Self-realization vs. Family: The Generation Z Dilemma in the Context of Demographic Policy (The Case of Russian Students)

Background. In the present situation, which certain studies describe as a crisis in the system of research staff training and which is characterized by low number of postgraduate students filling up the staff of scientific institutions, it is extremely important to study the specifics of motivation and value sphere of postgraduate students’ personality. Objective. Analysis of the socio-psychological characteristics that postgraduate students’ values have. Design. The study is based on a monitoring questionnaire survey of graduate students conducted in 2019 by employees of the RAO Information and the analytical center. The empirical data were processed using methods of mathematical statistics (statistical software packages SPSS and StatSoft Statistica). The study involved students of postgraduate research bodies that train postgraduate students in the field of education sciences, as well as postgraduates of pedagogical universities situated in Moscow, St. Petersburg and in other regions of the Russian Federation. A total of 803 respondents were interviewed. The study was aimed at assessing the hierarchy of life values in graduate students and the influence of socio-demographic factors, social stratification, and socio-psychological factors on the relevance of postgraduate students’ life values. Results. The results of the study indicate that the leading positions in the structure of postgraduate students’ life values are occupied by basic values (“family”, “good health” and “material well-being”) and by the most relevant values associated with self-actualization. It is shown that the value orientations of postgraduate students are determined by the influence of a number of socio-demographic factors (gender, age, presence and composition of the family), social stratification (financial status, educational status of parents) and socio-psychological factors (having or not clear-cut future plans, emotional assessment of one’s prospects, having or not emigration plans) factors. The comparison of the opinions of postgraduates and research staff showed that postgraduates are more focused on values related to self-actualization, as well as on traditionalist values. Conclusions. The core of postgraduate students’ life values structure if formed by the basic values and, in addition, the values related to self-actualization of individual. The value orientations of postgraduate students are determined by a number of socio-demographic factors, social stratification and socio-psychological factors. It was found out that at a certain age the structure of life values in postgraduate students changes significantly, in accordance with the aims of age development. It is shown that changes in graduate students’ family status make them reconsider the structure of life values. It is also noted that the restructuring of life values in graduate students, when if it proceeds in accordance with the values of natives in “Western” countries, contributes to the formation of emigration attitudes.

Examining differences and similarities between graduate and undergraduate students' user satisfaction with digital libraries

This study examines university students’ reproductive intentions and their relationship with perceptions of employer family support policies. Its relevance stems from current demographic challenges such as declining birth rates and population aging, along with the need to implement state initiatives aimed at supporting families. Students are considered a key group whose reproductive decisions will determine future demographic trends over the next few decades. Based on sociological survey data (2024; Northwestern, Siberian, and Ural Federal Districts; n=2550), it was found that 16% of students plan to have three or more children, while expecting employers to provide comprehensive family support measures. A statistically significant association was found between reproductive intentions and demand for employer-provided family support. Two possible explanations for this relationship are proposed: traditional (corporate support as a condition for realizing existing intentions — i.e., having the number of children they plan for) and innovative (employer measures as a factor that may shift intentions toward larger family sizes). The findings emphasize the need to enhance young people’s awareness of employer family support initiatives through educational campaigns, institutionalization of corporate social responsibility ratings, and fostering collaboration among government, universities and employers. This research contributes to the development of demographic policies aimed at bridging the gap between reproductive intentions and the opportunities to realize them.

This PhD submission presents a series of peer-reviewed journal articles (and other supporting publications) that synthesise an original programme of research that examined the ways in which the media platforms (magazines, television, marketing, Social Network Sites (SNS)) young people (11-21 years) engage with portrayed alcohol, it’s use and related practice. Young people’s own perspectives, interpretations and experiences were also explored, in order to better understand the role of the media in shaping young people’s drinking cultures, practices and related identity making, in ways that are gendered. The underlying theory is presented, the methodological approach employed critically reviewed, and researcher positionality considered. Published findings are then presented that highlight how entertainment media, marketing and peer content on SNS act as important sources of information through which young people learn what is socially acceptable and normative drinking practice for men and women, and how to ‘do’ and perform gender through alcohol-related practice. The research found that although mediated gendered norms around alcohol are reflected and reproduced in young people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, young people also appropriated and rejected alcohol-related messages within their own identity making. The use of the media and social media platforms (e.g. SNS) in disseminating health messages on alcohol to young people and young people’s acceptability of such approaches is also addressed. How the research has contributed to knowledge and the implications of the research for public health, gender studies and policy are also considered. The articles presented in this PhD, supporting documents, conference presentations and public engagement, provide a coherent, significant and novel multi-disciplinary contribution to knowledge on the role of the alcohol, media, and alcohol marketing in young people’s drinking cultures, and practices, and in shaping their identities. All the research conducted for the publications was undertaken during employment at the Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University.

