Study of the Competence of Moral and Ethical Responsibility in Young People with ASD at the Stage their Professional Training with Tutor Support

Оbjectives. For successful integration of young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into the professional environment and their professional training it is necessary to form in them the competence of moral and ethical responsibility and the ability to regulate their actions in accordance with the situation. The results of the study of the competence of moral and ethical responsibility are generalized, the possibilities of its formation in the process of professional training, including the tutor support, depending on the system of moral-psychological relations of personality of young people with ASD are determined.

Methods. The study used the author’s method “Moral-psychological relations of personality” (MPRP), as well as I.G. Tymoshchuk’s method of diagnosing the level of moral and ethical responsibility of a person (DLMERP) in the author’s processing. Statistical methods were also used in the work: Pearson’s chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis test, comparative analysis. The sample consisted of 93 young men and 30 young women with ASD aged 18 to 25 years, living in Moscow and Moscow region. All young people were employed at the social enterprise “Special Assembly” (Moscow).

Results. Average (34.95%) and low (63.42%) levels of moral and ethical responsibility development, instability, inconsistency and situational variability of the system of moral and psychological relations of the personality were revealed in young people with ASD. The competence of responsibility in the profession of young people with ASD is directly related to the attitude to the people around them and to the moral climate in the team, and can also change depending on the understanding and awareness of their own actions, the actions of others and social situ- ations in general.

Conclusions. The obtained data indicate that the developed competence of moral and ethical responsibility as a formed idea of social relations in interrelation with the developed system of moral and psychological relations of the personality in the process of professional training gives the opportunity to young people with ASD to integrate more successfully into the professional community. The results of the study confirm the practical data on the role of the tu- tor in the process of forming the competence of moral and ethical responsibility in the professional training of young people with ASD.

Introduction

In the present case moral-ethical responsibility is considered as a competence of youth with ASD aimed at mobilization and implementation of personal qualities in professional activity.

The presented work studied moral and ethical responsibility competence, determined possibilities of its formation in the process of vocational training of youth with ASD depending on their moral and psychological system.

Research hypotheses:

• With significant individual differences, the majority of graduates of secondary educational institutions (SEI) and schools with ASD are characterized by medium and low levels of moral and ethical responsibility, which complicates their professional integration;
• The moral-psychological relationships of young people with ASD are characterized by instability, contradiction and situational variability of relationships with themselves, others, society and professional activity.

Methods

The research methodology is based on the competence approach, the main direct result of which is the formation of key competences characterized by multifunctionality, interdisciplinarity and supra-subjectivity. It should be noted that the content of the terms "competence" and "key competence" is still under discussion in the scientific literature. In the present work, competence is understood as the "willingness and ability" of a graduate with ASD to engage in professional activity [4; 15]. Furthermore, 'readiness' includes cognitive, operational-technical and motivational components, and 'ability' includes behavioral and reflexive components [15]. The reflexive component implies a person's self-evaluation of his/her activity and efforts, based not only on the fact of their fixation, but also on "social" reflection - feedback from those who accept the results of these efforts (e.g. employers or customers). Self-evaluation is determined by the attitude towards oneself, other people, professional activity and society [2; 3; 4; 9; 17; 20; 21; 23]. The need to study moral and ethical responsibility as a competence in young people with ASD and to determine the possibility of forming it in the process of professional training depending on the system of moral-psychological relations of the personality is undoubted.

As psychodiagnostic tools were used:

1. The questionnaire "Diagnosis of the Level of Moral and Ethical Responsibility of a Person" by I.G. Tymoshchuk (DLMERP), the text was adapted by Y.A. Bystrova for understanding of its contents by people with ASD and mental disorders [2; 3]. The questionnaire allows to determine the main indicator of the level of moral and ethical responsibility and the importance of each parameter (scale): Scale 1. "Reflection on moral and ethical situations"; Scale 2. "Moral intuition"; Scale 3. "Existential aspect of responsibility"; Scale 4. "Altruistic emotions"; scale 5. "Moral and ethical values". The questionnaire was tested for stability during the years 2021-2022. The study was conducted individually, the statements were adapted taking into account the peculiarities of the respondents' with ASD thinking development: the meaning of the statements was clarified, the answers were recorded by the experimenter, the indicators of the methodology were confirmed by the results of purposeful observation of the respondents while they worked in the social enterprise "Special Assembly" in 2021-2022 [3; 9; 10].
2. A.N. Brazhnikova's methodology of researching moral-psychological relations of personality "MPRP". It aims at studying the moral-psychological relations of the personality as a unitary system of relations with oneself, with others, with religion, with society. The test indicators have construct validity, content validity and empirical criterion validity. The reliability of the test is ensured both by the internal consistency of the items included in the same scales and by retesting at three-month intervals. The main psychometric properties correspond to those required for psychological tests [4; 5]. Modifications were made according to study purpose and sample characteristics. Instead of the "attitude to religion" scale, the "attitude to profession, professional activity" scale was used, which has passed psychometric verification [3; 9; 21].
3. Statistical methods were also used in the work: Pearson's chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis criterion, comparative analysis.

