DOI: https://doi.org/10.62204/2336-498X-2023-3-10

MANIFESTATIONS OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY OF YOUTH

IN UKRAINE IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE COVID-19

PANDEMIC AND A FULL-SCALE INVASION

Anastasiia Kotelevets,

postgraduate student,

Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine,

 a.kotelevets@kubg.edu.ua; ORCID: 0000-0002- 0177-0440

Annotation. The article defines the concept of «social activity», manifestations of social activity of Ukrainian youth in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine. The results of surveys conducted by the international youth project of the United Nations Children’s Fund U-Report (UNICEF) and the Sociological Group «Rating» (Rating Group Ukraine) are presented. The author gives her own table of levels of social activity with examples of manifestations of social activity in each level.

Keywords: volunteer, volunteer activity, social activity, youth, initiative, COVID-19, pandemic, Russian-Ukrainian war.

Introduction. Social activity of young people is a kind of response to today’s challenges. In recent years, the youth of Ukraine experienced a number of events that in one way or another stimulated them to express themselves and become socially active, to participate in volunteer activities and to show their civic position. Youth, as a social group, is not only the bearer of new values, ways of being, and social ideals, but also a group that directly influences state-building processes, ensures the smooth operation of volunteer organizations, and creates new important projects that can help our society.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the social activity of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, to systematize the manifestations of social activity, to distinguish the levels of manifestations.

The research methodology is based on theoretical data analysis. Methods of generalization, synthesis and systematization are applied.

Results of research. О. Kulinichenko defines social activity as a complex structure that is characterized by the need for action, for instance socially valuable actions and behavior, is realized in socially significant activity directed outwards. It has interests that reflect personal formations which integrate the rational and emotional principle and that determine a person’s focus on objects and phenomena of reality, as well as the motives of his actions [1].

Michelle E. Kelly, Hollie Duff , Sara Kelly , Joanna E. McHugh Power, Sabina Brennan, Brian A. Lawlor and David G. Loughrey note that Berkman and colleagues provide the following example of social activity – meeting friends, attending events or functions, volunteering or participating in occupational duties or group recreational activities [2, p.2].

1. Stupak in the article «The essence of the concept of the youth social activity» [3], analyzing «Social initiative: content-technological support» [4], noted that the term «initiative» as a set of socially significant qualities is very close to the concept of «activity» in psychological and pedagogical sources. According to scientists, initiative is a complex, multi-functional personal quality associated with purposefulness, activity, independence, discipline, and responsibility. The individual and social parts are successfully combined together in a social initiative. And their coherence depends on the degree of development of social feelings, experiences and emotions, which reflect the attitude towards oneself, society, other people and activities. Therefore, social initiative is characterized as a personal and social quality, a need to change or transform reality, a motive for activity [3, p.10,13].

In Ukraine one manifestation of social activity through a social initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic was «My Phone Friend» project implemented by the Ukrainian Volunteer Service and the Children’s Fund LLC (UNICEF). The start of the project took place in June 2020. The goal of the project was to unite volunteers and wards in phone conversations, establish trust between generations and inform about true things, dispelling fakes. The coronavirus has drawn attention to the less mobile categories of people, because in crisis situations a person’s mental health also suffers [5].

Some projects underwent certain transformations to achieve their planned programmatic results. For example, the social changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the development and implementation of youth volunteer programs in communities adjacent to the Joint Forces Operation area in eastern Ukraine.  In particular, the project «Training of managers of volunteer programs for a systematic professional approach in working with volunteers in Eastern Ukraine» was implemented from April 2020 to April 2021 with the support of the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Program [6].

It is important to pay attention to such manifestation of social activity as volunteering and to understand exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic affected it. So, let’s turn to a study conducted by the international youth project of the United Nations Children’s Fund U-Report (UNICEF) in August 2020. The survey «Volunteering during quarantine» was done among 4,148 respondents aged 14 to 30 with a representative sample throughout Ukraine [7]. The most involved were young people of 20-24 years – 50% and 15-19 years – 44%.

In general, 51% of respondents noted that they are involved in volunteer activities in one way or another. 24% of them volunteer together with several friends. 17% mostly volunteer alone, and 10% have a large company for volunteering. An interesting fact is that for 57% of respondents volunteering practices have not changed in any way. At the same time, 3% indicated that they started volunteering more, and 2% started volunteering for the first time. However, at the same time, 17% started volunteering less, and 20% stopped volunteering at all. The answers to the question why this or that decision was made are interesting, so we compiled the answers to this block in Table 1 [7].

We see that despite the restrictions during the pandemic, the young still found opportunities to show their social activity. Although for some people these quarantine restrictions were a key for the continuation of volunteering. At the same time, the fact that the majority of young people remained active and did not change their volunteering practices despite the difficulties caused by quarantine restrictions is important, and a certain percentage even began to show their social activity through volunteering during the crisis.

