Profile of Self-Regulation and Social Activity in the Portrait of Russian Youth

Abstract

Background. The relevance of studying the social activity of young people in the context of self-regulation is determined by the vulnerability of young people in difficult conditions of a transforming society subject to uncertainty. In social activity, young people socialize, manifest themselves, and therefore it is necessary to understand its factors, motives for inclusion in one or another of its forms, obstacles to its implementation, as well as risks and threats to the safety and well-being. Objectives. The aim is to establish the role of self-regulation in the involvement of young people in social activity, considering regional and gender specifics. Study Participants. This study involved 1492 respondents (Mage = 19.2; 1013 women), students of various majors from Russian regions. Methods. The research had a survey design, the questionnaires and scales were used in this work for collecting data: V.I. Morosanova's “Style of self-regulation of behavior”, Eysenck's three-factor model, FIRO-B, British scale of well-being, Scale of Russian parties and socio-political organizations attractiveness, Assessment of social contacts intensity and participation in events, and informal associations, a socio-demographic survey. Methods of descriptive statistics, cluster (k-means method) and comparative (t-Student and H-Kraskel-Wallis criterion) analyses were used for data processing. Results. It is established that the leading regulatory processes and properties in the profile of self-regulation of young people are persistence, programming of actions, and flexibility. Self-regulation has a greater impact on such forms of social activity of young people as leisure activities, participation in clubs, spontaneous events as the organizer of these forms with a predominant value for girls rather than for boys. Conclusions. The study showed the typical features of the self-regulation profile of young people. This profile is mostly conditioned by the age specifics of this social group. The limited influence of the processes and properties of self-regulation on the forms of social activity, especially in relation to young men, suggests the need to consider other factors of social activity in a complex.