Research on university student well-being often fails to differentiate between graduate and undergraduate students or overlooks graduate students entirely. The different characteristics of graduate (vs. undergraduate) students may contribute to unique mental health needs in this population; hence research is needed to specifically address their psychological functioning. Thus, the goals of the present study were to report on: (1) the mental health profile of a large sample of Canadian graduate students; and (2) graduate students’ recommendations for what their university could do to improve their well-being. We used an online survey administered from September 2021 to October 2022. Participants included 648 graduate students from a university in Southwestern Ontario, Canada (response rate = 20.6%; M age = 27.9; 73.1% women; 65.1% White). We examined mental health variables and perceived university supportiveness; and conducted an inductive content analysis of recommendations to improve university-provided support. Graduate students reported alarming rates of ill-being across various domains. Advisor support was associated with better graduate student mental health across multiple indicators. Most frequently, graduate students requested increased financial support to improve well-being. Taken together, these results punctuate the need for action to support graduate students and provide suggestions for meaningful change.

This qualitative research study explores how young people (18-29) learn about the political process in the U.S. and what influences their political participation. The two research questions explored are: 1) What role does high school civics education play in shaping young people's political participation? 2) What secondary influences such as family members, peers and media might also shape young people's political participation? Participants included seventeen undergraduate university students who were eligible to vote in the 2020 election and three high school civics and social studies educators located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The university student participants were those who agreed to be interviewed about their political participation. Some of them voted and some did not vote in the 2020 presidential election. Interviews were conducted before and after the election starting in late 2020 and completed in the spring of 2022. Interviews were analyzed using an adapted thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) . Findings indicate that high school civics education can play a meaningful role in encouraging young people to vote under certain conditions. These conditions include making civics course content engaging and relevant to students; adopting an active learning approach; and incorporating critical pedagogy to increase inclusivity for marginalized populations. In addition to high school civics, another finding was that parents and close relatives can also positively impact political participation. The greatest influence on political participation identified is when parents or close relatives are citizens who regularly vote; are passionate about their children voting; and actively discuss voting and political issues with them. While some participants discussed using political and social media, their influences on voter turnout were not strong in this study. This study further suggests that learning the history of voting rights can positively impact participants of color and second-generation immigrants' political interest and participation. v Acknowledgements I cannot thank my committee members, Dr. Christopher Koenig and Dr. Leah Wingard, for their generous and constant support and guidance throughout a very long, winding, and bumpy road towards completing this thesis. They were always encouraging and never judgmental when I struggled to keep moving forward. I would have never completed this without them. I also want to thank the faculty in the Communication Studies Department for their support in completing my coursework along with my cohort 2019 members, who were an absolute joy to work with. I would like to especially thank Ayeesha Hossain, a fellow cohort member and friend, for being so supportive and helping me with challenges I faced in the final days of completing this thesis. In addition, my dear friend Tracy Beiers was my constant cheer leader throughout my entire undergraduate and graduate education. My friend Carol Flanagan, who also went back to college later in life and obtained an MA, was another source of inspiration and support. I very much appreciate all the educators at San Francisco State who allowed me to announce my study in their classrooms, and all the S.F.S.U students who participated in this study and referred me to their high school civics instructors to interview. The high school educators I interviewed are amazing people, who are deeply committed to making a lasting impact in their students' lives and equipping them to be discerning and engaged citizens who exercise their right to vote. vi Table of Contents vi List of Tables vii List of Appendices viii Chapter 1: Introduction and Literature Review 1 Chapter 2: Methodology 15

The article examines some aspects of the determination of reproductive behaviour, whose research results open up great opportunities for their ambiguous interpretation. New methodological approaches are necessary in order to improve the correctness of such studies. This applies to the analysis of the relationship between the age at birth of the first child and planned number of children, the effect of living standards on reproductive behaviour, self-assessment of obstacles associated with the birth of children. Particular attention is paid to a barely explored issue of the impact of value systems on reproductive intentions in the context of combined motives for the birth of children and self-assessment of relevant obstacles. Value systems play a significant role in determining reproductive behaviour, which should be taken into account in demographic policy.