The study sample consisted of 123 respondents (93 young men and 30 young women with autism spectrum disorders and schizotypal disorders (F84.4, F84.1, F84.2, F84.11, F21) aged 18 to 25 years, living in Moscow and the Moscow region. All young people work at the social enterprise "Special Assembly" of the Regional Public Organization for the Support of People with Disabilities "Radost" (RSDP "Radost"). For one year they underwent practical training to master the profession of assembler, some young people were accompanied by tutors - production masters [4; 9].

Participation in the study was voluntary, and the principles of confidentiality were observed.

Results

Note: scale 1 – «Reflection in the situation of behavioral assessment and choice»; scale 2 – «Intuitive moral choice»; scale 3 – «Existential responsibility»; scale 4 – «Altruistic emotional response»; scale 5 – «Moral values».

The highest indicator was found on scale 4 "Altruistic emotional response" (M=2.862): when answering the questions, the respondents were inclined to show altruistic emotions - the desire to help others, which they also declared when performing work tasks in the "Special Assembly", especially when working in a team with newcomers to the practice. As the observation showed, youth with ASD volunteered to help new participants, but immediately forgot or later abandoned their intention.

Fig. 1. Level of moral-psychological attitudes expression in adolescents with ASD on the following scales: 1 - 'Attitude towards others'; 2 - 'Attitude towards self'; 3 - 'Attitude towards society'; 4 - 'Attitude towards work'.

The graphs in Figure 1 show that most respondents (71.55%) show situational variability in their attitude to others, i.e. they treat other people according to their attitude to themselves, their importance, authority and other factors. Only 15.45% of respondents with ASD showed the ability to understand and accept people around them, to adequately assess their actions, emotions and behaviour. 13% showed a low level on the scale of attitude to others, which can indicate social isolation, intolerance in relationships with co-workers, and a lower level of understanding of emotional attitude to others due to mental growth characteristics.

The scale "Attitude towards self" shows that 66.89% of the youth with ASD have an unstable self-esteem, which changes depending on the situation, other people's mood and opinion. 28.46% of respondents showed sufficient levels, indicating that these young people are in harmony with themselves, as indicated by their general wellbeing levels. 19.51% of respondents with ASD have high self-esteem (4 out of 5). 4.65% have persistently low self-esteem.

28.46% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with social processes. 57.72% of the respondents have a situational attitude to events in modern society - if people around them approve an event, it is evaluated positively, if someone talks badly about events, they are evaluated negatively - this indicates a low level of understanding and conscious perception of social processes. 13.82% of youth with ASD expressed satisfaction with the modern society structure.

According to the scale "Attitude to work", 72.36% of respondents with ASD often change their attitude to work depending on the situation, the type of work performed, team relations and mood. Only 13.82% of respondents showed sufficient satisfaction with their job and duties. 13.82% of youth with ASD expressed dissatisfaction with working requirements and having to meet them.

It should be noted that respondents' attitudes towards their work are immediately related to their attitudes towards others (r = 0.893, p < 0.01), towards themselves (r = 0.904, p < 0.001) and towards society as a whole (r = 0.882, p < 0.01). Thus, respondents who have situational attitudes towards events in modern society express their attitudes towards professional activity in the same situational way. Respondents who are satisfied with themselves most often praise their work, and conversely, those who believe that they will not succeed, calling themselves "losers", express a negative attitude towards their work. The correlation between relations with others and attitude to the work is confirmed by the practical experience of work at the "Special Assembly" enterprise: employees with ASD are able to work responsibly when they are in a situation of benevolence - then they establish social relations, experience general well-being and show benevolence themselves [4]. The scale "Attitude towards society" is positively correlated with the scale "Moral values" (r = 0.921, p < 0.001) and indicates the family’s and educational institution’s educational role in forming social ties and indirectly - in positive attitude creating to work as socially useful.

Correlations between intuitive choice and reflection (p < 0.001), between intuitive choice and altruistic emotional response (p < 0.001), and between moral choice and moral values (p < 0.001) were found in the correlation analysis of the DLMERP technique scales (see Table 2).

