Dynamics of the working youth self-identification in the transforming society

The article considers dynamics of the young workers self-identification indicators (economic, legal, confidence in the future and life satisfaction) on the empirical data of the “Russian Longitudinal Monitoring of the economic situation and health” conducted by the HSE from 1994 to 2012 on the sample of 19,501 young workers aged 16-30. The results of the research show that Russian working youth has been changing self-identification dynamically for the youth is the most active group to integrate into society. Any negative transformation of society generates negative self-identification indicators among the working youth. Any fluctuation in the economic or political life of the country easily undermines positions of the youth, which threatens to destabilize the society as a whole. Thus, in the first years of post-soviet transformations (1994-1996) more than a half of Russian working youth passed through an identity crisis expressed in low self-esteem (due to poverty, injustice, insecurity, dissatisfaction with one’s life) and acute negativism and pessimism after the 1998 default. In 1999-2002 the perceptions of themselves and their lives among the working youth changed from negative to neutral, and since 2002 we witness the so-called period of “stability” for only every third young respondent admits low level of self-identification, while a large proportion of the working youth, on the contrary, - consistently high level.

working youth, self-identification, dynamics of public mood, economic self-identification, legal identity, confidence in the future, life satisfaction, sociology of youth