Changing the Characteristics of Regulatory Controls and Value Orientations of Students in the Context of a Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this study is to study possible changes caused by the pandemic factor in the psychological system of ensuring the psychological health of young people, related to regulatory controls and value orientations. The sample consisted of 164 university students, 17 to 25 years of age (the mean age is 19.4 years; and 39.0% are males), divided into two equal investigation groups of 82 people from 2019 and 2020. Research methods: “Personal Readiness for Activity (PRA)” scale (I. V. Atamanova, S. A. Bogomaz) and “Portrait Value Questionnaire-Revised (PVQ-R)” (Sh. Schwartz). Data analysis methods: rank-biserial correlation, regression analysis, Mann-Whitney U-test, Student's t-test, network analysis. Results: The data of correlation and regression analysis revealed relationships between the studied psychological variables and the “pandemic factor”, which are significantly more pronounced than the common socio-demographic relationships from before the pandemic from a variety of respondents (gender, age, specialty). To a greater extent, this applies to the variables of Planning, Reflection, and Conservation. The use of statistical criteria for differences revealed a significant decrease in the indicators of Planning, Reflection, and the PRA Index in 2020 compared to 2019. We found a significant increase in the level of higher-order value of Conservation in 2020. The role of this indicator in the network structure of the psychological system for ensuring psychological health of young people is also on the rise, while the role of the value of Openness is on the decline. These phenomena reflect the dynamic consistency of youth value orientations with global critical factors related to the pandemic. There is a restructuring of the structural features of the value and regulatory controls for ensuring the psychological health of young people in the context of a pandemic. In the network graphs of 2019, a single center is represented - Goal setting, which acts as a systemforming factor. In 2020, it was replaced by a cooperative, polycentric subsystem that combines three characteristics that are similar in their degree of influence on human life - Planning, Reflection, and Conservation.