Poczucie jakości życia młodych dorosłych na przykładzie studenckiej społeczności akademickiej

Authors:

• Jolanta Ilona Suchodolska

Abstract

The presented monograph is an attempt to diagnose a sense of quality of life of young adults in the context of the developmental tasks they carry out in the main areas of their activity, as well as in the psychological time mode which defines the process of coming into adulthood. This time places a group of young adults in important areas of life determining self-satisfaction and major activities at the stage of final years of higher education. The act of presentation of the subjective dimension of the life quality in developmental tasks context highlights their close-to-life nature. It also places the functioning of the young people in these contexts of having proper, due to age and the related needs, freedom to make choices (in the interpersonal sphere), experiencing independence (at the intrapersonal level) as well as having access to a change in personal status in socio-educational and pro-professional contexts. These contexts, which situate the above issue as important in the area of pedagogical sciences (especially in social pedagogy) reveal the areas where students experience the world, which are seen through the prism of their roles and tasks performed by them in the process of “becoming” adults. In my authorial presentation of the issue, I concentrate on describing the sense of life quality in the context of developmental tasks relating to the main areas of activities of young adults at this stage of life. In this perspective, the presented content of developmental tasks I see as dimensions or indicators which determine the sense of the quality of life among young adults studying at University. I understand this diagnosis as an attempt to picture the sense of quality of life of young people, as seen through the prism of individual and socio-cultural conditions in which the sense is shaped in the process of experiences designated by the phase of coming into adulthood. The main line of narration is the notion of perception, assessment and interpretation of selected contexts of life quality of young adults at the threshold of their final years of studies, at the stage of this socio-cultural transition from youthfulness to adulthood, as well as from education to the labour market. A group of young adults, called the generation of “permanent transition” indeed is on the way of social and personal (educational and cultural) hanges that are not irrelevant to their life circumstances and development of their life experience. The presented mental transition from still carefree education into mature space of more and more responsibility which marks the time of preparation for professional activity, triggers the process of evaluating the experience of everyday life, in the context of priority values, goals, and plans for life and the perspective of the current experience and planned future. Young adults are getting closer to a confrontation with socio-professional realities and the awareness of opportunities of being in mature relationships, stages of self-study, as well as being present on the labour market, which is reflected in their feelings. All these factors contribute to and shape how they perceive their quality of life, a sense of meaning and satisfaction with their education so far. This makes them verify their visions and perspectives of further development they held while being still at the early stage of studies and confront them with more and more active and realistic visions of the final years of studies. The calendar of individual events is related to psychological time in which young adults live. It sets the scope and intensity of the experience (often of “being between”) in important areas of development tasks: interpersonal relationships and close relationships, experiencing oneself, experiencing their own education (satisfaction with it) and designing your own future (especially in the context of the pro-professional future). What is important, from a cognitive point of view, is also how young people evaluate the level and intensity of socio-educational support in the process of becoming an adult. The authorial element in this work is the inclusion of the criterion of ordering the material which highlights the important areas of social life for which young people prepare in the course of university education. These are the areas in which they will also live in the near future, due to the social and professional roles they are to assume. This is the angle from which I present – on the background of study of quality of life of the entire group of university students – a diagnosis of life quality of students who study in the field of medicine, economics, law and pedagogy. These groups prepare, in the process of university education, to perform certain professional roles in important areas of social life, of health, economics, law and pedagogy. As shown by the results of the research, university education, preparing young adults to live and work in these areas, is reflected in the understanding and evaluation of content of the developmental tasks being carried out, which at this stage of development and education determine the sense of their quality of life. The diagnosis of the dimensions of the students’ everyday life in the areas of relationships and experiencing oneself, allows you to notice a fairly typical generational group activities and related priorities designating the satisfaction and joy of life. In task-related areas, in realization of your own education and planning future (also in the context of pro-professional future) some differences in the assessment of these everyday life criteria appear. The diverse picture of these sensations, setting out the time and place in the process of education and planned future turns out to be probably the result of emerging, along with the vision of yourself also changing, a specific way of thinking, way of thinking which was formed under the influence of changes expressing commitment to designing your own professional activity. The study of the sense of the quality of life of students pursuing medical studies, economics, law and pedagogical studies have allowed us – on the background of the diagnosis of the entire group of students – to show the important mosaic of issues contributing to and affecting the sense of quality of life. It is also a specific portfolio of the students who have been indicated above, as the group most directly related to the areas of social life.