Social health and perception of risks by students living in southern Russian regions (based on sociological questioning data obtained in Rostov-on-Don)

We chose young students as our research object as they represent a social-demographic group with a specific social health, lifestyle, social activity, and social well-being. Our research goal was to assess students' social health and to determine how they perceived risks for it. Analysis of social health risks perception by young students was performed within socio-centric and sociogenic approaches as well as risk-examining paradigm. We considered social activity, social networks involvement, and social well-being as key aspects of social health. It is shown that young students mostly have average social health as per its integral index. But here we detected low social activity, high social networks involvement, and average social well-being. We singled out 3 typical groups of young students: "socially active integrated optimists", "socially passive moderately integrated pessimists", and "socially passive integrated optimists". All three students groups mentioned difficulties related to employment as important social health risk factors; however, it were respondents with low social health who were most preoccupied with "future uncertainty". Young students with low social health are to a greater extent preoccupied with risk factors causing personal danger for themselves than for a society as a whole. It is necessary to create complex activities in a contemporary education space; these activates are to aimed at minimizing and preventing risks for Russian students' social health. We should make for higher social activity as it will inevitably lead to higher social well-being and improve overall students' social health.