Modern Forms of University Students’ Extremist Behavior Depending on Cultural and Environmental Factors

Abstract

Transformations in economic, political, social and cultural life of the modern society are causing an increase in extremist tendencies among the youth worldwide. Based on the anthropological approach, the study was aimed at identifying root causes (axiological, motivational, personal and socio-psychological) and a role of socio-cultural and environmental factors in the genesis of Russian university students’ extremist behavior. The study objectives were to evaluate regional environmental factors (economic, social and cultural), to reveal university students’ personal and socio-psychological features (autonomy, adaptiveness, emotionality, communicative competence, creativity, self-esteem, motivation, and basic values), and to identify modern forms of the youth extremist behavior depending on regional specific features and young people’s psychological characteristics. The study sample involved 813 university students from several regions of Russia. It has been found that modern forms of the university students’ extremist behavior include ethnic, information and political extremism. The Internet has been revealed to be a dominant socio-cultural and environmental factor determining individual and group mind of the modern youth. The study results have shown that the university students’ attitudes to extremism are affected by the regional factors, namely the region of their origin and that of studying. In addition, there is a region-specific combination of psychological factors determining the youth attitudes to extremism. Among the young there seems to be much more disbalance between the reality of social transformations and the readiness for accepting them. Thus, the results obtained enable to develop measures of psychological support for university students to prevent them from extremist behavior.



Author Information
Emma I. Meshcheryakova, National Research Tomsk State University, Russia
Natalia V. Kozlova, National Research Tomsk State University, Russia
Inna V. Atamanova, National Research Tomsk State University, Russia
Anastasia V. Larionova, National Research Tomsk State University, Russia

Paper Information
Conference: ACP2015
Stream: Community Development

This paper is part of the ACP2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon