Abstract:

It is well known that one of the most important psychological and pedagogical tasks of any university is to work with first-year students aimed at their faster and more successful adaptation to a new educational system, to a new system of social relations, and to master a new role of student. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there were even more problems than usual in the adapting of first-year students to study at the university, since online learning prevailed over face-to-face learning, the number of extracurricular activities was reduced, students and teachers were forced to keep a distance during face-to-face classroom classes. In this regard, communication between the participants of the educational process was complicated. All of that hindered the adaptation processes and increased the stress level of first-year students.

To overcome these problems, we developed and provided the training "Resources versus Stress". The purpose of the training is to facilitate the successful adaptation of first- year students to study at the university, taking into account the specifics of the educational process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Training tasks:
(1) improvement students’ knowledge about constructive ways to overcome stress related to the adaptation at the university;
(2) creating visions about external and internal resources of the individual that contribute to adaptation and help relieve stress; and
(3) prevention of bad habits and promotion of a healthy lifestyle.

The training is intended for 120 minutes and includes both information about what stress is and what resources a student can use to overcome it, and practical exercises that help to analyze the personality resources used and expand the range of resources that students will be able to use in the future.
This training was tested in October 2020. The face-to-face lesson was attended by 14 first-year Psychology students (80% – female, 20% – male) of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University).

To measure the results obtained, we conducted a reflexive questionnaire, which included 5 questions, the agreement with which had to be expressed on a 10-point scale. As a result, the average score of answers to the question "Did you like the training?" was 7.5 points; to the question: "How much information that you heard today will be useful to you in life?" – 7.2 points. 60% of the participants noted that they managed to find psychological resources to deal with stress; 70% of the students described how they would be able to use the resources. Also in the questionnaire there was a question "What important thoughts do you take with you?", and 80% of the participants wrote down 3 important thoughts, 10% – wrote down 2 important thoughts and 10% – 1 thought.

The analysis of the obtained data allows us to conclude about the effectiveness of the developed training, as well as to point the way for its further improvement and use not only in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

University Students, Adaptation, Training, Stress, Resources, Healthy lifestyle, COVID-19 Pandemic.