INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO PREVENTING STRESS-INDUCING CONDITIONS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS THROUGH HEALTH-RECREATIONAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Abstract

Student youth are a vulnerable category of the population to stress. The use of health-recreational activity by university students under lasting and intense stress-inducing factors not only reduces the level of stress and the development of stress resistance but also allows them to generate constructive ways of behavior that relieve stress and speed up their adaptation to unpleasant changes. Therefore, at the present time, given the threatening stressors affecting domestic university students, there is a pressing need for the prevention of stress-inducing states through health-recreational activities and generalizing foreign countries’ advanced academic experience of how to effectively prevent stress in the contingent under consideration. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the need to prevent stress-inducing states in university student through health-recreational activity and to review innovative approaches towards its implementation. Methods. During the research, the authors study, analyze and generalize the advanced experience of using of health and recreational methods for the prevention and treatment of stress-inducing conditions in students; carry out a large-scale questionary and apply statistical methods. The study, which took place from 04/20/22 to 06/14/23, involved 1707 Ukrainian university students from various regions and majoring in different specialties various: 42.6% of them were female students, and others were female students. Results. It has been found that domestic students are affected by major stress-inducing factors. That provoked stress-inducing states: 22.7% of respondents are characterized by a high level of situational anxiety, 36.3% are characterized by a low level of stress or its lack, and 17.3% show signs of post-traumatic disorder. Based on literary data and the results of our latest research, the methods of health-recreational activity are highly effective for the prevention of stress-inducing conditions in students. The authors learnt and systematized the advanced pedagogical experience of coping with stress in students and reducing their effects through health-recreational physical activity. Conclusions: it has been determined that the most promising directions for preventing stress-inducing states in students are the establishment of stress management programs, involving them in adventurous activities, as well as the promotion of mental practices.