Abstract:

The purpose of this work was to explore the peculiarities of civil and military students’ psychological well-being depending on their physical activity. Frequency, type and level of satisfaction with physical activities were analyzed for civil and military students.

To achieve this goal, the following psychological techniques were used: Riff’s scale of psychological well-being (adapted by T. Shevelenkova and T. Fesenko, 2005), the questionnaire on subjective social well-being (T. Danilchenko, 2018), the questionnaire studying preferred motor activities; mathematical and statistical methods for data processing and analysis.

We revealed differences in the psychological and subjective social well-being of civil and military students. Civil students, compared to military ones, had more trusting relationships with others; they were more open, tended to care about others, had clear purposes in life, positive attitude towards themselves and accepted all aspects of their personality. They had also a higher need for social approval (were more dependent on reference groups) and appreciated higher the positive traits and qualities of others (honesty, kindness, decency, etc.).

Military students spent more time on physical activities (regularly engaged), preferred team sports and enjoyed these activities. At the same time, civil students were engaged in physical activity only periodically, preferred individual sports and got less enjoyment from physical education compared to military ones.

Civil and military students who enjoyed physical activity organized skilfully and controlled their activities, managed the situation, had a positive attitude and accepted themselves and others, had many different people with whom they had trusting relationships and showed better psychological well-being.

We determined peculiarities of subjective and psychological well-being among civil and military students who are interested in individual and team types of motor activities. Military students preferring team sports strived for development and self-realization, were open to new experiences and changes, which was also true for military students engaged in individual sports. Civil students preferring team physical activities were able to control and master environment, had close and good relationships with loved ones, and, like military students, strived for self-development and improvement.

Keywords:

Psychological well-being, subjective social well-being, personal growth, self-acceptance, military students, civil students.