Abstract:

This paper discusses the efficiency of psychological training for improvement of legal competence of secondary school pupils. Legal competence is understood as an ability and willingness to defend one’s rights and to shoulder responsibilities. The site of the Legal Competence Training Program (further LCT program) was the recreational camp “Energetic” (Tumen, Russia), which hosted 245 children and 27 teachers, all of whom were involved.

In our research, we started with assessing personality traits (Cattels’ 16PF Questionnaire), probing the emotional state of children (the ‘House-Tree-Person’ test), and determining the initial level of legal competence by the ‘Legal Competence Analysis’ tool we elaborated. Structured interviews with the pupils and expert interviews with the teachers were also conducted prior to the LCT program.

At the second stage, we organized psychological training for developing legal competence, which engaged students in exploring, reflecting upon and applying legal norms in simulated situations. Students were expected to acquire skills of resolving conflicts and to learn to act as individuals aware of their entitlements and responsibilities within the legal system.

The LCT program is sensitive to communication patterns specific to the age groups of the participants. However, the age-adjusted components of the LCT program were all designed in such a way as to convey the idea of the same legal framework for all.

The tests and indicators used in the LCT allow us to find correlations between legal knowledge and personality traits; between defiant attitudes to sanctioning authority and the probability of compliance with the law; between prejudice against certain norms and legal nihilism or relativism; between the general stance towards the legal system and legal idealism. By combining these scales’ indicators we can develop personal LC profiles and assess the probability of deviant behavior.

Two hundred and forty five pupils who participated in the LCT demonstrated a significant rise in legal awareness and the improvement of their legal knowledge. They also reconsidered in a more positive way the legal system in general and their capacity to have recourse to law in their everyday life. The pupils became more willing to appeal to legal norms in ensuring conflict resolution and in forming their intra- and inter-group relations.

The LCT program thus tested was announced the Best Educational Program in the regional contest (Tumen, 2015) and was listed among the top 100 best educational programs in Russia.

Keywords:

Legal competence, legal awareness, psychological training, secondary school pupils.