Cross-cultural analysis of the effectiveness of school programs for the prevention of maladaptive behavior of adolescents in a multinational educational environment

Abstract

The multinational composition of the Russian school raises the question of the conditions under which the prevention of maladaptive behavior in adolescents retains its effectiveness when a class is heterogeneous in language, ethnocultural background, and trajectory of entry into the host community. Practice often relies on programs designed for a monocultural setting and moved to a multiethnic class without readjustment, although the source of maladaptation in a foreign-language adolescent and in an adolescent of the host community differs in nature. The aim is to determine what the transfer of a preventive program between culturally distinct educational environments depends on, and to build a basis for assessing such transfer. A structural-functional approach, comparison, classification, and examination of the current regulatory framework of Russian education in its 2024-2026 versions are applied. A typology of school preventive programs is proposed by the depth of intervention and cultural sensitivity; four regimes of program transfer into a multiethnic environment are distinguished. The cultural neutrality of a program does not ensure its transferability: effectiveness declines where the mechanism rests on a shared system of norms, and holds where the program works through restoring communication and the adolescent’s standing in the group. Cross-cultural prevention is achieved by readjusting already used school tools to a heterogeneous contingent, and not by introducing a separate program for migrant children that reproduces the very division prevention is meant to remove.