THE PECULIARITIES OF ATTITUDES TOWARD WAR AMONG HOME YOUTH
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Abstract
The article reveals Ukrainian youth psychological attitudes towards war. The author provides the outcomes of his empirical research among students (n = 126) in two regions of Ukraine, namely Donbass (Starobil’sk town) and "North-East" (Chernihiv town). The research was based on A. Nevriuev’s specialized questionnaire and was conducted in March 2019. The study aimed at identifying the substantive context of the youth attitudes to war both in general and as a social phenomenon, as well the link between these attitudes to such triggers as lifetime experience and social dominance orientation. The obtained results showed that today's Ukrainian students demonstrated mainly critical attitudes towards war as a means to resolve social conflicts. In the course of the study, however, no significant differences between these attitudes were documented among young people giving the fact their homes were located on various distance to the military and political conflict zone in the Eastern Ukraine. The attitudes of these people turned out to be linked with social dominance orientation (propensity to dominance and anti-egalitarianism indicators), the same happened with young people living in countries with much better situation in terms of war. The attitudes to ‘abstract war’ (to war in general as a social phenomenon) are directly or indirectly related to the attitude of an individual to specific military conflicts. It should be noted, young respondents from Russia demonstrated a more positive attitude to the war comparing to Ukrainians, and this fact could be considered a trend. The obtained results can be used both in research (studying the mass political consciousness dynamics and military and political conflicts psychological consequences) and pedagogical practice (socially educational work with the young). Further research studies could be quite promising as they might help identify specific attitudes to war among young people living in other regions of Ukraine, or among representatives from other social groups (incl. those related to military business). Elaborating appropriate Ukrainian comprehensive psychological and diagnostic tools could also become a fruitful outcome.
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