Spatial dimensions of ukrainian youth’s social perceptions about wellbeing

Abstract

The relevance of this research is due to the insufficient study of everyday social perceptions of well-being for residents coming from different ("home" and "foreign") territories, in particular, psychological factors of these perceptions.

The aim of the article is to highlight the results of empirical study of domestic students' social perceptions of well-being for residents from different countries and regions and the connection of these perceptions with social, cultural (territorial) and personal (levels of subjective well-being and patriotism) factors.

Method and methodology. 259 students from all major regions of Ukraine ("North", "Centre", "West", "South", and "East") were surveyed through an online questionnaire. The respondents were aged in average 19 years old and they were offered three techniques: 1) subjective scale of well-being of the majority of citizens from a number of countries and regions, as well as the place of their own residence/study; 2) E. Dinner's scale of subjective well-being (SWLS); 3) "patriotism" scale of I. Petrovska's "Civic Identity" questionnaire.

Main results. The everyday consciousness of modern youth reflects the idealization of the EU countries and the United States on the one hand (manifestation of topophilia) and a negative halo effect regarding the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea on the other hand (topophobia). The assessment of the residents’ well-being within own location is slightly higher than that of their fellow citizens in Ukraine as a whole. Social perceptions of domestic students about the well-being of residents from different countries and regions are actually value-cognitive formations, and their content is associated with a set of social and personal factors. These are the national and regional socio-political discourse, socio-cultural stereotypes, personal experience, and the level of subjective well-being of an individual, as well the patriotism level.

Prospects for further research are lying in the study of social perceptions of well-being among other sociodemographic groups, as well as the connection of the content of these perceptions with "politicized" socio-political characteristics of personality (collective narcissism, orientation on social domination, etc.).