Peculiarities of Penitentiary Officers’ Subjective Well-Being

Introduction. The problem of subjective well-being is relevant for penitentiary officers as their activity is filled with various extraordinary situations, sense of danger, which adds psychological pressure and essentially influences the state of subjective well-being, the indicators of the latter being the level of development of moral and business qualities, potential for constructive communication with surrounding people etc. Materials and Methods. The authors employed review and analytical method, that is theoretical analysis of scientific resources on the problems of the research; ascertaining empirical method comprising psychodiagnostical technique of «Scale of subjective well-being» (A. Perrudet-Badoux, G. Mendelsohn; adapted by M. V. Sokolova); non-parametric statistical test for comparing two independent samples (Mann-Whitney U-test). The research was carried out in 2021 on the basis of the Directorate of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in the Arkhangelsk region; forty officers of special assignment with different terms of service in the penitentiary system were surveyed. Results and Discussion. Penitentiary officers with less than five years of service show the moderate level of subjective well-being. Their emotional stress is mostly on the moderate level: they have no emotional problems, demonstrate moderate level of activity and moderate subjective well-being. They are in a state of moderate emotional comfort, without experiencing significant emotional problems, successfully interacting with people, they are noted for adequacy in behavior, self-confidence and activity. The officers with more than five years of service predominantly have subjective ill-being; they are characterized by high level of emotional stress, emotional discomfort, tendency to depression and anxiety, pessimism, problems of interacting with people around, personal closed nature, and poor resistance to stress. The term of service in the penitentiary service can significantly influence the level of an officer’s subjective well-being and the level of development of necessary competences, qualities, sense of awareness and constructiveness in the course of performing professional actions. Conclusions. A penitentiary officer’s subjective well-being is connected with the formation of his professional competences necessary for effective tackling professional assignments. Penitentiary officers with less than five years of service show a higher level of subjective well-being in comparison with the officers with more than five years of service. It is reasonable to develop a correctional programme for the workers with low level of subjective well-being in order to form their motivation to self-development, active position, skills of self-control, develop goal-setting skills, responsibility for consequences of their actions, ability to make important decisions, advance professional activity.