Potential of the focus group method for the prevention of adolescents’ aggressive behaviour in the educational environment
Educational psychologist’s work includes preventive work with students, as per the relevant professional standard (Order of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation No. 514n “On the professional standard for ‘Educational psychologist (psychologist in the field of education)’” of 24 July 2015). The goal of such work is to influence students, their parents and the teaching staff to develop psychological attitudes that would prevent them not only from engaging in aggressive behaviour, but also from indirectly supporting or passively observing such behaviour. The work of educational psychologists is part of the school’s social and moral education framework, since the Federal Law No. 120-FZ “On the fundamentals of preventing neglect and juvenile delinquency” of 24 June 1999 includes schools into the framework for preventive work with adolescents. Planning, organising and conducting focus groups with various categories of actors of education is an effective form of primary prevention. Observing focus groups of students of different age allows an educational psychologist to efficiently conduct psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of aggressive behaviour. Our experience of working with 28 focus groups with a total of 330 respondents (including 5 groups with primary school students, 8 groups with teenagers, 5 groups with high school students, 5 groups with parents and 5 groups with teachers) has shown that a properly organised focus group has a pronounced educational and developmental effect, which means that they can be used as a tool to prevent aggressive behaviour.