Typologie junger Menschen im Kontext des Kriegs in der Ukraine: Soziale Merkmale und Einstellungen gegenüber politischen Maßnahmen

A strong democratic culture is crucial for maintaining a functioning democracy. Young people’s perspectives on political measures play an important role here, as they reveal the tendencies of the population and are challenged, especially in times of crisis. The evaluation of political measures is closely linked to sociodemographic factors. In order to be able to prevent the development of opinions among young people that could potentially jeopardise democracy at an early stage, it is necessary to obtain a differentiated picture of political attitudes. Based on social disintegration theory, in a recent study we analysed young people’s attitudes to political measures in response to the war in Ukraine. We focused on answering the following questions: What types of young people can be identified with regard to their assessment of political measures in response to the war in Ukraine? What is the connection with social disparities? Analyses of the data from our representative survey of 3240 participants (aged 16–29 years) point to four types: the Diplomatic, the All-rounder, the Militant, and the National. Our study also shows that education, gender, and feelings of social belonging play an important role in the categorisation of types. The results illustrate the challenges of citizenship education in times of crisis and can contribute to the development of targeted political education programmes to better manage times of crisis.