Young People's Situations and Well-being in Siberia, 2002-2003

The study looks at young people's well-being in urban and rural communities in two regions of Siberia. The major contextual factor is locality. One of the study regions is at the centre, around Russia's third city of Novosibirsk; the other is at the periphery, in the Republic of Altai, around the small city of Gorno-Altaisk.<br> <br> The cohort of young people in the study were born towards the end of the 1980s and began their schooling in the 1990s during a period of profound change, uncertainty and reform, after the collapse of Soviet society. At the time of the study, these young people were at a critical juncture in their lives, at the end of their compulsory education, and so, had to contemplate their futures beyond school.<br> <br> The major aim of the study was to examine young people’s situations and well-being in social context, and particularly the extent of urban-rural divides in young people’s situations and well-being, and also the extent of socio-economic variations in well-being between urban and rural society.<br> <br> The study used: a self-completion questionnaire in 72 schools (15 year-olds, n =1,400, 95% response rate); individual interviews with a sub-sample of survey participants to obtain more detailed accounts of young people’s lives and situations (n=120); and friendship group interviews with older youth (n=20) (<i>the data deposited consists of the results from the self-completion questionnaire only</i>). Fieldwork in small communities was clustered within selected rural districts. Checks with limited official data available show the sample reflects urban-rural population distributions, household profiles and ethnicity in the two regions.<br> <br> The survey datasets are distinctive among studies of Russian youth: they provide a regional focus in Siberia, away from western Russia; they comprise a diversity of urban and rural settings; they are supplemented by interviews; they look at subjective components of young people’s situations and well-being, alongside profiles of their household circumstances; and they allow for intra-regional, inter-regional and international comparisons.<br>