Professional Deformation of Teachers and Manifestations of Antisocial Forms of Pupils ’ Behavior

It is scientifically proven that teacher’s professional activity can have not only constructive, developmental impact on pupils and him/herself, but also destructive one, causing mental conditions (burnout, exhaustion) that reduce teacher’s efficiency (deviation) and change the system of his/her personality features (deformation). Despite the importance and the effectiveness of the researches that have been already conducted, the problem of the influence of teacher’s professional deformations on the manifestations of students’ antisocial behavior (aggression, cruelty, violence) remains insufficiently studied. An important component of this issue is to consider various factors (internal and external) that affect appearance and spreading of aggressive behavior among teenagers: from psychological pressure (mobbing) to cruel and cynical aggression. Our experimental study had two stages: ascertaining and forming ones. The results showed that aggressive behavior models adopted and accepted by teenagers were strongly influenced by teachers’ educational modes. The unfavorable changes of teacher’s psychological experience (professional deformations) manifested in stagnation, regression, depersonalization, negative impact on students’ development and behavior. At the second stage – the forming one – we identified three main directions of psychological work. The first direction was corrective and developing work with teenagers. The second direction was work with teachers in order to prevent and correct professional deformation. The third direction was polysubject interaction "teacher–pupil". The effectiveness of the work carried out was proven by significant changes not only in pupils’ behavior, but also in teachers’ collaboration with teenagers.


Introduction
It is scientifically proven that teacher's professional activity can have not only constructive, developmental impact on pupils and him/herself, but also destructive one, causing mental conditions (burnout, exhaustion) that reduce teacher's efficiency (deviation) and change the system of his/her personality features (deformation).The analysis of the extent to which the problem of professional deformations has been studied showed that it remains in focus of the researchers (Boyko, 1996;Mitina, 2014;Freudenberger & North 1992;Maslach & Goldberg, 1998).Despite the importance and the effectiveness of the researches that have been already conducted, the problem of influence of teacher's professional deformations on manifestations of students' antisocial behavior (aggression, cruelty, violence) remains insufficiently studied.At the same time, the problem of children's aggressiveness and cruelty as one of the main social and psychological problems affecting teachers, parents and society in general draws attention of the researchers.
Aggressiveness has been the subject of a wide range of experimental works and special monographs by Russian and foreign researchers (Leymann, 1997;Feldstein, 2011).
The conflict of the situation is that social and pedagogical efforts are primarily aimed at prevention and correction of cruel behavior not development of personality able to realize and express his/her emotions and meet his/her needs in a proper way.
Time is ripe for expanding the empirical field of researches that would study professional deformations of teachers and antisocial forms of pupils' behavior through the common concept.This research has been conducted based on the concept of professional development of an individual (Mitina, 2014) which identifies two alternative models of professional work -a model of adaptive functioning and a model of professional development of an individual.It has been theoretically proven in the concept that professional deformations of teachers are the result of the deforming influence of adaptive professional behavior and are transmitted by pupils in the form of behavior patterns, attitudes, relations.However, the impact of professional deformations of a teacher on pupils' antisocial behavior has not been the subject of a special experimental research so far.
An important component of this issue is to consider various factors (internal and external) that affect appearance and spreading of aggressive behavior among teenagers: from psychological pressure (mobbing) to cruel and cynical aggression.Therefore, we see it necessary to do an experimental check of factors affecting unfavorable ways of adolescent development.
Our experimental study had two stages: ascertaining (4 series) and forming ones.
The first series was aimed at examining characteristic features of mobbing actions at school.Our survey of pupils and teachers at Moscow schools (n=200) has allowed us to identify five groups of mobbing actions at school: harassing communications, infringement of social relations, infringement of social authority, infringement of the quality of school and life situation, and infringement of health.The absolute majority of pupils (more than 70%) and a significant percent of teachers (37%) responded that in many cases teachers use mobbing actions and trigger manifestations of antisocial behavior among pupils.
The second series was aimed at defining the level of personality and professional development, studying self-consciousness, integral personality characteristics (directedness, competence, flexibility) and signs of professional deformations of a teacher.A tailored methodological program was used to examine 57 teachers from the school #1522 in Moscow.It showed psychological indicators of professional deformations of a teacher: poor-structured self-consciousness, trivial psychological directedness, lack of activity and communication competence, intolerance of personality, rigidity (emotional, intellectual and behavioral), psychoemotional burnout.Teachers that belong to the model of professional development (22%) show the above-mentioned tendencies to a lesser extent.

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Teachers working within the adaptive model (78%) tend to manifest authoritarianism, formalism, and difficulties in communication with pupils.
The third series involved the analysis of diagnostic findings on teenager personality in order to identify personality traits that correlate with aggressiveness.At this stage of the experiment, 140 teenagers from the same school (school #1522 in Moscow) were surveyed.The results showed that a large percent of the respondents (72%) manifested aggression, social maladjustment and inadequate self-esteem.The most characteristic feature was correlation between aggression towards teachers and parents with overprotection and fear of wide social contacts.
The main purpose of the forth series was to determine the nature of influence the indicators of teachers' professional deformations have on their personality traits that trigger aggressiveness among teenagers.To achieve this purpose multiple regression analysis of data was used.The resulting regression equation tells us that as the level of professional deformations of teachers increases, aggression rate among pupils also goes up significantly from statistical point of view.Professional deformations of teachers have negative impact on pupils' development and lead to manifestations of antisocial behavior.
The survey results have shown that adoption of aggressive behavior by teenagers is strongly driven by specific educational influences of teachers and prevailing mode of behavior among their peers from the reference group.
At the second stage -the forming one -we identified three main directions of psychological work on preventing and correcting professional deformations of teachers and aggressive behavior of teenagers.The first direction was corrective and developing work with teenagers.This work was focused on developing self-regulation, reflection and empathy.It was done in the form of training sessions in groups.The second direction was work on prevention and correction of professional deformations of teachers and development of skills of constructive interaction with aggressive teenagers.It was done in the form of seminars with some trainings included, as well as analysis of conflict situations.The third direction was polysubject interaction "teacher-pupil".
Our corrective and developing programs are based on the educational technology that constructively changes behavior of parties of educational process.In the course of the program "Development of aggression management skills" teenagers know themselves better, develop tolerance, reflectivity, peacefulness, flexibility, learn how to deal with stress and conflict situations, and thus no longer need to manifest antisocial behavior.After participation in tailored program "Prevention and correction of teachers' professional deformations" the teachers saw statistically relevant positive changes in the system of values, behavioral flexibility, self-esteem, competence.
The effectiveness of the work carried out was proven by significant changes not only in pupils' behavior, but also in teachers' collaboration with teenagers, which in turn ensures life safety and psychological well-being of all parties of educational process.