Social well-being and socio-psychological security of students with special needs in metropolis

Abstract

Currently the study of the problems of people with special needs is seen in an interdisciplinary field, where medicine and physiology come into contact with urban, socio-cultural aspects of life, allowing to expand the range of problems of social inclusion and disability and consider them from a new research perspective. The purpose of the research is to study the social well-being of persons with special needs in the context of the inclusiveness into urban space. The article presents the results of the research, conducted in 2022 at inclusive higher education institution in Moscow. The research was based on the focus group method using the sample group of students with special needs (N = 40) of the musculoskeletal system who came from Russian medium and small size towns to Moscow. The research methodology was built on the interdisciplinary approach to disability in the context of urban studies. The study made it possible to identify the levels of social well-being of students with special needs (high, medium and low) and correlate them with the degree of their socio-psychological security (maximum, moderate and minimum). It has been empirically proven that Russian towns, depending on the number of inhabitants (megacities, large, medium and small) have a significant impact on the social well-being and socio-psychological safety of students with special needs, which is due, firstly, to varying degrees of space inclusiveness; secondly, the different attitudes of citizens towards young people with special needs (positive, neutral, negative). According to the subjective assessments of the majority of focus group participants, after moving to the capital in order to receive vocational education, their level of social well-being and the degree of socio-psychological safety increased due to a more comfortable and adapted urban environment for the needs of people with special needs, as well as a more friendly attitude of residents to young disabled people with ODA compared with small and medium-sized towns.