Table 2

Correlating the indicators of the scales of the questionnaire "Diagnosis of the Level of Moral and Ethical Responsibility of a Person" (DLMERP) in all respondents in the sample

The ability of young people with ASD to take responsibility in the workplace is directly related to their attitude towards the people around them and the moral climate in the team, and can also change depending on their understanding and awareness of their own actions, the actions of others and social situations in general. This is what the vocational training of young people should aim at, including helping the individual to consciously construct a single logically conditioned trajectory of his/her educational path [11]. Logical conditionality implies having an interest and reconciling this interest with moral and ethical aspects, searching for and choosing a career in which this interest can be realized [21].

The majority of respondents showed situational variability of the system of moral-psychological relations, which indicates that the moral norms of society learnt during training are used by young people with ASD in familiar life situations. This is confirmed by the results - indicators of the DLMERP methodology's reflection scale (M = 1.418).

It is also worth noting that some characteristics of young people's behaviour can coincide with an apparent professional responsibility, and in fact a person cannot help but do what he is "told" to do, for example, wanting to keep order. If this desire is not considered pathological by the social environment, but, on the contrary, is socially required, it makes it possible to reorient a person from the need for super-control and anxiety to self-acceptance and an accepting attitude of a person towards his/her peculiarities [13].

The revealed interdependence of moral and ethical responsibility and moral-psychological relations of personality indicates the need for targeted work with students with ASD on developing understanding and awareness of their own actions, deeds and their consequences for themselves and others, as well as awareness of themselves in professional interaction. Within the vocational training of young people with ASD, such work is carried out.

Conclusions

1. The research has shown that moral and ethical responsibility as a competence of young people with ASD is interconnected with the system of moral and psychological relations of the personality and is determined by the attitude to themselves, other people, professional activity and society.
2. The majority of youth with ASD have medium and low levels of responsibility, and the structure of their moral and ethical responsibility is based on intuitive moral decisions. Moral-psychological relations have a situational, changeable character. Young people with RAS are characterized by instability of attitudes to co-workers in the collective and to activity in general. Indicators of the scales speak about situational love for self, others and profession, indicate satisfaction with modern society with insufficient understanding of phenomena and processes occurring in it.

The results of this study will help to determine the specifics of vocational training of young people with ASD, considering their individual psychological characteristics. Vocational training of young people with ASD implies the creation of the necessary developmental environment, educational events and situations in which the learner can demonstrate those qualities which, on the basis of successful experience, will then form stable moral-psychological relations and the quality of responsibility. The closer it coincides with the learner's personal interest, the more stable this responsibility will be. Then, even with a lower social component, the work result will have the quality demanded by consumers.

