A Socio-psychological Structure of Intergenerational Relationships of students

Abstract

The article presents the study aimed at reserching the socio-psychological structure of intergenerational relations among students living in different regions of Russia. The study involved 102 students living in Saint-Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, aged 17—24 years. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was a sociological approach to generation, as well as the socio-psychological interpretation of the generation as a large social group. The results are structured according to three research questions: 1) what is the influence of heterogeneity of sociocultural conditions on the formation of the intergenerational relations? 2) how are the characteristics of generational identification and the intergenerational relations interrelated? 3) how does the experience of real interaction with representatives of different generations mediate the intergenerational relations? The results of the study show that the identification with the post-soviet generation dominates among the respondents (regardless of place of residence), the structure of social contacts is also universal (more than 50% of the post-soviet generation, 17—20% of the transitional and soviet generation, about 5% of the post-war generation). Regression analysis shows that a large number of intragenerational relationships is a predictor of blurred generational identity, which, in turn, mediates the intergenerational relationships, primarily with representatives of “own” generation.