Almazova, O.V.

Background. This article presents data from a longitudinal study of understanding mixed emotion in preschool and primary school-age children, as well as the relationship of emotion understanding to the development of thinking. Understanding mixed emotions is viewed as children's ability to recognize and interpret emotions consisting of two simultaneous emotions of different valences. In contrast to the majority of other works following Piaget's theory, our work, follows the structural-dialectical approach and examines how the understanding of mixed emotions is connected not only to formal operations, but also to dialectical actions which allow us to look into the way a child forms the unity of two opposite emotions.

Objective of the study was to analyze how understanding mixed emotions develops in children aged 5-6 and 7-8 and to assess the nature of changes in the relationship between understanding mixed emotions and indicators of cognitive development in these two age groups.

Sample. Data were obtained by diagnosing 80 children, including 42 boys (52.5%) between 2019 and 2022.

Methods. Preschoolers’ understanding of mixed emotions was assessed using a set of tasks consisting of three stories whose characters experienced atypical emotional experiences (Veraksa et al., 2022a). To diagnose the formal-logical thinking, the Probability, Scale and Cylinder methods (Piaget, Inhelder, 1951; Piaget et al., 1948), which were part of the classic Piaget tests, were applied. The development of dialectical thinking was assessed with the techniques “Drawing an Unusual Tree”, “What can be at the same time?”, and “Cycles” (Veraksa et al., 2022b).

Results. Analysis revealed that children in the first grade were more successful in completing mixed emotion tasks than children in the older preschool group. It was found that the success in comprehension tasks for mixed emotions among older preschoolers and first graders was related to the development of multiplication operations (formal-logical operations) and operations of mediation, serialization, and reference (dialectical operations).

Conclusion. The peculiarities of the connection between the understanding of mixed emotions and the development of formal and dialectical thinking in children aged 5-6 and 7-8 were revealed.

Background. The quality of preschool education is of great importance for the subsequent adaptation and academic success. The ECERS-R methodology is available for Russian psychologists for assessing the quality of the educational environment of a kindergarten with a large array of accumulated data. ECERS-R is aimed at assessing more the material and subject arrangement of a preschool educational institution and the nature of the child's interaction with the environment (including social). At the same time, in our opinion, insufficient attention is paid to assessing the emotional climate of interactions between children and teachers and assessing the extent to which the proposed training is in the zone of proximal development of the child.

Objective. To compensate for the identified deficit, work was carried out to start adapting another tool for assessing the quality of the educational environment — the CLASS methodology, based on the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky about the optimal construction of the educational process.

Methods. The study was conducted in 41 preparatory groups of Moscow kindergartens. In these groups, to assess the quality of the educational environment, the CLASS methodology was used, which includes 10 dimensions combined into 3 main domains: Emotional support, Classroom Organization and Instructional support. Also, on a part of the sample (N=26 groups), the ECERS-R method was additionally used.

Results. Analysis of the internal reliability of the instrumentation showed satisfactory results. Although the scores for all three domains are related, the Instructional Support scores were significantly lower than the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization scores. Comparison of the results of the CLASS and ECERS-R methods showed a small number of relationships between the scores of the scales of the two methods. At the same time, the CLASS parameter Instructional support is more related to ECERS-R.

Conclusion. The data obtained confirm our assumption that the CLASS method provides significant information about the quality of interaction between a teacher and children in a kindergarten group, which complements the results of ECERS-R, which means that this tool will be useful for a full assessment of the quality of the educational environment in a kindergarten.

Relevance. The spread of deviant behavior and violations of moral norms by adolescents increases in the transitive informational society with high variability of socialization forms and moral standards. These violations are declaratively accepted by teenagers while they maintain a positive moral self-esteem. The implementation of behavior that goes beyond the boundaries of accepted moral standards indicates a violation of moral self-regulation associated with a special attitude to one’s act according to the type of moral alienation. A. Bandura proposed a model to justify immoral behavior where moral disengagement mechanisms are highlighted, providing support for positive self-esteem and self-respect. The selected moral disengagement mechanisms are actively used in adolescents to explain their own and other people's immoral behavior. 

Objective: to determine the characteristics of the preferences of moral disengagement mechanisms in adolescence and youth. Research goals: analysis of preferences of the moral disengagement mechanisms, age dynamics analysis of moral disengagement mechanisms, gender differences analysis of preferences of the moral disengagement mechanisms, analysis of the psychometric parameters of the questionnaire of moral disengagement mechanisms.

The following methods were used in the study: the method of moral disengagement mechanisms by S. Moore in the Russian-language adaptation by Ledova Ya.A. and colleagues, the methodology “Justice and care” (author S.V. Molchanov). 

Participants. The study involved 551 adolescents aged 14 to 17 where 346 (62.8%) were boys and 205 (37.2%) were girls. It also surveyed 230 senior students of universities. 

