How to help foster teens form a positive self-concept in sports and exercise activities

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to develop and experimentally verify the psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of a positive self-concept for adolescents from a foster family as the foundation for their effective social adaptation and harmonious personal development. Methodology: Pedagogical experiment (stating, forming and control stages of the experiment) was chosen as the leading method of the study. It allowed to implement a set of developed psychological and pedagogical measures. The study featured 26 adolescents and 18 parents. Results: As part of the efforts invested, there was experimentally verified the effectiveness of the developed psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of a positive self-concept of adolescents from a foster family. There were also defined statistically significant positive changes in the indicators of self-concept components (cognitive, emotional-evaluative, and behavioural). Teenagers began to set more realistic goals, to adequately relate to their personal qualities, to their status among peers and in the family. There has been a positive tendency to accepting oneself as a holistic and consistent self-image, aligned with the ideal-self modality. Applications of this study: The results of the study can become an additional source for specifying modern theories of the formation of a positive self-concept, the developed programs can be used in the practice of social educators, educators-psychologists working with foster children. Novelty/Originality of this study: The development of a methodological basis and effective psychological and pedagogical measures to form a positive self-concept for adolescents brought up in foster families is the scientific novelty of the study

Formation of University Students’ Readiness for Parenthood

Forming students ’ readiness for family life involves the formation of their readiness for responsible parenthood. The aim of the study was the theoretical basis and experimental testing of the training program to form the students ’ readiness for parenthood. The article deals with the relevance of the problem, defining parenting in psychological, educational, social and philosophical literature, the study of the problem in Russia, research methodology and experimental study on the issue. During the research we have developed and tested a training program. The results of pedagogical experiment allow to come to the conclusion about the effectiveness of the developed program “I am a Future Parent”