Attitudes and value orientations of high school students in Serbia

Abstract

The analysis of attitudes and value orientations of high school students comes as the result of research based on data collected during April-June 2011 in six towns in Serbia. The main objective of this research was to detect the dominant attitudes and value orientations of high school students on a scale of traditionalism, homophobia, anti-Romism, ethnic stereotypes and attitudes toward abortion. The research was conducted in the following cities: Belgrade, Krusevac, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Nis and Novi Pazar. The results showed that high school students in Serbia in regards to their beliefs do not differ much from the general social climate in which they grew up and were educated in. Traditional respondents are represented at the level of 33.9%; 27.9% of them are moderately traditional and 25% of them are non-traditional. On the one side there are extremely radical position of high school students especially in relation to Roma and LGBT people. On the other side, certain number of respondents howed high affinity and positive individual interprets of the lifestyles of those groups (such as the rights of marriage for homosexual population). Attitudes towards women's rights are also bipolar - high school students have a patriarchal attitude towards marriage, family and abortion, but they show sensitivity to the issue of domestic violence. The obtained data should be interpreted in accordance with the changes in Serbian society - economic crisis, privatization, increase of violence in society and family, redefining of gender roles, etc.

Keywords

• high school students
• attitudes
• homophobia
• traditionalism
• gender roles
• family
• nationalism