Social and psychological adaptation of younger schoolchildren to the learning environment as a factor of their emotional well-being

The article considers the phenomenon of socio-psychological adaptation of younger schoolchildren to learning at school. In this period, the usual daily routine changes, children are forced to obey the rules of school life, fulfilling the requirements of the teacher. Aim. The purpose of the article is to identify the role of socio-psychological adaptation of first graders to schooling in the formation of their emotional well-being. Materials and methods. 107 first-graders, including 42 boys and 65 girls, aged from 7 to 8 years (average age 7.5 ± 0.5 years) participated in the study.The following psychodiagnostic techniques were used: the technique “Ladder” (V.G. Schur) assesses the level of emotional well-being; “School drawing” methodology, which determines the attitude of a first-grader to school and the level of school anxiety; diagnosis of school anxiety (A.M. Prikhozhan) between children, communication with an adult and a teacher. Mathematical and statistical processing is carried out using Spearman's rank correlation coefficients, cluster analysis, qualitative analysis of research results. The calculations were performed using SPSS Statistics v. 17.0. Results. Three levels of socio-psychological changes were revealed: a high level of adaptation (n = 52) - primary classes with an emotionally favorable attitude to school, an average level of adaptation (n = 35) - students with an emotionally neutral attitude to school, a low level of adaptation (n = 20) - students with an emotionally negative attitude towards school. Conclusion. Younger schoolchildren with different indicators of socio-psychological adaptation differ in terms of emotional well-being. It is proved that with a high level of adaptation, first-graders show an emotionally favorable attitude towards school, with an average level of adaptation - an emotionally neutral attitude towards school, and with a low level of adaptation - an emotionally negative attitude towards school.