Dynamics of conflict-response strategies among cadets at a military higher education institution

The relevance of the study is determined by the specifics of the educational process in the conditions of current challenges, where regulated statutory life, constant intense psycho-emotional loads, and closed space inevitably generate concealed forms of protest, deformation of interpersonal interaction, and a crisis of traditional managerial authority. The main purpose of the study was to identify effective psychological mechanisms for preventing and constructively resolving conflicts by comparing the top-down perspective (expert assessments of tactical commanders) with the insider perspective (direct psychological experience of cadets). To achieve this goal, a wide and interrelated set of contemporary empirical and diagnostic methods was applied. In particular, the author’s questionnaire was used for a detailed assessment of the level of destructiveness, frequency, main triggers of conflict, and specific forms of behavioural response, and the classical method of diagnosing strategies of behaviour in conflict situations by Thomas-Kilmann, which helped to clearly identify response profiles in both commanders and cadets, determining the respondents’ propensity for competition, effective cooperation, compromise, avoidance, or adaptation. The obtained empirical results (sample n = 26) strongly indicate that conflicts in cadet groups are mainly latent. According to the Mann-Whitney U-test, statistically significant differences were found between the 1st-year cadets and commanders in assessing the criticality of statutory compliance requirements (U = 8.00; p = 0.009; r = 0.65). A comparison of the results showed significant differences: if commanders explain conflicts with disciplinary nihilism, then cadets point to ignoring human needs, applying the practice of collective responsibility, and outdated authoritarian management approaches. The study recorded the evolution of forms of resistance: from the initial adaptive shock, everyday trifles and the desire for compromise in the 1st-year to accumulated communication fatigue, emotional burnout, high avoidance indicators, and devaluation of command authority in the 3rd-year. The practical significance of the findings lies in substantiating the need for a decisive shift away from outdated authoritarian and directive approaches to conflict response in favour of the active development of psychological mediation, contemporary military leadership, and partnership-based communication. This would substantially optimise the system of moral and psychological support in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, enhance the overall combat capability of military units, and preserve the psychological resilience of future officers