Table 1

О. Baidarova, А. Diulherova in their article «Volunteer activities in Ukraine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic» highlight the results of a survey of representatives of organizations that involve volunteer resources, conducted in May-June 2021. The survey showed changes in the activities of more than half of them. Among the main changes that took place in connection with the introduction of quarantine measures, the following can be underlined: changes in forms and directions of work; changes in project implementation; changes related to the number of involved volunteers. Both a number of problems caused by quarantine restrictive measures (impossibility to organize activities that involve direct contact, the need to provide personal protective equipment, a decrease in the number of involved volunteers, refusal to hold some events, or postponing their implementation for an indefinite period of time), and positive developments have been identified in the activities of organizations (the emergence of new directions and opportunities in the implementation of volunteer activities). World experience proves that the volunteer sector plays an important role, activating and strengthening local support and self-help systems in emergency situations [8, p. 323].

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. At the beginning of it, Ukrainian society in general and the youth in particular began to unite and help defend our country at various levels. Ukrainians showed their opposition everywhere. In N. Kovtun’s opinion we can distinguish three main levels of social activity in the process of social development – micro-level, meso-level and macrolevel. Individuals, objects and personalities are regarded as micro-objects of social activities. There is a demand for individual items and a demand for a cycle rooster. The intensity depends on the individual’s ability and freedom in a certain cultural and typical environment. On a mesoscale level, social activity is manifested in the activities of small and medium-sized social groups (a family, a student group or a student collective, etc.). On this level, special interests are selected and consolidated for implementation at the macro level. At the same time, on a macro level, there is an actual consolidation of cyclical information and demand and its implementation in practice. Macro objects of social activity are large social groups and social-ectopic communities [9]. Having analyzed the manifestations of social activity of young people after the full-scale invasion, we developed our own table (Table 2), where we offered their generalized vision.

Table 2

We see that at every level Ukrainian society has shown great activity and created its own unique product. Some of these initiatives are known all over the world, and thanks to this, Ukraine has the opportunity to inform about the real state of events and receive support and help.

A number of studies also show how exactly the full-scale war has affected the manifestations of social activity of Ukrainians. One of these surveys – the sixth nationwide survey within the framework of the project «Ukraine in conditions of war» of the Sociological Group «Rating» from March 19, 2022, was conducted by the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews) method with a sample 1,000 respondents and the error of representativeness with a confidence probability of 0.95: no more than 3.1%. According to it and the results of the block «Adaptation to life during war», we see an active life position that provides a higher level of confidence in one’s own abilities to overcome life’s difficulties, a lower level of negative emotions and anxiety, more opportunities for quick adaptation, preservation of communication, opportunities to partially save or partially restore the usual way of life. As on March 19, 2022, 47% of Ukrainians have an active life position, among them 43% of women and 51% of men, 18% are somewhere in the middle between active and passive, at the same time, a third claim that they did not decide almost anything in their lives now.

Young people under 35 (53%) and middle-aged people (50%) have the most active life position. Those who work full-time (60%) or partially/remotely (66%) also have an active position. The war deepened insecurity and maladjustment among older people. An active life stance is also associated with better emotional adjustment – significantly lower levels of apathy, despair and pessimism. On the contrary, those who decide almost nothing in their lives are in a state of psychological maladaptation: their despair is higher than aggressiveness, because despair paralyzes a person’s ability to make decisions and be active [10].

One of the interesting surveys we want to pay attention to is «Volunteering during war» done in June 2022 by the U-Report project of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). To the question «How long have you been volunteering? » 54% indicated that they started volunteering after February 24, 2022. Our assumptions about the manifestations of social activity at different levels are confirmed by the answer to the following question: «Which field of volunteering did you join after the war? », for answering you could choose several options. Assistance in humanitarian headquarters – 32%, assistance to the Armed Forces – 22%, collection and transfer of funds for the needs of the army – 14%, humanitarian and coordination activities for displaced persons – 11%, collection and transfer of funds for the needs of the population – 7%, psychological assistance – 4 %, self-volunteering – 2%. The majority of respondents – 54%, noted that they have started volunteering more since the beginning of the war, 42% of respondents noted that they find information about volunteering opportunities in groups on social networks. The majority of people who show social activity through volunteering – 42% say that they are motivated because of the future approaching victory of Ukraine, 23% tell that they want changes, and 22% are interested just in helping even one person, which indicates the importance of individual display of social activity not only on meso-level and macro-level, but also at the micro-level. It is significant that 84% of respondents indicated that they plan to continue their volunteering activities during next year [11].

Conclusions. The study of manifestations of social activity of Ukrainian youth during the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine showed that they had a certain path of transformation and formation. Manifestations of social activity at all levels, in particular through volunteering, provide support not only to the beneficiaries, but also to the young who are involved in volunteering as service providers.

The perspective of further research is the collection of information about the criteria, indicators and manifestations of social activity of the youth of Ukraine in general and the generalization of data in articles and the dissertation research «Development of social activity of students in volunteer activities».

References:

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