Infantilization of the youth: A methodological approach to measurement

Modernity, characterized by informatization, globalization and unprecedented acceleration of all social processes, significantly differs from the reality that existed several decades ago, which affects new generations whose lifestyle differs completely from their parents. The period of ‘growing up’ has changed, and society faces the challenges of infantilization which, on the one hand, is determined by various factors (media, virtualization, etc.) and, on the other hand, increases the impact of these factors. The article considers theoretical foundations of the concept ‘social infantilism’, its fundamental differences from the psychological interpretation of ‘infantilism’, its manifestations in the contemporary Russian society, and some methodological approaches to its measurement. The article presents the details of the development and testing of the sociological methodology for measuring the level of social infantilism. The development of this methodology consisted of several stages: at the first stage, a questionnaire was designed and tested on a group of students (30 respondents), then the projective technique ‘collage’ was used for validation on two mini-groups of students - with maximum and minimum indicators of infantilism. At the final stage, the corrected questionnaire was tested on a representative sample of the RUDN University students (N = 550). Social infantilism can be diagnosed in one of the spheres - political, economic, everyday life, family relations and ideological views - or as a generalized phenomenon (present in all spheres). The developed method was validated in the test form and can be used in educational institutions.