The Politization of the Mass Consciousness of the Russian Youth in 2022: Possibilities of Evaluation on the Basis of Statistical Analysis

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Abstract

The politicization of the mass consciousness of young people is revealed in this study by such parameters as the level of interest in politics, readiness for certain actions to protect interests, priority sources of political information, assessment of the correctness of the direction of development of the situation in the country, as well as the relations of some of these characteristics with the level political trust. The empirical basis of the study is the results of a massive online survey of Russian youth conducted in November 2022. The method of conducting the survey was an online survey. The data were processed using traditional methods of statistical analysis: simple and combined grouping of data, analysis of standardized residuals, correlation analysis, calculation of new variables, multiple regression analysis, multivariate scaling. By modeling a new variable, it was possible to identify high rates of youth interest in politics. It has been established that the level of youth interest in politics is associated with the availability and size of material and social resources of representatives of this group. Positive and negative factors influencing the level of youth interest in politics have been identified. Since, according to the results of the analysis, the levels of political trust and interest in youth politics turned out to be unrelated, it can be argued that the rational component in the formation of political trust among young people is rather weak. The relationship between the level of political trust of young people and the willingness to take certain potential actions to protect their interests has been revealed. Two sets of related potential action strategies have been identified that young people can use to protect their interests.

About the authors

Olga V. Popova

Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences; St Petersburg State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: pov_64@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0701-7767

Dr. Sci. (Pol. Sci.), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor, the Head of the Department of Political Institutes and Applied Political Studies, St. Petersburg State University

Moscow, Russian Federation; Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Nikolai V. Grishin

Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences; St Petersburg State University

Email: nvgrishin@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0850-7581

Dr. Sci. (Pol. Sci.), Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor of the Department of Political Institutions and Applied Political Studies, Saint Petersburg State University

Moscow, Russian Federation; Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Sergei I. Suslov

Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: rymp@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7973-2260

PhD in Sociology, Junior Research Fellow

Moscow, Russian Federation

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Copyright (c) 2023 Popova O.V., Grishin N.V., Suslov S.I.

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