| Abstract [eng] |
The evaluation of the quality of life depends on many exterior factors, i.e. on the individuality of person, on his/her age, gender, state of health, self-assessment, etc. These are prisms, looking through which one evaluates the events of outside. An individual includes them into the notion of the quality of life. The opinion of the people round about is also influential for the self-assessment. The individuality measures him/herself not only from the opinion of the people round about, but also in comparison with others. Self-expression or self-realization happen, when one evaluates him/herself according to the individual criterions and emotionally reinforces him/herself. Self-assessment is a perception of true value and significance of oneself that allows being responsible for oneself and behave with others responsibly. The relevance and novelty of the research Whereas a social educator or social worker is the professional rendering the assistance for adult person, which is educated, his/her self-assessment is also very important in order to successfully perceive and evaluate the problems of the adult person under education and to schedule the process of assistance. All this is very dependent on the basic personal features of social educator or social worker: openness, altruism, tolerance, patience, sincerity, ability to appreciate the feelings of his/her own and the adult person’s under education, to accept and support them. Namely, the high level of anxiety can hinder to assert the best personal internals that are required and essential for the successful practice of social educator or social worker. The theme of anxiety in the analysis of various literatures was not found; there were no references about the anxiety experienced exactly by social educators and social workers, about the influences on this anxiety and how to overcome it. This research, which reveals the forms of anxiety experienced by the social educators and social workers, is new because there are no data that the similar researches analyzing this theme had accomplished. In November – December of 2006 was accomplished the research, which aim was the evaluation of professional anxiety experienced by the social educators and social workers, the analysis of the levels of the experienced anxiety and the survey, whether demographic data has an influence on the experienced professional anxiety. Whereas the special emotions or their combinations constituted the state of anxiety, we attempted to reveal, what emotions predominate, when social educator experienced responsive and personal anxiety. The two-part instrument was applied for this analysis – the questionnaire: the first part was standardized questionnaire with 9 questions about demographic data; the second part was the diagnostic test of self-assessment introduced by Spilberg and Chanin. This test is currently a reliable and informative way of self-assessment, which allows investigating the states of experienced anxiety. The subject of the research – the levels of anxiety experienced by social educators and social workers rendering their assistance for adult persons, which are being educated. The hypotheses of the research: – We can make an assumption that there is a relation between the demographic data (i.e. gender, age, education, employment according to speciality, etc.) and the level of anxiety experienced by social educators and social workers, which determines the effectiveness of the provided social assistance. – It is presumable that some demographic data, such as employment in town, village or borough, and record of service have no influence on the experienced anxiety. – It is presumable that the professions of social educator and social worker form adequately the high level of personal anxiety. The aim of the research – to analyze the levels of anxiety experienced by social educators and social workers rendering the assistance for adult persons, which are being educated. The objectives of the research: 1. To reveal the professional peculiarities of social educator. 2. To define the notion of the state of anxiety and the emotions constituting the levels and kinds of anxiety. 3. Applying the diagnostic test of self-assessment introduced by Spilberg and Chanin, to investigate the levels of anxiety experienced by social educators and social workers. 4. To provide the conclusions about the levels of anxiety experienced by social educators and social workers. The methods of the research: 1. The analysis of the scientific literature about social-pedagogical assistance and maturity of individuality. 2. The analysis of the scientific literature about anxiety and emotions constituting the structure of state of anxiety. 3. The questionnaire form for social educators and social workers rendering their assistance for adult persons, which are being educated. 4. The statistical analysis of the results of the questionnaire forms for social educators and social workers rendering the assistance for adult persons, which are being educated. The scope of the research 153 (n = 153 - the extent of the research scope) social educators and social workers (133 women and 20 men) from Lithuanian cities and districts that work not only in schools (secondary, gymnasium, junior or professional schools) but also in children foster homes, specialized boarding-schools, children day-centers, etc. participated in this investigation. The analysis of the research data revealed that: ● The social educators and social workers that are working in several institutions are more balanced people and they outlive failures and disappointments more easy. ● Statistically, the averages of responsive and personal anxiety reliably differ between those, who work according to their speciality, and those, who do not. However, those social educators and social workers, who work according to their speciality, also experience the greater personal anxiety. This is coherent with the respective higher requirements raised for a professional social educator. ● The social educators, who work in accordance with their direct activity, i.e. render the assistance for the person being educated and the people related to him/her, experience the higher level of personal anxiety rather than those, who additionally lecture about something. This demonstrates that the level of personal anxiety of those, who are not involved in lecturing, is tend to become of the high level, whereas the level of anxiety of those, who are involved in lecturing, is medium, what also can be rather useful because it encourages the individuality to take actions and shows that the individuality is active. ● The education more or less determines the level of the experienced anxiety. ● The anxiety of the social educators and social workers employed in schools is less than of those professionals, who work in other institutions (children day-centers, children foster-homes, boarding-homes, etc.). ● The high level of personal anxiety of the social educators and social workers not working at schools demonstrates that they are subject to experience the state of anxiety, while evaluating their capacity. This, in turn, forms the feeling of dissatisfaction in oneself and has the negative after-effects for professional activity. ● Some demographical data, i.e. working in town, village or borough and record of service, does not have any influence on the experienced anxiety. Statistically, the averages of the responsive and personal anxiety do not differ significantly between those, who work in discrepant settlements. ● The emotion of fear is predominant and it dominates in the state of anxiety. Further, the emotion of concern-excitement is important in the state of anxiety. The concern-excitement is one of the leading emotions in human’s life. The emotion of concern-excitement together with the emotion of fear compos the basis for the state of anxiety. ● The high level of personal anxiety predominant among social educators stimulates a low self-assessment not only as a professional, and an inability to resist and avoid tenseness and stress. Such professional can not provide qualified assistance because of the contention with him/herself. ● The level of the experienced responsive anxiety fluctuates between low, medium and high. The majority of respondents (actually 109) experienced the low level of anxiety during the investigation. 34 respondents experienced the medium level of the responsive anxiety and only 10 respondents underwent the anxiety of the high level. ● The research of the state of the personal anxiety demonstrates that the biggest part of social educators experience medium level of PA (personal anxiety) – 81; the personal anxiety of 72 respondents is high. The respondents, who did not experience any anxiety in their life, occupation or ordinary activities, were absolutely absent. |
