The new issue of the journal "Social Psychology and Society" (No. 4, 2025) is dedicated to the topic of difficult life situations, which will be becoming increasingly relevant in contemporary psychology as the complexity and uncertainty of the surrounding world grows.
In the Preface by the Guest Editor, N.V. Grishina, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor at the Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Saint Petersburg State University, a brief overview of research on difficult life situations and an analysis of the current state of this problem are provided.
The "Theoretical Research" section features the article by E.P. Belinskaya, "Coping with Difficulties as a Problem in Social Psychology," dedicated to defining the specifics of the socio-psychological perspective within the interdisciplinary space of the problem of human coping with difficult life situations, and the article by N.V. Grishina, "A Person in Interaction with the Surrounding World: From Situation to Context," which continues the discussion of conceptual problems in developing the theme of difficult life situations.
The empirical research section opens with the publication of results from a collective study by A.A. Rean and colleagues, "Value Structure and Material Status as Indicators and Resources of Resilience in a Difficult Life Situation," in which a difficult life situation is considered as part of a young person's life context and reflects family financial hardship.
The influence of cultural context on ways of experiencing difficult life situations is demonstrated in the studies by L.V. Stoilova and O.Yu. Strizhitskaya, "Experiencing Loneliness and Coping with It in a Situation of Forced Isolation (Using Russia and Bulgaria as Examples)," and M.A. Odintsova, N.P. Radchikova, N.V. Kozyreva, "The Role of Contextual Factors in Changing Family Relationships Under High Intensity of Adverse Events."
The theme of different life contexts in which difficult life situations arise continues in the article by E.N. Khodakovskaya and S.K. Nartova-Bochaver, "Difficult Life Situations of Students in Different Social and Life Contexts." The article by O.A. Ulianina, O.L. Yurchuk, L.A. Alexandrova, E.A. Nikiforova, K.A. Faizullina, "Family as a Resource for Coping with Difficult Life Situations in Children Affected by Combat," demonstrated that family resources and parental psychological resilience are the most important protective factors for children above the negative consequences of traumatic experience
Two publications in the issue are dedicated to retirement and pre-retirement age: the article written by T.P. Emelyanova and E.N. Vikentieva, "The Retirement Transition in the Perception of Pre-Retirees: The Possible Retired Self in a Future Life Situation," and the article by T.V. Drobyisheva, "Predictors of Financial Anxiety in the Situation of Retirement".
In the "Methodological Tools" section, readers can acquaint themselves with the new work by M.A. Bultseva, E.D. Vasilyeva, and A.V. Trifonova, "Adaptation and Validation of the Identity Gaps in Communication Scale by M.L. Hecht and J. Jung."
In conclusion, the issue presents the publication by M.M. Reshetnikov, "Can the State Cure from Fakes? On the Question of the Boundaries of Care and Control in Conditions of Digital Anxiety" – a review of a monograph by O.S. Deineka and A.A. Maksimenko, "A Vaccine Against the Infodemic, or the Psychological State of Society Against the Background of the Pandemic Caused by COVID-19." The author draws the reader's attention not only to new phenomena and emerging concepts for domestic science but also to ethical problems, the necessity of collective responsibility for the state of the information environment, and the possibility of countering its negative influences.
The full issue of the journal is available on the PsyJournals.ru portal.
Enjoy reading!