SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR AFFECTING STUDENTS’

The age period of adolescence is characterized as a period of anxiety with a rapid development of independence and abilities, as well as an increased risk of mental health problems and anti-social behaviour. Adolescents engage in many processes, which take place in the family, at school, during leisure time and adolescents’ gatherings. Traditional studies on adolescents’ well-being are aimed at behaviour analysis (i.e. smoking, alcohol use and unhealthy diet) related to negative effects on health. However, recent studies focus on the positive factors affecting students’ well-being, for instance, good relationships at school and in school environment. It is considered (Burkart, 2005; Rezgale, 2014) that well-being has several functions:
1) assessment (related to the physical aspect, exchange of experience between oneself and the world, positive atmosphere, when happiness and peace hormones are released);
2) motivational (identifies activities);
3) communicative (includes dialogues between persons).

Well-being in adolescence is of great importance, as it is a period, when personality crystallisation takes place and an individual becomes a personality (Vijayan, Joseph, 2015).

The aim of the research is to determine the existence and the types of interrelations between school environment and adolescents’ defined most worrisome problems.

Research methods:
- theoretical analysis of the interrelations between school environment and adolescents’ well-being;
- survey of 11-16 years old adolescents’ most worrisome problems.

The research is carried out within the framework of INTERREG LAT-LIT project “Developing of Social Psychological Support Service System through Implementation of Method of Positive Coping Strategies and Enhancement of Social Inclusion for People in Vulnerable Groups”, POZCOPING.

The following data processing SPSS 22.0 programme methods have been applied: a method of descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Kendall's tau-b correlation test.