Effect of Youth's Value Orientation on the Development of Representations about their Country

Abstract

The research featured the effect of collective and individual values of young people on their ideas about their motherland. The study was based on the following hypothesis: the ratio of collective and individual orientation is subject to fluctuations under the effect of socio-economic factors. They affect the specifics of young people's representations of Russia. The sample included students of Nizhny Novgorod aged 21–22. Of these, 120 participants (79 girls and 41 boys) were students in 2010 and 100 (62 girls and 38 boys) – in 2019. The research methods involved Schwartz’s values questionnaire and the method of free associations. The deterioration of the economic situation of most of the Russian society and the growth of foreign policy tensions proved to affect the values of young people. The students in the 2019 study had a more pronounced shift toward collective values than their peers in 2010. The lack of self-confidence suppressed the need for social recognition and increased the importance of reference groups. Students with a pronounced collective orientation had a focus on Russia's heroic past and traditions, as well as pessimistic and poorly formed views of the future. Students with an individual orientation demonstrated a greater optimism in their perception of the future of Russia, as well as a skeptical attitude to traditions and history. The study clarified the role of value orientation in shaping young people's representation of their country.