Youth is a large socio-demographic group that unites individuals on the basis of socio-psychological, age, economic characteristics.

Youth in modern society

From a psychological point of view, youth is a period of formation of self-awareness, a stable system of values, as well as social status. Young people represent the most valuable and at the same time the most problematic part of society.

The value of the younger generation lies in the fact that, as a rule, its representatives have an increased sense of purpose, the ability to assimilate large amounts of information, originality and critical thinking.

However, these advantages give rise to certain problems of the implementation and existence of young people in society. So critical thinking is often directed not to the search for truth, but to the categorical rejection of already existing norms and dogmas that guide other members of society.

Today's youth are also characterized by new negative qualities that were absent from their predecessors, in particular, detachment from the outside world, unwillingness to work, increased negativism.

Youth as a social group

Often, the term "youth" means a large social group, which consists of persons from 16 to 25 years old. The boundaries of youth age can be flexible: for example, in developed countries, the youth group includes people aged 14-30 years.

This social group is influenced by such social institutions as school, university, family, labor collective, spontaneous groups and mass media.

Development of social roles in adolescence

In adolescence, each person is faced with the need to change their social role. Often, the first seed of a social role occurs at the moment of graduation: the student acquires the status of a student.

It should be noted that before this time the student already occupies certain social positions (daughter, son, sister, brother). In the future, with their preservation, in adolescence, the status of an employee is acquired.

As statistics show, today many teenagers acquire the status of an employee earlier than the status of a student. This is the reason for the unstable economic situation.

youth subculture

A youth subculture is a part of the culture of a society whose members differ in their behavior from the vast majority, and as a rule are representatives of the youth.

Youth subculture is a broad concept that includes many cultures that have their own value system of behavior. Youth subcultures are formed under the influence of socio-economic changes.

Reaches physical maturity at an average of 14 years. Around this age, in ancient societies, children underwent the rite initiation- initiations into the number of adult members of the tribe. However, as society became more advanced and complex, it took more than just physical maturity to be considered an adult. It is assumed that an accomplished person must acquire the necessary knowledge about the world and society, acquire professional skills, learn to provide for himself and his own, etc. Since the amount of knowledge and skills in the course of history has continuously increased, the moment of acquiring the status of an adult was gradually pushed back to a later age. Currently, this moment corresponds to about 30 years.

youth It is customary to call the period in a person's life from 14 to 30 years - between childhood and adulthood.

Accordingly, representatives of the demographic group whose age fits into these time frames are called youth. However, age is not the decisive criterion for defining youth: the temporal boundaries of youth age are mobile and determined by the social and cultural conditions of growing up. For a correct understanding of the characteristics of young people, attention should be focused not on the demographic criterion, but on the socio-psychological one.

The youth is a generation of people going through the stage of growing up, i.e. the formation of the individual, the assimilation of knowledge, social values ​​and norms necessary in order to take place as a full-fledged and full member of society.

Youth has a number of features that distinguish it from other ages. By its very nature, youth is transitional"suspended" state between childhood and adulthood. In some matters, young people are quite mature, serious and responsible, while in others they are naive, limited and infantile. This duality determines a number of contradictions and problems inherent in this age.

growing up- this is primarily the assimilation of knowledge and skills and the first attempts to apply them in practice.

If we consider youth from the point of view of leading activities, then this period coincides with the end of education(learning activities) and entry into working life ().

Youth policy system is made up of three components:

• legal conditions for the implementation of youth policy (ie the relevant legal framework);
• forms of regulation of youth policy;
• information and material and financial support of youth policy.

The main directions of youth policy are:

• involvement of young people in public life, informing them about potential development opportunities;
• development of creative activity of youth, support of talented youth;
• integration of young people who find themselves in a difficult life situation into a full life.

These areas are implemented in a number of specific programs: legal advice, promotion of universal human values, propaganda, organization of international youth interaction, support for volunteer initiatives, assistance in finding employment, strengthening young families, increasing civic engagement, helping young people in difficult situations, etc. If desired, every young person is able to find in the media all the necessary information about current projects and choose those that can help in solving his specific problems.

Let us now dwell on the role and significance of youth in society. In general, this role is due to the following objective circumstances.

1. Youth, being a fairly large socio-demographic group, occupies an important place in national economic production as the only source of replenishment of labor resources.

2. Youth is the main bearer of the intellectual potential of society. She has great abilities for work, for creativity in all spheres of life.

3. Young people have a fairly large social and professional perspective. It is able to acquire new knowledge, professions and specialties faster than other social groups in society.

The indicated circumstances can be confirmed by actual and statistical data.

By the beginning of 1990, there were 62 million people in the former USSR. under the age of 30. At the same time, every fourth resident of the city and every fifth of the village were young people. In total, citizens under the age of 30 accounted for 43% of the working population.

The proportion of young people aged 16 to 30 in the former USSR in 1990 was 22% of the total population. Approximately the same percentage was in Ukraine. Over the past ten years, there has been a decrease in the young population in the territory of the former USSR by 4.8 million people, including in Ukraine the share of young people from 1989 to 1999 decreased from 22 to 20%.

According to 1986 data, about 40 million boys and girls were employed in the national economy of the former USSR. At the same time, in some industries, more than half of the employees were young people. For example, in industry and construction, 54% of workers were under the age of 30, in agriculture - 44, in mechanical engineering - 40, in light industry - more than 50%.

In recent years, the following trends have been noted in the demographic situation regarding young people:

The number of rural youth is growing, which is a good prerequisite for the demographic revival of the village;

There is a pronounced trend towards rejuvenation of motherhood, although a significant number of young families, due to socio-economic problems, are in no hurry to have children;

The number of young migrants is increasing, etc.