The following results were obtained: the characteristics of preferences were analyzed and a hierarchy of mechanisms of moral disengagement mechanisms was identified; various groups were distinguished by the nature of preferences of moral disengagement mechanisms; age dynamics of preferences of moral disengagement mechanisms were determined ;gender differences in the preferences of moral disengagement mechanisms are highlighted; the psychometric parameters of the used methodology were analyzed; the possibilities of its use was demonstrated.

Relevance. In the correctional facilities the staff plays a special role in the life of juvenile offenders serving sentences and isolated from the society. It is not only the rehabilitation process in the juvenile correctional facility but also the success of resocialization after serving the sentence that is determined by their actions and the attitude towards the juvenile convicts. 

Objective. The aim of the study was to study exactly which indicators of mental health and emotional state of juvenile convicts are associated with perceived and received socio-psychological support from psychologists and caregivers of the juvenile correctional facility in comparison with support from other sources. 

Methods and participants. The study involved 657 adolescents serving sentences in nine juvenile correctional facilities, aged 14 to 19 years (564 boys and 93 girls).The study used the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), an item specifically developed for identifying the frequency of seeking help from various categories of people present in respondents' lives; the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - DASS-21); the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS); and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE). 

Results. Differences were identified in the relationship between perceived social support from different sources and the frequency of seeking help for different categories with indicators of mental health and emotional state of young convicts. The study also identified the impact of different support sources on anxiety, stress, and the strength of positive and negative emotions.  The study emphasizes the special role of caregivers and psychologists compared to other categories of stuff in predicting the levels of depression, 

Conclusions. The perceived social support from the staff and the frequency of juvenile convicts asking psychologists and caregivers for help have a significant impact on mental health indicators and the emotional state of juvenile offenders. Peers and friends have the least impact on the mental health and emotional state of incarcerated youth, as opposed to free adolescents. On the contrary, “significant adults” represented by staff of correctional camps (educators and psychologists) make a significant contribution to reducing mental health disorders and improving the emotional state of offenders. Perceived social support from “significant others” helps reduce stress. Asking educators for help can be considered a predictor of lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress in juvenile convicts. In turn, the level of positive emotions is mostly determined by seeking help from a psychologist. 

Background. The relevance of this study is associated with the widespread use of social media by adolescents with a high risk of turning to aggression and violence.

Objective. The purpose of the study is to investigate the characteristics of adolescents' perceptions of peer profiles in social networks that vary in degrees of “security,” and their readiness to carry out various communicative actions depending on their psychological characteristics. We hypothesized that: 1) There is a connection between the psychological characteristics of adolescent users of a social network, and their ability to differentiate profiles of peers-users of social networks and communicative actions in social networks; and 2) The oculomotor activity of adolescent users of social networks is associated with the degree of attractiveness of a peer profile.

Design. We used the methods of “Peer attachment” (G. Armden, M.T. Greenberg, 1987 as adapted by G.V. Burmenskaya, 2015); Emotional intelligence (D.V. Lyusin, 2009); Recognition of emotions by sight (S. Baron-Cohen et al., 2001); cognitive methods for assessing social information (S.V. Molchanov et al., 2018); eye-tracking technique; and conversation. The study included 40 adolescents 14 to 17 years old.

Results.We distinguished three groups which differed in their attachment to peers, emotional intelligence, and cognitive methods of processing social information; they comprised three types – “idealizing,” “selective,” and “cautious.” We showed that the "selective type" is characterized by the highest degree of differentiation of "dangerous" and "safe" profiles of peers in social networks, and high selectivity in implementing various communicative actions. The greater attractiveness of the main information in a peer’s profile is reflected in more fixations, fixation time, and returns to the zone. 

Acknowledgments.This work was financially supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund No. 18-013-01080 “Cognitive methods for processing social information from the Internet as a factor in the formation of adolescents' ideas about the moral regulation of relations in the modern information society”.

The article analyzes the relations between adult siblings, their specifics and diversity, as well as some factors affecting these relations. A brief review of modern foreign research in this area is also given in the article. We have presented the results of empirical research of sibling relationships on the national sample (102 adults who have at least one sibling) from the point of view of their closeness, trust, conflict/hostility and other parameters. We used two adapted questionnaires — Adult Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (C. Stocker and coll.) and Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale Items (H.R. Riggio). The article highlights and describes four types of relationships: close and non-conflict (45% of the sample), less close and more conflict (31%); indifferent (19%), not close and conflict-competitive (5%). In addition we assessed the impact on the nature of the relationship between adult siblings of such factors as sex, age gap, the order of birth, the proximity of residence and marital status. Women are more attentive to their siblings and know them better; men are more likely to recognize that admire brothers more than sisters; dominance and opposition expressed more in same-sex pairs of siblings. In childhood the less age spacing the more active interaction between siblings and the higher trust between them is. In adulthood this factor is of no importance. As a rule, the younger know more about their siblings; they lend more emotional support to their siblings and count on getting the same from them. Siblings who live near to each other have more competition, they are more supportive of each other in practical terms and they interact more actively and positively. Adults who are married have closer and less conflict relationships with their siblings.