On the Issue of Social Well-Being of University Students

Abstract

Background. In the modern society characterized by uncertainty and variability, it is relevant to study the social well-being in various social groups, university students in particular.

Objective. The study had its purpose to reveal the features of social well-being of university students.

Study Participants. 3855 students of pedagogical universities and classical universities of the Russian Federation participated in the study.

Methods. The study is based on the materials of an anonymous monitoring, which was conducted in 2023 by the staff of the Laboratory of Sociological Research in Education of the Center for Educational Development of the Russian Academy of Education. The data obtained on the ad hoc questionnaire were processed by means of statistical software package SPSS 21 and StatSoft Statistica 7.0. Factor analysis was performed using the method of selecting the Main Components with Varimax rotation.

Results. The study identified the features of the social well-being of university students manifested in their value orientations, emotional assessment of their own future, and assessment of the significance of various threats. The article also describes the differentiating influence of students' socio-economic status and emigration intentions on their social well-being. It shows that low-income students are more likely to be pessimistic about their future and to have concerns about their economic inadequacy and social vulnerability, while high-income students are more optimistic about their future and focused on self-realization. Students' attitudes towards emigration are associated with a set of values that can be classified as "liberal" and a set of socio-political fears. The desire to live in Russia is characterized by protective attitudes related to traditional spiritual and moral values. The study revealed the specific features of social well-being of university students, which are reflected in their value orientations.

Conclusions. The analysis of the research results allows to see how students who identify themselves as belonging to a certain socio-economic stratum experience their life context. It also identifies the features of social well-being that contribute to the formation of emigration intentions at the university stage. The social well-being of students from different socio-economic strata differs fundamentally in terms of their basic attitude towards the future ("optimism" vs "pessimism"). Emigration attitudes are linked to the value structures that can be broadly categorized as "traditional values" vs "liberal values." The results obtained can be useful for developing educational programs at universities, as well as for the work of psychological services aimed at improving the social well-being of students.

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