Psychological safety of the educational environment in the assessments of students of new subjects of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Research on the psychological safety of students within the educational environment has developed actively in recent decades. Investigating the psychological safety of students in the new subjects of the Russian Federation is particularly relevant, as these territories are undergoing complex social and political transformation. This process presents unique challenges for the educational system and for the psychological well-being of students. Although research exists on the psychological safety resources of students in territories recently admitted to the Russian Federation, the question of how schoolchildren themselves assess the psychological safety of their educational environment — alongside their personal psychological safety — remains open. This study analyzes the subjective assessment of the psychological safety of the educational environment among students in grades 9–11 from these new subjects of the Russian Federation. The respondents were 1097 individuals (656 girls and 441 boys) studying in grades 9–11 in the Zaporozhie Oblast and the Lugansk People’s Republic, categorized by gender. Psychological safety was measured using I. A. Baeva’s Psychological Safety of the School Educational Environment instrument. Both girls and boys in the new Russia’s regions rated the level of their psychological safety within the educational environment as high. A comparative analysis of the components of psychological safety between girls and boys revealed significant differences in the areas of the educational environment’s reference significance and protection from psychological violence in interactions among stakeholders in edulogical violence is higher among girls than among boys. Girls also rated cognitive and emotional components of their attitude toward the educational environment more highly than boys. An analysis of variance established that in the new subjects of Russia the integral assessment of psychological safety of the educational environment depends on student gender. This research indicates the importance of considering student gender when developing programs to support psychological safety in the educational environment of the new territories.