Abstract:

In modern research, special attention is paid to the question of the place of educational values in the system of life values of young people. Meanwhile, intergenerational aspects of attitudes towards education and career choice are less studied. Within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation project No. 22-28-00460, we conducted a comparative study of the ideas of modern youth and the generation of their parents about what is important when choosing a career; what the value of education is in comparison with other life values, what the ratio of the reproduction of the life values of the parental family and the self-determination of young people is. The sample of the younger generation consisted of 489 people, the average age was 22.9 (SD = 2.58), the sample of the older generation was 113 people, the average age was 46.19 (SD = 9.48).

Research methods were:
1) semi-structured interview "Life guidelines" about oneself and representatives of another generation, supplemented by questions about life choices in significant situations;
2) Schwartz`s questionnaire of value orientations PVQ-RR (on a sample of young people);
3) comparative analysis, contingency coefficient (x2 chi-square test).

As a result, a significant similarity is revealed in the ideas of parents about their own and about desired for children models of choosing a career (x2 = 236.81, p = .000), which in relation to their children are distinguished by a greater significance of enthusiasm and the opportunity to try themselves in different areas. Parents' ideal model practically coincides with the results of a survey of young people. 69.9% of representatives of the older generation are convinced of the usefulness of passing on the parents` life experience to children, the remaining 30.1% believe that modern youth does not need it. In their professional development, parents would advise their children to try themselves in different fields (49%); after a while to change a job for a similar one, giving new skills (26%); only 14% would like to see stability and gradual advancement of the career ladder. Similarly, parents (87.6%) support their children in their striving to get a good education, even when moving to study in another city or to another country. In a situation of life choice “family or work”, parents would make a choice in favor of a family (56.9%) rather than work (43.1%), and would advise their children to do the same (54. 9% and 48.6%, respectively), (x2 = 44.02, p = .000). The study confirms that the life values of young people are largely determined by belonging to their generation, and are predictors of attitudes towards the professional sphere, no less important than the parental professional model. Thus, respondents with a priority of values of independence, stimulation, hedonism prefer the life model of “professional self-change”: striving for development, willingness to invest in their professional growth, activity in the emergence of events related to desired goals. Young people, for whom significant values are the traditional values of conformity, modesty and security, are more focused on stability. Their model in the professional sphere can be described as “safety of the professional path”. They are characterized by less involvement in the sphere of professional self-development, passivity and a position of expectation in the occurrence of events related to professional growth.

Keywords:

Professional development, education, life values, self-determination.