Российский психологический журнал (Apr 2022)
The Structural-functional Model of Contemporary Students’ Psychological Well-being
Abstract
Introduction. The article discusses a topical issue of studying the psychological well-being of students as the main resource for societal development in the near future. Psychological well-being ensures effective socialization and vitality of the individual, helps to constructively cope with stress, and successfully solve age-related problems. A deep understanding of the phenomenology and structural and functional organization of contemporary students’ psychological well-being is absolutely necessary. Methods. The theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of psychological well-being is based on attributive, structural, genetic, and functional types of scientific analysis, as well as scientific synthesis of the identified characteristics. Indicators and predictors of psychological well-being have been empirically studied. The sample was comprised of 300 students of Kostroma State University aged 18–23 years (M = 20.4), 254 of whom were girls and 46 of whom were boys. Results and Discussion. The concept of ‘psychological well-being’ is differentiated from the system of related phenomena; the author's structural-functional model of psychological well-being of contemporary students is theoretically substantiated and empirically verified. A high level of psychological well-being has not found among students. Students with low and average levels of psychological well-being have different subjective criteria for achieving psychological well-being, barriers to its achievement, and resources for achieving well-being. The main indicators of students’ psychological well-being are the feeling of happiness and satisfaction with their own lives. The integral indicator of psychological well-being is associated with the characteristics of the students’ motivational-value sphere. Subjective indicators of the psychological well-being of students include the assessment of the state of health, academic success, life success, and satisfaction with romantic relationships. The predictors of the psychological well-being are innovative competence, meaningfulness of life, and socio-psychological climate of the study group. The functions of psychological well-being are hedonistic, eudemonistic, resourceful, adaptive, protective, stabilizing, and anticipatory functions. The authors concluded that there exist universal trends in the structural and functional organization of the psychological well-being of contemporary students, as well as specific characteristics of the psychological well-being of students with low and average values of the index of well-being.
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