Awareness of Federal and State Breastfeeding Laws and Provision of Breastfeeding Resources on a College Campus (OR30-04-19)

Film Review: Inventing Tomorrow 151 Inventing Tomorrow A film directed by Laura Nix (2018) Associate Producers: Elease Lui Stemp and Ann Rogers Fishbowl Films, 1 hour 45 minutes https://www.inventingtomorrowmovie.com Increasingly, we see young climate activists highlighted in the news, and rightly so, for their actions are important and significant. This film is about some less-sung stories of six young heroes working in diverse countries to improve the environmental conditions of their cities through the application of science. Across four countries—from a small Indonesian island to the cities of Hilo, Hawaii; Bangalore, India; and Monterrey, Mexico—we see not only the toxic world young people are inheriting, but also the resolve and dedication they bring to tackling these problems. In the words of Sahithi Pingali, a young scientist from Bangalore: “You see the same issues repeated across the world. It’s inevitably our job as the next generation to tackle this. The people who are approaching this through the eye of science are the people who can fix it and are going to fix it.” This film will appeal to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and environmental educators in both secondary and higher education contexts. It will also appeal to faculty interested in environmental studies, critical sustainability studies, and the sociology of youth empowerment, youth activism, and youth agency. The film is accompanied by free educator guides and youth biographies accessible from the film’s website. Working through separate vignettes in each of four countries, young people converge at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the “science fair of science fairs” in Los Angeles, California. Youth come from a variety of circumstances—from Monterrey youth who will be the first in their family to go to university and who must work long hours while in high school to support their families, to youth from the relative affluence of a suburb of Bangalore who are raised with an acute awareness of the disproportionate effects a wealthy lifestyle can bring to the environment. The environmental issues youth address are also diverse. In Indonesia, two young women devise a filtration system to mitigate the impacts of mining for tin, which is being harvested for cell phones and other technological devices and releases lead into the water. In Hilo, a third-generation Hawaiian investigates the spread of arsenic from a 28-year-old industrial containment pond that released its toxic waters after two tsunamis hit. In Bangalore, a small team explores how technology can be used to monitor water quality in what is known as the “Silicon Valley of India,” where contaminated lakes catch fire and foamy detergent water that is released into lakes eventually makes its way across highways as bubbly clouds the size of small cars. In Monterrey, three youth from one of the most industrialized cities of Mexico, tackle issues of air pollution—an issue made more salient after one of their uncles died of respiratory disease—through toxin-absorbing photovoltaic paints. Film Review: Inventing Tomorrow 152 This film’s primary story is about science as a tool for empowerment and action, with youth taking on the problems they see in their communities and receiving recognition and supports to advance their work. The film shows a sense of purpose as well as resolve in the face of some of the most grueling aspects of science, including when adult judges circulate during the ISEF fair, asking hard questions with poor language translators. Other themes, more subtly presented, include differences in educational equity between the global north and global south, transnational experiences of education between Los Angelinos and Monterrey youth, and many poignant moments that show the importance of cultural and intergenerational values in shaping young people’s approach to the application of science. Inventing Tomorrow shows the victories of science, with the young woman from Bangalore winning awards at ISEF and pursing solutions at the University of Michigan with graduate students and faculty in environmental engineering. I cannot help but also feel the disappointment for those who did not win at ISEF, from Monterrey and Indonesia, and to reflect on the extreme challenges youth face in advocating for change against nearly every barrier imaginable—ageism...

The relevance of the study of the socio-psychological well-being of graduate students (including such an indicator of social well-being as their assessment of the significance of various life fears and threats) is associated with the intensive changes taking place with the Institute of postgraduate studies in connection with the transition to the “economy of knowledge”, as well as with the socio-economic and socio-cultural processes that are transforming Russian society. Objectives. The study of socio-psychological features of life fears of graduate students depending on the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors. Methods and selection. The article is based on the materials of an anonymous monitoring questionnaire conducted in 2019 by employees of the Information and analytical center of Russian Academy of education. The study involved students of post-graduate research organizations that train post-graduate students in the field of education Sciences, as well as pedagogical universities in Moscow and the regions of the Russian Federation. Empirical data were processed using mathematical statistics methods (statistical software packages SPSS and StatSoft Statistica). Results. The paper analyzes the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors on the assessment of life fears and threats by graduate students. The relationship between the assessment of life fears by postgraduate students and the assessment of their life prospects, material and family status, the level of education of parents, and the presence of emigration plans is shown. The correlation analysis revealed a stable, age-independent structure of fears and threats for graduate students. Conclusions. Graduate students’ assessment of the importance of life fears is determined by the influence of a number of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors. The conducted special correlation analysis showed that the basis of the structure of graduate students ‘fears is a complex complex that includes six interrelated “centers”: “risk of losing health”, “economic failure”, “lack of professional prospects”, “lack of social protection”, “unemployment”, “tightening of the regime in the country”.

