Interpersonal reserve: a case study of its parameters and factors

The aim of the research work is to study interpersonal reserve and to identify factors having a major impact on its formation among the population of the Russian Federation. The empirical basis of the study consists of data from international comparative studies within the framework of the project of the European Social Survey: primary data of the Russian sampling over 2014 (with a sample size of 2445 people) and 2006-2014 secondary data (22 countries, with a sample size of 42630 people). For the first time, a comparative cross-country analysis of interpersonal reserve was carried out, and it revealed that the formation of interpersonal reserve among the population of Russia was strongly influenced not only by interpersonal trust, but also by other factors (age, financial wealth), what partly confirms the results of the trust studies, carried out by the staff of NRU HSE (A.B.Kupreichenko, I.V.Mersiyanova). As a result, a comparative cross-country analysis determined that the problem of interpersonal reserve occurred quite strongly in Russia, which is referred to the group of countries whose residents have little trust in other people, they are susceptible to interpersonal reserve and feel lonely. It is revealed that over 2006-2014 the indices related to the closeness of social contacts, have barely changed. Interpersonal trust plays a major role in interpersonal interaction or reserve of Russians, as well as other factors, and age, first of all. The studies detected the dependence of the indicators of interpersonal reserve on age and financial wealth. It was noted that high levels of communication were peculiar for the 8th and 10th income groups; with a decline in a subjective assessment of income the proportion of people who spent their time with friends or relatives was gradually reduced. Positive correlations were found between subjective assessments of income and the frequency of meetings with friends, relatives, colleagues; opportunity to talk about personal problems; estimates of the frequency of their contacts as compared to peers. It was found that interpersonal reserve is more typical for the population of the Northwestern, Siberian and Far Eastern Federal districts, inhabitants of villages, rural settlements and cities with a population of over a million people, with the exception of Moscow. With the help of CHAID analysis it was defined that age was the strongest factor of «frequency of meetings». Based on the combination of characteristics having the strongest impact on the target variable, approximate profiles of the population of the Russian Federation experiencing interpersonal reserve in the sphere of interpersonal relations were drawn up. As follow-up to the research, it is planned to study the extent of interpersonal reserve of the region»s population of the Russian Federation exemplified by one of its subjects.