Socio-psychological aspects of self-identity influence on the propensity of joining the closed religious groups

The study is carried out in the framework of social psychology, and aims at revealing of the youth’s selfidentity development and related risks of coming under the influence of the protest social groups, including the religious sects. The analysis of the literary data has shown that the young people found the religious organizations of closed type (sects) attractive for their small social groups, and the risk of joining them is quite high. The author makes an assumption that in order to prevent the process of desocialization, which is typical for these groups, there should be directed comprehensive efforts at the creating a negative image of the closed religious organizations and the formation of a positive image of the groups promoting socialization.