Creating adaptive tools for the psychological testing of risky behavior in migrant children in the context of modern education

Abstract

The article seeks to identify the specific features of teachers’ interaction with migrant children. Migrant children find themselves in a new environment with unfamiliar values, rules and culture, which can affect their behavior and adaptation. Psychological testing of risky behavior in migrant children is an important tool that can be used to prevent potential problems and develop personalized approaches to support migrant children in the process of their adaptation to the new environment. The study involved focus group interviews and in-depth interviews with migrant children and teachers. The data obtained indicate that the share of migrant children in an educational institution varies from 25% to 50%, depending on the location of the institution. Teachers stress the need for preliminary work with parents and children to reduce negative perceptions of psychological testing and encourage children to participate in it — this need may stem from a low level of Russian language proficiency among migrants, as poor language skills create difficulties in the understanding of the test questions and promote random answers. In order to adapt traditional testing methods for migrant children, we propose the use of nonverbal tests that can be the basis for the development of visual forms of assessment. The main purpose of the work is to identify and create verbal content for visual images of the test questions, which will ensure the authenticity and unification of indicators and scores. We identified three most significant questions in each of the scales, and carried out content analysis and cluster analysis to form structural components of the visual image of the test questions. As a result, 66 questions were selected to be translated into the visual form in order to increase the accessibility of the methodology for migrant children. The obtained results highlight the importance of adapting testing methods for the specific conditions of working with migrant children, which contributes to a more accurate identification of their psychological stability and personality traits.