THE MAIN APPROACHES TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT OF “ADOLESCENTS AT RISK”

Abstract

In the modern scientific literature, there are a large number of definitions of the term “at-risk adolescents”, the facets of which are covered differently in pedagogy, psychology, sociology, law, medicine. This scientific concept is interdisciplinary, which, in turn, gives scientists the opportunity to work with this category of teenagers in a diverse way, but at the same time it carries with it the complexity in interpreting the results in a different field of scientific knowledge. A variety of definitions, a large number of synonymous concepts or terms used interchangeably (including “difficult teenagers”, “deviant teenagers”, “pedagogically neglected teenagers”, “teenagers in a difficult life situation”, “underage risk groups”) entail difficulties in finding information, confidence in the correctness of use definitions, identities of variants. The task of the study is to search, identify, analyze and interpret the definitions of “adolescents at risk” used by Russian, Soviet and Foreign scientists in their scientific work. Thanks to the terminological analysis carried out, the article identifies and substantiates approaches to the consideration of the scientific concept: medical-social, normative-legal, socio-pedagogical, psychological-pedagogical. The scope of application of the results is the classification of adolescents of “risk groups”, where the refinement categories and subcategories are highlighted. The scientific novelty of the study is a refined working concept of “adolescents at risk.” The researcher notes that the interest in this topic among researchers is stable, in each scientific discipline attention is drawn to the specific features inherent only to it, but at the same time there are interdisciplinary provisions. The highlighted definition of the concept of “adolescents at risk” can be used for further work by specialists in social work, teachers, specialists in youth work, psychologists.