Ethical values of modern Kazakhstan youth

Ethical values are one of the most important spiritual regulators of social life: they
justify goals, ideals, and determine a person’s attitude to events in the world and to himself.
Values act as a desirable, preferred state of social relations for a given social subject,
principles and practices of social relationships, criteria for evaluating real phenomena; they
determine the meaning, strategy of purposeful activity and thereby regulate social
interactions, internally encouraging activity. The study of the content of value orientations
that characterize the mentality and lifestyle of modern youth, the identification of social
factors that affect the formation of value orientations, are of scientific interest and have
practical significance (Biyekenova et al., 2016). Currently in Kazakhstan, there is a
revaluation of old and development of new ethical values, the formation of new effective
approaches to overcome the difficulties. In these conditions, those social groups that have
creative and innovative potential are of particular importance. In modern conditions, young
people really have this potential.
Formation of ethical value orientations of Kazakhstan youth in the process of
socialization is one of the main problems, goals and directions of youth policy. We can
identify the main institutions of socialization: the education system, the family, the army, the
media, and public organizations, which are currently not effective. Processes of socialization,
having ceased to be traditional, but without becoming innovative, are unpredictable,
spontaneous and poorly controlled. One of the features of the process of transformation of
Kazakhstan’s society is the value conflict, which has a number of distinctive features:
 there is no transfer of the spiritual heritage of the older generation to their successors;
 it takes place against the background of a radical change in value orientations and
value hierarchies;
 the mechanism of reproduction of value orientations ceases to be the leading one,
giving way to adaptive ones. The majority of Kazakhstan’s youth don’t adhere to
economic and political values, but pursue their own economic interests and adapt to
socio-political realities (Tolen et al., 2014).
The identity crisis in Kazakhstan leads to the fact that young people begin to adhere to
ideal ethical and spiritual values, which leads to the strengthening of the role of religion in
the lives of young people, or to the fact that the politicization of ethnic identities will acquire
separatist features, which can lead in some cases to inter-ethnic clashes (Ilimkhanova et al.,
2014b).
According to socio-political attitudes and value orientations, young people generally
accept the ideas of a democratic society, freedom of opinion, and freedom to choose their
own path. Kazakhstan youth are in favor of continuing changes to improve the country’s
socio-economic well-being, create a civil society, and build a legal state. However, recently
there has been a phenomenon of blurring of social identity, a situation of “constant
uncertainty”.
The key factors of self-realization of the younger generation like independence and
purposefulness are at a very low development level. The dominant values are money,
education and profession, business career, hedonistic attitudes, the ability to live in their own
pleasure, the desire for material well-being. Improving the social well-being of Kazakhstan
youth is associated with solving the problem of professional choice, the possibility of self-
realization, and obtaining the desired social and professional status (Kulzhanova et al., 2016).
The priority goals of young people include achieving a business career, getting an education,
and material well-being.
When recognizing young age is favorable for education and consolidation of the
system of values of the individual, it should be noted that it’s impossible to absolutize the
stability of value representations of young people. Throwing from one extreme to another,
pendulum fluctuations are caused by the marginal nature of its socialization, when the
younger generation is caught between two systems of values – traditional, based on the
education by the older generation, and modern, formed due to the influence of the media,
social environment, friends, etc. Thus, the specificity of the ideas and ideals of young people
makes this social group the most attractive object for study.

References:

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