Measurement and Assessment of the Adaptability of Russian Youth

The adaptation of young people to the changing realities of modern Russia should be considered taking into account the qualitative differences between different subgroups of young people and long-term trends in the development of the society to which they adapt, reproducing it. The authors have developed and tested on large arrays of empirical data an original method for assessing the adaptability of young Russians using an index that integrates characteristics of the most important aspects of subjective well-being, reflecting the gaps between the real achievements of young people and their needs. The adaptability index (AI, varies from 0 to 10 points) is based on self-assessments by Russians aged 18–35 of their satisfaction with the situation in those five aspects of life (material security, clothing, nutrition, leisure opportunities, social status), for which the correlation with self-assessments of satisfaction with life in general is stronger. Based on the monitoring data of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (mainly data for 2018 and 2024), young Russians were divided into groups with different levels of adaptation: poorly adapted (14% in 2024), with an average typical level of adaptation (47%), and well adapted (39%). The developed methodology made it possible to record an increase in adaptation. Adaptation increased the most (by 17% in 2018–2024) in the group of 25–35-year-olds – in the group of young people who are objectively (due to the beginning of independent life) in a more difficult situation than young people aged 18–24. An inverse relationship was found between the age of Russians and their adaptation.