Parents and Children: Comparative Analysis of Subjective Social Statuses of Representatives of Reform Generation and Millennials

This paper examines the subjective social statuses of Russian generation of reforms and millennials. The objective of this work was to investigate how young Russians perceived themselves within social structure in the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s. While previous studies mainly focused on status correlation between generations, the aim of our research was to reveal the key determinants that affect subjective social status (SSS). In accordance with Adler and Stewart theory, we determined SSS as a measure of an individual’s perception of individual’s socioeconomic position in relation to others; based on objective indicators such as income, education, and occupation. We conducted quantitative approach; survey was chosen as the most appropriate method of data collection. To discover the changes over the 21-year period in Russia we examined nationally representative panel survey, supplied by the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey; by a logit regression models for a binary response by maximum likelihood. According to the Clark’s theory of generations we assumed that SSS of millennials and generation of reforms will be similar by all determinants; however, the way the recent youth perceive themselves was absolutely different, focusing more on economical and entertaining factors. The paper starts by introducing theoretical approaches defining the key concepts. The second part is devoted to the methodological aspects, while the third part represents anticipated results.