Social and Political Attitudes of Moscow Students on the Background of the All-Russia and Regional Youth Studies

Tatiana Litvinova,Gennady Moskvitin,Olga Vershinina

doi:10.3390/socsci9090153

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the socio-political attitudes of Moscow students, which determine their life strategies in the public sphere. An empirical basis for the study was the sociological survey of students of three universities in Moscow (n = 768). The questionnaire was partially based on Milton Rokeach’s terminal personal values indicators and the methodology of studying political culture of Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, adapted to a Russian context. The survey data operationalization let us represent a structural model of socio-political attitudes of Moscow students, which consists of indicators of four levels: value, emotional, cognitive, and strategic. The results showed that students in Moscow share the values and patriotic feelings of the elder generations. The influence of gender and age factors was most pronounced on the level of personal values. Despite of the field of their study, students in Moscow can be described as quite energetic and optimistic young citizens, equally family and career oriented with not a high interest in politics and weak political activity. Authors discussed their main findings with the results of previously obtained all-Russian and regional youth studies.

Highlights

During the transition to adulthood, young people face various social and economic challenges, which affect their participation in social and political processes
The key part of the empirical base of this work is the materials of a mass sociological survey of Moscow students consisted of two set of questions defining social and political attitudes of youth
Our study focuses on social and political attitudes of young people getting higher education in the capital of the Russian Federation

Summary

Introduction

During the transition to adulthood, young people face various social and economic challenges, which affect their participation in social and political processes. It largely depends on their values and social attitudes. Social and political attitudes of young people occupy a special place in youth studies. They can be viewed from different approaches. Psychologists offer a cognitive view of values, their acquisition, and development from adolescence to adulthood (Piaget 1972). Studies of political psychologists are focused on the direct influence of character traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) on political attitudes and actions (Cawvey et al 2017).

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