Values-Based Lifestyles of Modern Russian and U.S. Students

The urgency of studying lifeways at present is dictated by the practice of socio-cultural changes caused by globalization.The crisis of basic values, which form the basis of a way of life, has gained the greatest scale in the former socialist countries and, first of all, in Russia. The process of desacralization of values of national culture and "westernization" of cultural needs and interests - especially of youth groups of the population - is intensifying. Due to their particular sensitivity and high social mobility, student youth have been affected by these changes to a greater extent than other segments of society. This paper analyzes the results of the author's sociological study of lifestyles, value orientations and educational behavior of university students in Russia and the United States. It shows the main directions in which the lifestyle of students in the two countries is changing and to what extent Russian students have adopted Western values. The work is addressed to teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to all those interested in sociological problems and the problems of youth.