Value Orientations in the Digital Era: Comparison
of Adolescents and Parents
Galina Soldatova
a,b
, Elena Rasskazova
a
a
Lomonosov Moscow State University, 11/9 Mokhovaya str., Moscow, 125009, Russia
b
School of Future Anthropology, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration,
84 Vernadsky Prospekt, Moscow, 119571, Russia
Abstract
The digital universe becomes a place where values and rules of communication are created,
shaped and redefined, especially in children and adolescents. Objective. To compare value
orientations of parents and adolescents and to reveal a possible role of user activity and digital
competence in their value orientations. Methods. 313 adolescents aged 14-17 years and 356
parents of adolescents aged 14-17 years from five Russian Federal Districts appraised their
user activity and excessive Internet use (based on EU Kids Online methodology), filled Mixed
Activity Scale, Brief Index of Digital Competence, Schwartz’s Short Portrait Values
Questionnaire and Ten-item Personality Inventory. Results. Self-transcendence and openness
to change values (benevolence, universalism, self-direction) dominate in adolescents but it is
not because these values are more significant for them than for their parents but because
conformity, tradition and security values are less important for them. Extraverts choose
conformity and tradition less often and hedonism, stimulation and achievement more often than
introverts. Higher level of agreeableness is related to higher benevolence and lower power
value. Openness to experience is related to denying conformity and tradition values and to the
importance of self-direction. Among the adolescents, user activity is not related to value
orientations. Higher digital competence is related to weaker disposition to conformity. Among
the parents, time spent online is related to power value, and combination of online and offline
activities to hedonism and achievement. Among all the respondents, self-direction value is
related to digital competence within the safety component. Conclusion. Data are discussed in
accordance to the psychological model of digital socialization.
Keywords 1
Values, digitalization, user activity, digital competence, generations, adolescents, parents
1. Introduction
Nowadays, the digital universe appears to be a place where values and rules of communication are
created, shaped and redefined, where new digital ‘cultural tools’ are mastered [1], where world and
one’s image is transformed [2]. For children and adolescents, the Internet appears to be a place where
digital socialization happens [3, 4]. And it is perhaps where they shape new values that differ from age
to age, depend on user activity experience, on what a person does online and other factors. Some authors
even suggest to describe a specific phenomenon of “digital childhood” as a specific historical type of
the childhood [5].
According to psychological model of digital socialization [1], digital aspects of social situation of
development are crucial characteristic of the development defining direction and content of child’s
development as well as social expectations and demands in the system of his/her relationships. Using
the term suggested in the extension of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems’ model [6], there is a
IMS 2021 - International Conference "Internet and Modern Society", June 24-26, 2021, St. Petersburg, Russia
EMAIL: soldatova.galina@gmail.com (A. 1); e.i.rasskazova@gmail.com (A. 2)
ORCID: 0000-0002-6690-7882 (A. 1)
© 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)