Typology of self-preservation behavior of the population in a pandemic

Health and problems of human self-preservation behavior are of particular importance, theyaffect the nature of social interaction of the individual, the alignment of its individual priorities and occupy an important place in the hierarchy of social values and norms. Preserving the health of the population of Russia and its regions is one of the most significant state tasks today.The changes associated with the spread of the new COVID-19 coronavirus infection in the world and in our country have affected all processes (economic, political and socio-cultural) without exception. In the changed conditions, the population is forced to revise their scenarios and strategies of behavior and adapt to new living conditions. The purpose of the article is to identify and describe the most common types of self- preservation behavior of the population in a pandemic and a number of restrictions associated with the spread of a new infection for subsequent use of empirical research data in the practice of social management in the Ulyanovsk region. The work of domestic and foreign researchers in the field of health, self-preservation behavior is analyzed. The results of the author’s sociological study “Health and self-preservation behavior of residents of the Ulyanovsk region in a pandemic”, carried out in July-August 2021 with the financial support of the Ulyanovsk Public Foundation “Regional Analytics. Professional research. Ratings” (RAPIER).The empirical basis of the study was the data of the territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Ulyanovsk region and the results of author’s sociological surveys: a mass questionnaire survey among residents of Ulyanovsk and the region and focused interviews in groups. The IBM SPSS Statistics program was used to analyze empirical data. To construct specific types of behavior, the “decision tree” method was used, which allowed us to identify eight variants of self-preserving behavior. Seven types of self-preservation behavior have been identified among the population of the Ulyanovsk region out of eight possible variants. Among them, the most numerous and small types of behavior are highlighted. Regional peculiarities of the spread of these types of behavior in the Ulyanovsk region are presented. It is noted that in modern conditions, most residents of the Ulyanovsk region single out health as their main value.