sociological analysis

The relevance of the study is determined by the requirements of scientific understanding and interpretation of the peculiarities of growing up of socially juvenile groups with different levels of health. Contemporary trends in the dissemination of ideas of universal design of social inclusion and gradual replacement of its medical model with a social one in solving problems of persons with disabilities stimulated the study of the influence of health on the socialization of Russian children and adolescents. The authors focus, unlike most projects, on the subjectivity of the child, on the opinions of representatives of the juvenile group about childhood and health. The article aims at identifying the specifics of childhood event trajectories in groups with and without disabilities. The authors analyzed the data of the survey of young people about childhood to find answers to the following research questions: the dependence of the share of those with health problems in childhood on social-demographic characteristics; limitations in the passage of some episodes of standard eventfulness for respondents with disabilities in a specific period of childhood; differences in the age of living significant personal events; the influence of the health factor on self-determination in this period of life and on its definition as happy. The study was based on a biographical-event analysis given the possibilities and limitations of the online survey of respondents aged 17-23, conducted in 2023 in 8 federal districts (N=1210). The comparative analysis of two groups showed differences in event situations in a number of parameters, which proves the limitations or features of childhood with disabilities: an earlier subjective feeling of the end of childhood; intensive development of self-care skills, success of medical socialization; mastering practices of empathy, mutual assistance and responsibility. Children with disabilities do not lag behind healthy peers in online practices and even demonstrate additional skills and competencies (for example, they have more online friends); at the same time, there is a delay in their mastering of geographic, educational and cultural spaces. Uneven sequence of events in childhood affects social competence and, probably, can explain lower assessment of childhood well-being.