Fundamentally important when considering youth problems is the question of youth as the subject and object of social transformations.

The role of youth as a subject and object in the historical process of the development of society is very specific. From the point of view of the mechanism of youth socialization, at first, a young person, entering into life, is an object of influence of social conditions, family, friends, institutions of training and education, and then, in the process of growing up and transitioning from childhood to youth, he learns and begins to create the world himself, i.e. becomes the subject of all socio-economic, political and social transformations.

It is clear that the problem of youth has a global, universal character, and therefore is in the center of attention of all countries and major organizations in the world.

Through UNESCO, for example, from 1979 to 1989 alone, more than 100 documents were adopted concerning the problems of youth. Most of them emphasize that young people themselves, through their work, must realize their goals. Young people should be in constant search, dare, build their own destiny. Naturally, this is inherent only in democratic societies, countries with a high level of economic and social development.

At the same time, characterizing the problems of youth, at the fortieth session of the UN General Assembly, attention was drawn to the fact that "young people play a dual, at first glance contradictory role, on the one hand, they actively contribute to the process of social change, and on the other hand, they turn out to be his victims."

Indeed, today's youth cannot be focused solely on the implementation of national affairs related to the solution of plan targets; she should be given the opportunity to solve her own youth problems. The interests of young people, their real, pressing problems are an organic part of all the social tasks of society. Here it is appropriate to recall an interesting statement by the famous psychologist I. S. Kon that in the 20th century the pace of change in new technology began to outpace the pace of change in new technologies.

generations. This feature of the scientific and technological revolution significantly affected the psyche and psychology of young people, more clearly revealed their inability to live. We will enter the 21st century with this problem of youth.

Along with the loss by older generations of the right to perform the traditional teaching and upbringing function, the problem of young people's independence, their preparation for life, for conscious actions has become aggravated.

Young people today, on the one hand, increasingly feel like a special group of society within a certain "youth culture", and on the other hand, they are increasingly suffering from the insolubility of many of their specific problems. At the same time, the most serious factor that deforms the psyche of young people is the lack of a certain trust in them. Boys and girls are very little involved in solving and implementing a variety of problems in the life of modern society. Moreover, they are not even included on an equal footing in the discussion of various issues that concern all citizens.

As a result of all the causes and problems discussed above, a certain differentiation is taking place among young people, which has so far been little studied by sociological science. In particular, VF Levicheva in her works during the period of rapid growth of the so-called informal youth associations singled out three classes of social objects of a fundamentally different type: adolescent groups; amateur associations of young people of various orientations (groups for the protection of historical and cultural monuments, "green", associations of creative youth, leisure groups, sports and recreation and peacekeeping associations, political clubs, etc.); popular fronts (social formations, which included young people).

SUMMARY

1. The most acceptable, in our opinion, is the following interpretation of the concept of "youth": "Youth is a relatively large socio-demographic group, distinguished on the basis of a combination of age characteristics, social status, socio-psychological properties that are determined by the social system, culture laws of socialization and education in a given society".

There is also such a more complex and multifaceted definition: "Youth as a social group is a specific social community of people that occupies a certain place in the social structure of society, is characterized by the process of acquiring a stable social status in various social substructures (social class, social settlement, professional-labor, socio-political, family-domestic), and therefore, it is distinguished by the commonality of the problems being solved and the commonality of social interests and features of the forms of life that follow from them" [No., 17].

With the transition to the market, the formation of a democratic society, not only the ideals of young people, but also the social ideal of young people in general, change significantly. In particular, the conclusions of the Ukrainian scientist Y. Tereshchenko, who distinguishes such traits in a person of our time (and, consequently, in youth) are very interesting.

Firstly, - he writes, - this is an economically free, enterprising, enterprising, active person. He is characterized by independent creativity associated with the organization of a new business and a constant number of opportunities to apply his own strength.

Secondly, this is a person who is deeply interested in personal involvement in political freedoms. Such a person is characterized by a developed legal and moral responsibility, he is able to protect himself and others.

Thirdly, this is a person with a clearly defined worldview and ecological orientation.

Fourthly, this is a person with a nationally oriented consciousness. Such a person loves his people; for him, his native language and other signs of his native culture are a means of national self-identification.

2. The question of the age limits of youth is not just a subject of theoretical scientific dispute. In particular, the upper limit of the youth age, for all its conventionality, implies exactly the age at which a young person becomes economically independent, able to create material and spiritual values, to continue the human race. And this means that all these conditions should be considered in close unity, interdependence, and even more so without any idealization. For example, it is known that many

young people become economically independent (capable of earning a livelihood, self-sufficiency) even before the age of 28. Of course, this does not exclude receiving economic assistance from parents, relatives, friends and at a later age. In this regard, it seems to us that the youth limit (28 years) is largely determined by the period of graduation, obtaining a profession, that is, the completion of preparation for productive work in any field of activity.

Over time, the age limits of young people (in particular, in Ukraine), apparently, will have to be reviewed and determined taking into account the new socio-economic, political and other conditions for the formation and formation of Ukrainian statehood as a whole.

3. Youth is not only a biological, but also a social process, dialectically connected with the reproduction of society, both demographically and socially. Young people are not just an object - the successor of the material and spiritual wealth of society, but also a subject - a transformer of social relations. “History,” noted K. Marx and F. Engels, “is nothing but a consistent system of separate generations, each of which uses materials, capital, productive forces transferred to it by all previous generations ... Indeed, from that, in what, relatively speaking, will be the tone of the conversation between the "fathers" who pass on the heritage, and the "children" who accept it, to a large extent, if not decisively, the stability, the stability of the system depends ")