The attitude of socially active youth to leadership

Introduction. The paper deals with the problem of the relationship between leadership and social activity of a person, determined by the specifics of the socially active person's self-identification with social and group leadership, and their types, on the example of young people involved in socially significant activities. The aim of the study is to reveal the specificity of the socially active youth's attitude to leadership as a social phenomenon and to the behavioral model in a social group. Materials and Methods. The study involves the assessment of the following indicators reflecting the attitude of socially active youth to leadership: self-identification with social and group leadership, their types, and the value of leadership status in the group and self-evaluation of characteristic personal traits. The collection of empirical data was carried out using the questionnaire method, which was conducted by the authors among the participants of “Slavic Commonwealth” International Camp of Young Activists in 2016. The number of respondents was 120. The study sample was target. The statistical analysis of primary data (in SPSS Statistics 20.0) was carried out by methods of frequency distribution, grouping, and contingency analysis; respondents'' answers to open questions were processed by the content analysis method. Results. The research revealed the socially-active youth''s characteristic ideas of leadership, their self-identification with social leadership, and the type of leadership (general or situational). The study revealed youth''s attitude to group leadership, the types of leadership in the group, selected according to the predominant function in the leader''s activity (leader-organizer - leader-initiator - leader-master, etc.) and tasks (strategic - tactical - operational leadership). The value of group leadership for socially active youth has been revealed. The place of leadership qualities in the socially-active youth''s psychological portrait is characterized. Conclusions. The authors make conclusions about socially active youth''s significant differentiation according to their attitude to social and group leadership, which allows to distinguish between social activity associated with participation in the activities of social institutions and organizations, implementation of socially significant events, and leadership. The ambivalence of socially active young people's attitude to leadership as a terminal and instrumental value is revealed: on the one hand, the majority of this youth''s category demonstrate high personal value of leadership status; on the other hand, they reveal the underdevelopment of such personality traits as initiative and desire to be a leader.