The Relationship Between Value Orientations and Personal Readiness for Activity in Youth From Russia, Kazakhstan and Latvia

BACKGROUND: The development of high-quality human capital is an important objective that involves value orientations, cultural dimensions and psychological characteristics of activity. This article presents a cross-cultural comparison of value orientations and psychological parameters of activity among youth from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Latvia. OBJECTIVE: The study addressed three questions: (1) Are there values and attitudes related to the readiness for activity among youth in the three countries? (2) Are there any differences between values and parameters of the psychological system of activity in the Russian, Kazakhstani and Latvian samples? (3) What values and attitudes predict the youth’s readiness for activity in each country? DESIGN: University students from Russia, Kazakhstan and Latvia were invited to participate in the study. The study sample was selected according to age, sex and period of living in the country. Value orientations, cultural dimensions and attitudes were measured by the Values Survey Module, World Values Survey questionnaire, The Subjective Evaluation of Basic Values Realisability. Personality Research Form, Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire, Subjective Happiness Scale, Self-Organisation of Activity Questionnaire, Differential Test of Reflexivity, and Satisfaction with Life Scale questionnaires were applied to evaluate the psychological parameters of activity. To analyse the relationship between value orientations and psychological parameters of activity, we used analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and stepwise linear regression. RESULTS: The cross-cultural variance was established for most values and cultural dimensions in the Russian, Kazakhstani, and Latvian samples, but Personal readiness for activity only differed on the tendency level between the Kazakhstani and Latvian samples. Different values and attitudes accounted for near 57% of the Personal readiness for activity index in Russia and Latvia, but just less than 29% in Kazakhstan. CONCLUSION: The activity of university students from Russia depends on their need for achievement and level of happiness. In the Kazakhstani and Latvian samples, the most important factor was the quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction index.