Социальные аксиомы и страх перед COVID-19: мультигрупповой анализ связи у студенческой молодежи трех стран

Социальная психология и общество. 2022. Т. 13. № 2. С. 89–108.

Murashchenkova N.

Objective. In our study we implemented analysis of the COVID-19 fear, the hierarchy of social axioms and the equivalence of the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and social axioms among students-millennials, citizens of post-Soviet States with different strategies for dealing with the pandemic.
Background. The risk of being traumatized by fear of COVID-19 requires monitoring of this fear
manifestation among different socio-demographic groups. It is additionally important to identify the
psychological factors that reduce fear.
Study design. Empirical data were collected through the online survey from January 2021 to April
2021. The data were processed using Mann-Whitney U-criterion as well as multigroup structural equation modeling (MGSEM).
Participants. Russian-speaking university students aged 18 to 25 participated in the study. They
were citizens of Belarus (208 respondents, 25% men), Kazakhstan (200 respondents, 26% men) and
Russia (250 respondents, 25% men).
Measurements. The online questionnaire included the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), tested
on the Russian-language sample by A. Reznik with colleagues, and the “Social Axiom Questionnaire”
(QSA-31), developed and tested by A.N. Tatarko and N.M. Lebedeva. Moreover, the online questionnaire included questions about socio-demographic characteristics.
Results. The study showed that the fear of COVID-19 is higher among Kazakhstanians and Belarusians than among Russians. Students of these countries have the same hierarchical structure of social
axioms. Additionally they have the positive relationship of the COVID-19 fear to the social axiom “fate
control” and the negative relationship of the COVID-19 fear to the social axiom “social complexity”.
Conclusions. Fear of COVID-19 is more prevalent among young people in countries with the weakest and most severe restrictive measures during the pandemic. Students-millennials are more focused
on the axioms «reward for application» and «social complexity» than on the axioms «social cynicism»,
«religiosity» and «fate control». The belief in the complexity of the social world and the denial of total
fate control over human life can be psychological resources of COVID-19 fear preventing among youth.

Keywords: российская молодежь, social axioms, Russian youth, студенческая молодежь, поколение миллениалов, Социальные аксиомы, казахстанская молодежь, белорусская молодежь, fear of COVID-19, student youth, Belarusian youth, Kazakhstanian youth, millennial generation, multigroup analysis, страх перед COVID-19, мультигрупповой анализ

Publication based on the results of: Values, intercultural and socio-economic interaction in the context of ethnic diversity and the COVID-19 pandemic (2022)