Formation of Young People' s Orientation towards Work

Abstract

This article considers the problem of the formation of young people's value orientations towards the main spheres of life activities. Every sphere of life has objectively, independently of a person's intentions, some im portance in an individual's life in any society. Work is evaluated among other spheres of activity by members of society on the ground of its objective significance in the way of life peculiar to the society concerned. To measure the orientation towards work most broadly is to investigate the evaluation of work in correlation with other spheres of life activities. This concept has been applied in this article presenting the results of an empirical research carried out among young people in the Estonian SSR. The author used data from nine empirical surveys covering more than 14 000 respondents. The analysis shows that getting familiar with work in the practical process of production is most important in moulding an orientation towards work. The factoral analysis reveals the role work plays in a broader orientation towards social activity in all the main stages of a young person's self-determination. This orientation towards social activity, however, can be regarded as a synthetic framework in which an even broader sphere of social values participates.