Moral qualities of Russians: generational approach

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the moral state of three generations of Russian citizens (children, fathers and grandfathers). There are negative trends in the development of the moral state of modern society, which are noted by researchers in various scientific fields (sociology, psychology, ethics). We attempted to give a comparative characterization of the moral qualities of representatives of the younger generations Y and Z, their fathers’ generation X and their grandfathers’ generations (baby boomers). At the same time, the moral qualities traditional for the Russian people were taken as a moral guideline. A generational approach was used as the theoretical basis and the empirical basis was a questionnaire survey of 9,751 Russian university students. The results of the study showed that all moral qualities are present in one way or another in all the studied generations, i.e. it is possible to talk about the continuity of basic moral characteristics. However, according to the assessments of young people, there has been a significant decrease in the manifestation of basic moral qualities. Specifically, kindness, mutual assistance, the ability to interact in a team, empathy, responsiveness, generosity, conscientiousness, responsibility, self-discipline, industriousness, trust, loyalty, integrity and patriotism of the generation of grandparents to generations of children and grandchildren. Only such morally neutral qualities as adaptation and flexibility have increased in the younger generation compared to their fathers and grandfathers.