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Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy
2026. Vol. 34, no. 1, 135–156
doi:10.17759/cpp.2026340107
ISSN: 2075-3470 / 2311-9446 (online)

Difficult life situations and personal authenticity: a case of the Russian students

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. Personal authenticity is the ability of a person to be true to oneself - individual nature (gender, age, temperament), spatial and temporal circumstances of life and calling. The theoretical basis is provided by the existential, person-oriented, and agent paradigms of dispositional authenticity and the concept of difficult life situations (DLS). Objective. To investigate if there is a relationship between the authenticity parameters, the level and the patterns of the DLS. Research question: How does personal authenticity relate to DLS? Methods and materials. The study involved 316 undergraduate students of different specialties (Mage = 19,4, SDage = 0,9, 251 females, 65 males). The severity and patterns of DLS were measured using a checklist of Difficult life situations of learning youth; dispositional authenticity was measured using the Authenticity Inventory, the Authenticity Scale, and the Moscow Authenticity Scale. Results. Authenticity is negatively associated with almost all DLS; however, in regression models, authenticity indicators act both as protectors against DLS and as vulnerability to them. By means of LTA, based on a combination of authenticity and dominant DLS, five personality types have been identified. Conclusions. It is shown that personal authenticity is non-linearly related to susceptibility to DLS, making the subject resistant to some difficulties and sensitive to others. Thus, authenticity acts not only as a resource for adaptation, but also as a factor of vulnerability to difficulties.

General Information

Keywords: personal personality, students, difficult life situations, resource, existential psychology, person-oriented psychology, agent approach

Journal rubric: Empirical Researches

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2026340107

Funding. The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project number 25-18-00394, https://ias.rscf.ru/user/doc/a.w.p.2025.104.main/10465721.

Received 07.07.2025

Revised 23.10.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Nartova-Bochaver, S.K., Bayramyan, R.M. (2026). Difficult life situations and personal authenticity: a case of the Russian students. Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 34(1), 135–156. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2026340107

© Nartova-Bochaver S.K., Bayramyan R.M., 2026

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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 1 Деятельность Международного общественного движения ЛГБТ и его структурных подразделений в РФ запрещена (решение Верховного Суда Российской Федерации от 30.11.2023)

Information About the Authors

Sofya K. Nartova-Bochaver, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Laboratory Head, Chief Research Fellow, Laboratory for the Psychology of Salutogenic Environment; Professor, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8061-4154, e-mail: s-nartova@yandex.ru

Roksana M. Bayramyan, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Senior Research Fellow, Laboratory for the Psychology of Salutogenic Environment, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences; Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Editorial Board of the Journal “Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics”, HSE University, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0412-4495, e-mail: roksana.bayramyan@mail.ru

Contribution of the authors

Sofya K. Nartova-Bochaver — ideas; annotation, writing and design of the manuscript; planning of the research; control over the research.

Roksana M. Bayramyan — application of statistical, mathematical or other methods for data analysis; conducting the experiment; visualization of research results; writing of the manuscript.

All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

The study was reviewed and approved by the Commission for the ethical evaluation of empirical research projects of the department of psychology of the HSE university (report no 1, 2024/02/01).

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