Limited research examines graduate student experiences with intimate partner violence (IPV) or bystander intervention. In this exploratory study, we compare the extent of opportunity to intervene in suspected IPV, how students tried to help, and barriers to intervention for undergraduate (n= 698) and graduate students (n= 967) at one university using data from stratified random samples of students. Graduate students indicated significantly less opportunity to intervene than undergraduate students (16.2% vs. 35.5%). Among students with the opportunity, however, similar proportions of undergraduate and graduate students tried to help, with most confronting the situation directly. Among those who did not try to help, graduate students commonly endorsed “not knowing what to do,” suggesting an opportunity to enhance prosocial intervention skills among this population through targeted bystander-based training initiatives.

Mental health has become an increasingly important public health issue on college campuses. The current study examined depression, anxiety, and perceptions of institutional support for graduate and undergraduate students. Results show that undergraduate students have higher levels of depression (M = 12.5, SD = 5.98) and anxiety (M = 14.0, SD = 5.15) compared to graduate students (M = 10.03, SD = 5.05; M = 11.6, SD = 5.35, respectively). There are differences in perceptions of institutional support for undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduate students report lower levels of perceived organizational support for health (M = 97, SD = 8.13) and organizational trust (M = 11.26, SD = 3.58) compared to graduate students (M = 28.14, SD = 8.35; M = 12.58, SD = 3.59, respectively). For perceptions of organizational diversity, undergraduate students report higher levels (M = 18.14, SD = 4.18 for undergraduate students versus M = 17.84, SD – 4.52 for graduate students). Results are also provided for students by year in school. Linear regression was done to understand how depression and anxiety is associated with institutional perceptions. As perceptions of institutional support for mental health and organizational trust go up, depression and anxiety rates go down. As perceptions of institutional support for diversity go up, depression and anxiety also go up. Institutions of higher education should provide targeted mental health programming by year in school. Institutions should also work to improve campus climate to improve mental health.

This study explored the perceptions of 304 teacher education students regarding how effectively and meaningfully their instructors use the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation software program in their teaching and compared graduate and undergraduate students' perceptions to determine the extent to which graduate and undergraduate teacher educators differ in the ways they employ PowerPoint. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and surveys. The Mann‐Whitney U tests identified significant differences between undergraduate and graduate students' perceptions of their instructors' use of MS PowerPoint in their teaching. Specifically, this study found that compared to graduate students, significantly more undergraduate students reported that their instructors (a) use PowerPoint as a straight lecturing tool, (b) read directly from slides, (c) present the whole class in PowerPoint, (d) present information on the slide that is directly copied from the textbook. In addition, significantly more undergraduate students reported experiencing PowerPoint overload due to overfull presentations and the rapid pace of instruction.

The purposes of this study were to evaluate exercise and nutrition science students' perceptions of blogging on perceived learning, sense of community, and technical knowledge at the beginning and end of the semester, and to compare the perceptions of undergraduate (UG) and graduate (GRAD) students. UG (pre, n = 78; post, n = 50) and GRAD (pre, n = 20; post, n = 17) students were enrolled in semester long seminar courses that required blogging. Perceptions of blogging were assessed using an anonymous Likert-scale survey at the beginning and end of the semester. T-tests were used to determine differences in perception on the survey subscales pre to post and between UG and GRAD students. Agreement that blogging could enhance learning or promote a sense of community was lower at the end of the semester compared with the beginning, but remained relatively high. Agreement with items related to technical knowledge increased from presemester to postsemester. The change in perception in the whole sample was driven by the UG students, as GRAD students' perceptions of blogging, although initially less positive than UG, were mainly unchanged from the start of the semester to the end. Blogging as a required course component is viewed favorably by exercise and nutrition science students. Future research evaluating course characteristics and structure of blogging requirements that may enhance student' perceptions are warranted.

Drawing on the growing areas of research on emotional embodiment, this paper develops an understanding of the spatiality of grief as central to the discussion of young people's experiences of homelessness. In the context of my engagement with young homeless people in inner-city Sydney, I explore grief as central in shaping young people's everyday body–place relations. I argue that grief over often brutal past homes continues to haunt young people and impact on the ways in which they relate to place, including the place of their own body. I explore young people's displacement and grief-stricken forms of inhabitation as well and their discovery of ‘therapeutic’ places which allow the re-formation of more positive relations to place and self. I argue that while it is understood that grief and trauma are key causes of homelessness amongst young people, grief is rarely explored as an embodied practice, or as a key factor which continues to underpin trajectories of homelessness after initial exits from home.