Congratulations to the New PhD Oksana Mačėnaitė on the Successful Defense of her Dissertation.

Congratulations to the new doctor Oksana Mačėnaitė on successfully defending her dissertation “Changes in Self-Esteem and Social Skills of Men Experiencing Exclusion” (Education Sciences (S-007)), scientific supervisor  –  prof. dr. Jūratė Požėrienė (Lithuanian University of Sport, Social Sciences, Educational Studies, S-007)), and  after obtaining the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences in Education Field.

The dissertation is available at Lithuanian University of Sport, 6 Sporto St, Kaunas.

A brief annotation of the dissertation is presented below:

 The thesis deals with themes related to male social exclusion. After the analysis of scientific literature sources and the lack of scientific research on the issues of social exclusion, self-esteem and social skills of men, a problematic question was raised – how do sports activities and social change group contribute to the increase of self-esteem and development of social skills of men experiencing social exclusion? The object of the study is the self-esteem and social skills of marginalised men. The aim of the study is to reveal the educational impact of a sports activity group and a social change group on the self-esteem and social skills of marginalised men. The objectives of the study: 1. To identify the factors that lead to men’s social exclusion, low self-esteem and lack of social skills; 2. To theoretically justify the model of development of social skills and self-esteem of excluded men, and to develop a programme of educational impact and monitoring based on it. 3. To identify and evaluate the impact of the sports activities, social skills and self-esteem development programme on the social skills and self-esteem of excluded men.

Dissertation Defence Council

Chairperson – prof. dr. Romualdas Malinauskas (Lithuanian University of Sport, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
prof. dr. Brigita Janiūnaitė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
prof. dr. Remigijus Bubnys (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
assoc. prof. Ilona Tilindienė (Lithuanian University of Sport, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
prof. habil. dr. Bartosz Molik (Josef Piłsudski Academy of Physical Education, Biala Podlaska Branch, Warsaw, Social Sciences, Sociology – S 005).