N 5 (137)

Cultural Studies

Concepts of historical memory of Kryashen in Tatarstan: elitists versions of history and collective memory

The article considers how ethnic entrepreneurs, manipulating various historical facts, formed opposing versions of the history of the origin of the Kryashen or Baptized Tatars in Tatarstan. The author describes the concepts of the historical memory of Kryashen, everyday ideas of Kryashen about history, as well as popular versions of the origin of baptized Tatars, which are supported by the population of the republic. The study is based on the analysis of textbooks on the history of the Tatar people, popular science literature, and the mass media, narratives from 170 interviews and questionnaire data from Kazan. An analysis of the data shows that at the level of mass representations, the most popular is the version promoted by the main political player, the elite of the republic: the Kryashens appeared as a result of the forced baptism of the Tatars in the 16th century. A popular version among the Kryashens themselves is that the Kryashens were never part of the Tatar people, because they were never Muslims. The study shows that at the level of the elite discourse the unity of the Tatar people is declared and the differences between the Tatars and the Kryashens are leveled. However, at the level of everyday interaction, the Tatars did not observe the same attitude towards the Kryashens.

 

Changes in the gender ideals of high school students (2010 - 2018)

The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of high school students' gender perceptions, including the comparison of the results of the two empirical studies (2010 and 2018) on the significant qualities of ideal women and men. The compatibility of the two series allows to speak of the presence of certain changes that had happened within the students' perceptions in last 8 years. The results point at the certain stability of their gender perceptions and differentiation of images of ideal men and women. As exposed, young men's views are more traditional and conservative, while most girls are more inclined towards egalitarian views (especially in 2018).

 

Social problems

Psychological Resources, Material Deprivation, and Health in Europe: Direct Effects and Mediation of Educational Inequalities

The article deals with the problem of mediation of social structural inequalities in health. According to theoretical explanations that require further empirical justification, inequalities in education — deterioration of health with its decline — may be associated with material deprivation. With a low educational status, a person does not have enough material resources necessary for high-quality nutrition, recreation and treatment. These inequalities may also arise due to the fact that poorly educated people lack the psychological reserves necessary for overcoming life's difficulties. Analysis of European Social Survey data (ESS 2012) for 27 countries, as well as the contextual factor of social protection expenditure was carried out using statistical methods of two-level modeling and regression models for mediation effects (HLM, MLmed macro, Process macro). Health inequalities in education are clearly manifest in any country. It was established that, along with education, material deprivations and especially personal resources play a significant role in differentiating the well-being of people, exerting an independent impact on it. According to the modeling results, in many countries, including the most developed, material deprivations that people with low levels of education suffer from, act as a mediator, partly clarifying the reasons for differences in health among people with different education. One of the lines of psychological mediation is also connected with material conditions — through two intermediaries, the first of which is deprivation, and the second is psychological qualities. At the same time, even when controlling all of these mediating effects, personal characteristics are an important mediator of SES inequalities, but not all over Europe, but only in countries with a relatively weak social state. In conclusion, a brief description of health inequalities and mediating effects in Russia is given.

 

The role of social inequality and individual psychological resources in the incidence of socially significant diseases in Russia and Europe

Psychological resources of the individual are an important factor of keeping health. Having such psychological features as awareness of their ability to control the life circumstances, a positive perception of themselves and belief in their own strength, self-esteem, optimistic view in the future, have a direct positive impact on the physical and psychological state of a person, promote healthy lifestyles, equip with the ability to cope struggles and reduce stress influence to health. The availability of such psychological resources and their reserve is especially important for people suffering from socially significant chronic diseases accompanied by physical and functional limitations, violations of psychological and social adaptation. However, according to numerous studies, in socially disadvantaged groups of the population – poorly educated, employed in the least prestigious and low-paid jobs with low incomes, together with high risks of morbidity and premature mortality from chronic diseases, there are low rates of psychological resistance due to a shortage of psychological resources. The study of the relationship between social status and individual psychological resources, which affect the health of different social strata’s representatives, allowed us to identify two main approaches. Within the framework of one approach, psychological features are considered to be a product of the structural conditions that determine the inequalities of their distribution in society. The deficit of psychological resources that experienced by representatives of socially vulnerable groups is consider to be contributing the negative impact of low socio-economic status on health and acts as one of the mediating mechanism for the transformation of socio-economic differences into inequalities in health. Another approach emphasizes the role of the person in changing the life circumstances, including those of them that are caused by the adverse effects of low socio-economic status. In this case, attention is focused not so much on the differences in the psychological reserves of individuals who occupy different positions in the socio-economic stratification, as on their variability within one social level. Empirical studies confirm that especially among the socially disadvantaged groups, individuals characterized by greater reserve of positive psychological properties, demonstrate significantly better health compared to those fellow citizens who are deprived of this reserve. In the literature, this phenomenon designates as a" buffer" effect, contributing to the reduction of negative health consequences of low status, and, consequently, to the reduction of socio-structural inequalities in health. In developed European countries, where government guarantees allow lower social strata to maintain self-esteem, confidence in the future and optimism, psychological resources lose their role as a mediator between socio-economic status and health and can lead to a buffer reduction of structural inequalities. In the less developed countries of Europe and in Russia, where public health and education programs do not allow people from the lower strata to maintain psychological stability, structural differences in the risks of chronic diseases and premature mortality persist.

 

Various publications