The Socializing Influence of Parents on the Formation of Electoral Attitudes of Modern Russian Youth in the Context of Global Crises of Identity and Trust

Introduction. The paper reflects the study of a number of phenomenons of political socialization among youth in modern Russia. Electoral experience is largely borrowed from the family through common practices of participation in elections. Methods and materials. The methodological basis of the study is M. Weber’s theory of social action and the model of expressive voting, the synthesis of which makes it possible to analyze the role of the external environment and specific parental practices of participation in the formation of political guidelines and norms of young people. The methods of collecting information were an online survey of young people (N = 540), a series of standardized interviews (N = 14) with young people who took part in the elections for the first time in September 2024, and focus groups with representatives of student youth of Volgograd (N = 3). The analysis of interviews and focus groups with young people made it possible to identify three motives for the first electoral experience of respondents: interest, duty, and group identity. The rationality of young people in the manifested practices of electoral behavior and their willingness to take part in large-scale events are noted. Results. The experience of parental electoral participation shapes patterns of political behavior of young people. Many respondents note the importance of forming family traditions of participation in elections, socialization of their future children by familiarizing them with the procedure, but without imposing their political views. Thus, a rationallegal type of legitimacy in relation to the institution of elections is formed among the youth of modern Russia. Authors’ contribution. L.S. Pankratova analyzed the studies on the concepts that act as an external background for the immediate object of the work, identity crises and trust, selected and substantiated the theoretical and methodological framework of the work, and formed the general concept of the study. K.M. Makarenko collected, processed, summarized and analyzed the empirical data on the topic of the study, substantiated the role of family practices of participation in elections in the formation of special models of electoral behavior of young people, and formulated the main conclusions of the work. Funding. The work was carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Expert Institute for Social Research within the framework of the project FZUU-2024-0005 “Participation in elections as a family tradition: resources of the institution of the family and vectors of mobilization of civic activity of modern Russian youth.”