1. Akimova M.K., Galstyan O.A. The relationship of the mental development of students with moral and ethical regulators of social interaction. Sotsial’naya psikhologiya i obshchestvo=Social psychology and society, 2021. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 162— 176. DOI:10.17759/sps.2021120111 (In Russ.).
2. Ananiev I.V., Bystrova Yu.A. Metodika formirovaniya operatsionno-tekhnologicheskoy kompetentnosti u lits s intellektual’nymi narusheniyami (na primere sotsial’nogo predpriyatiya “osobaya sborka”) [Methodology for the formation of operational and technological competence in persons with intellectual disabilities (on the example of the social enterprise “special assembly”)]. Vestnik MGEI (on line)=Herald of MHEI (on line), 2021, no. 1, pp. 317—334. DOI:10.37691/2619-0265-2021-0-1-317-334 (In Russ.).
3. Ananiev I.V., Bystrova Yu.A. Monitoring effektivnosti tekhnologii soprovozhdayemogo trudoustroystva lits s mental’nymi narusheniyami (opyt raboty sotsial’nogo predpriyatiya «Osobaya sborka») [Monitoring the effectiveness of the technology of assisted employment of persons with mental disabilities (experience of the social enterprise “Special assembly”)]. M., 2022. 114 p. (in the press) (In Russ.).
4. Brazhnikova A.N. Nravstvennosti budushchego professionala kak sub”yekta professionalizatsii [Morality of the future professional as a subject of professionalization], Organizatsionnaya psikhologiya i psikhologiya truda=Organizational psychology and psychology of labor, 2017. Vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 162—184. (In Russ.).
5. Brazhnikova A.N., Zyuzya A.A. Psikhodiagnostika nravstvennosti budushchego professionala [Psychodiagnostics of morality of a future professional]. Vestnik Bryanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta=Bulletin of the Bryansk State University, 2013, no. 1, pp. 12—18. (In Russ.).
6. Bratus B.S. Psikhologiya i dukhovnost’ — dve veshchi nesovmestnyye? [Are psychology and spirituality two things incompatible?]. Psikhologiya. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki=Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 2019. Vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 470—478. DOI:10.17323/1813-8918-2019-3-470-478 (In Russ.).
7. Bratukhina E.V. Sotsial’no-professional’naya otvetstvennost’ lichnosti kak pedagogicheskaya problema [Social and professional responsibility of the individual as a pedagogical problem]. Uspekhi sovremennoy nauki=Successes of modern science, 2017. Vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 199—203. (Accessed 18.08.2022). (In Russ.).
8. Bystrova Y.A. Opportunities for Psychological Support and Accompaniment of YOUNG People with Intellectual Disabilities in Employment. Konsul’tativnaya psikhologiya i psikhoterapiya=Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 2022. Vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 143—162. DOI:10.17759/cpp.2022300408 (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.).
9. Bystrova Yu.A. Development of Social and Psychological Readiness for Professional and Working Life in Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Кul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya=Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2022. Vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 54—61. DOI:10.17759/chp.2022180206 (In Russ., in Engl).
10. Bystrova Yu.A. Development of social competence in adolescents with disabilities in the context of inclusive education. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie=Psychological science and education, 2022. Vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 102—114. DOI:10.17759/pse.2022270608 (In Russ., in Engl.).
11. Bystrova Yu.A. Sformirovannost kognitivnogo komponenta gotovnosti k professionalno-trudovoi deiatelnosti u lits s intellektualnymi narusheniiami [Formation of the Cognitive Component of Readiness for Professional and Labour Activity in Persons with Intellectual Disabilities]. Vestnik MGEI (on line)=Herald of MHEI (on line), 2021, no. 2, pp. 159— 173. DOI:10.37691/2619-0265-2021-0-2-159-173 (In Russ.).
12. Karpenkova I.V. Rabota s budushchim rebenka s osobymi obrazovatel’nymi potrebnostyami i ego sem’i kak aspekt t’yutorskogo deistviya [Working with the future of a child with special educational needs and his family as an aspect of tutor action]. Rabota s Budushchim v kontekste nepreryvnogo obrazovaniya: Sbornik nauchnyh statej po materialam II Mezhdunarodnoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferencii=Working with the Future in the Context of Lifelong Education: a collection of scientific articles based on the materials of the II International Scientific and Practical Conference (Moscow, April 18—19, 2019). A.N. Ioffe, O.A. Ivanova [i dr.] (eds.). Moscow: MGPU, OOO «A-Prior», 2019. Р. 110—117. (In Russ.).
13. Leontiev D.A. Fenomen otvetstvennosti: mezhdu nederzhaniyem i giperkontrolem [The Phenomenon of Responsibility: Between Incontinence and Hypercontrol]. Ekzistentsial’noye izmereniye v konsul’tirovanii i psikhoterapii=Existential dimension in counseling and psychotherapy. Birshtonas; Vil’nyus: VEAET, 2005, no. 2, pp. 7—22. (In Russ.).
14. Samsonova E.V. Tutor Competencies in Inclusive Education: Specifics of Professional Training Curricula. E.V. Samsonova, Y.A. Bystrova, A.Yu. Shemanov, E.N. Kutepova. Psikhologo-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya=Psychological-Educational Studies, 2022. Vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 84—99. DOI:10.17759/psyedu.2022140206 (In Russ.).
15. Frankl V. Chelovek v poiskakh smysla [Man in search of meaning]. Moscow, 1990. 368 р. (In Russ.).
16. Khaustov A.V., Shumskikh M.A. Organization of Educational Process of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Russian Federation: Results of all-Russian Monitoring 2018. Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya=Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2019. Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 3—11. DOI:10.17759/ autdd.2019170301(In Russ.).
17. Khilkevich E.V., Steinberg A.S., Khaustov A.V. Special Environment for Teaching Students with ASD in Creative Professions. Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya=Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2022. Vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 53—61. DOI:10.17759/autdd.2022200207 (In Russ.).
18. Shemanov A.Yu. An approach to assessing the features of a tutor’s professional competence in inclusive education: a pilot study. A.Yu. Shemanov, E.V. Samsonova, Yu.A. Bystrova, E.N. Kutepova. Klinicheskaya i spetsial’naya psikhologiya =Clinical and Special Psychology, 2022. Vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 233—263. DOI:10.17759/cpse.2022110410 (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.).
19. Ajzen I. Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2002. Vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 665—683.
20. Bandura A. Self-Efficacy: the Exercise of Control. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1997.
21. Bystrova Yu. O. Ensuring continuity in the process of professional and labor socialization of persons with intellectual disabilities: monograph. Luhansk: Publishing House “Taras Shevchenko LNU”, 2012. 332 p.
22. Kurtdede-Fidan N., Aydogdu B. Life skills from the perspectives of classroom and science teachers. International Journal of Progressive Education. Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 32—55 (in Engl.).
23. Saigh B.H., Bagadood N.H. Bullying experiences and mothers’ responses to bullying of children with autism spectrum disorder. Discover Psychology, 2022. Vol. 2, p. 33. DOI:10.1007/s44202-022-00045-3