Life chances of youth under conditions of uncertainty

Abstract

In today's scientific world, it is crucial to study the life chances of contemporary youth and discuss the direct and indirect consequences of the realization (or non-realization) of available development opportunities. While a dynamically shifting economic situation and a complex geopolitical environment can both create barriers to reaching one's goals and conditions for self-realization, a much wider range of circumstances determine life chances as a ratio of opportunities to deprivations. Significant differences in life chances between various representative groups of Russian youth can worsen social inequality and negatively impact the efforts of social institutions that support youth development and foster their desire for social interaction. Due to a combination of reluctance and impossibility, young people may not realize these aspirations in the face of social tensions and uncertainty. One of the most unsettling reasons is the dissonance between declared and actual life chances - the gap between what people subjectively believe to be possible and what they can reasonably claim. According to the findings of the substantive analysis, a certain percentage of young people are pessimistic about the possibility of their professional and personal development, which could impede their growth, even in the face of extensive state support and many social support programs. Given this, it becomes apparent that there is a need to establish the explicit and latent reasons for this skepticism about one's human potential in further research.