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“Birth of a Citizen”:
Political and Psychological Analysis of Russian High School Students’ Civic Consciousness

Selezneva A.V.,

Lecturer of the Chair of Sociology and Psychology of Politics, Faculty of Political Science, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, ntonina@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 604572 |

Azarnova A.A.,

post-graduate student of the Chair of Sociology and Psychology of Politics, Faculty of Political Science, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, aa.azarnova.1996@gmail.com

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2020.05.08

Rubric: Russia Today

For citation:

Selezneva A.V., Azarnova A.A. “Birth of a Citizen”: Political and Psychological Analysis of Russian High School Students’ Civic Consciousness. – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No. 5. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2020.05.08

The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the autonomous non-profit organization “Expert Institute of Social Researches” in the framework of the scientific project No. 19-011-33031 “Citizenship of Russian High School Students as a Political and Psychological Phenomenon: Value Bases and Formation Mechanisms”.

Abstract

The article presents the results of studies that aimed to identify the civic consciousness of modern Russian high school students. The theoretical basis of the study was a political and psychological approach, in which citizenship is determined by a combination of cognitive, value-motivational, emotional, and behavioral components of the personality, and is expressed in its relationship with the state and society. Empirical data collection, processing, and analysis were carried out using a complex of quantitative and qualitative methods, including formal interviews, projective methods (unfinished sentences, psychological drawing), and an expert survey. Based on the analysis of empirical data, structurally meaningful characteristics of the civic consciousness of state school students (aged 15-18) were revealed. The analysis shows that young people have cognitively poor, contradictory, and stereotypical representations about Russia, including its social and political structure and affairs with the outside world; they have contradicting feelings about their personal future (mainly positive) and the future of their country (mainly negative), And their civic involvement is poor due to distrust and disinterest in social engagement. The conceptual and symbolic side of being a citizen can be described as unformed; state school students in Russia have no examples of an ‘ideal citizen’ to recognize and model themselves on. We found out that the cohorts of Russian state school students are heterogeneous in value-emotional terms: orientation to values of survival and values of selfexpression, as well as emotional attitude to Russia as a country (positive) and Russia as a state (negative). As a result, it is concluded that the civic consciousness of high school students in Russia is at an average level of development. The problems in the civil-patriotic education of schoolchildren are largely due to the contradictions in the holistic state policy on the formation of young Russians’ civic consciousness. 

Keywords

citizen, civic consciousness, high school students, political socialization, political values, political views, character, social activity, citizen participation, patriotic education.

 Full Text 

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