Social well-being of the youth of Tyumen and Penza
Abstract
Background. The article examines the social well-being of young people using the example of Tyumen and Penza, which represent different types of Russian cities: Tyu-men is a dynamically developing industrial center of Western Siberia with a high level of budget security and a pronounced specialization in raw materials; Penza is a large historical city in the center of the European part of Russia with moderate socio-economic growth and a diversified employment structure. The purpose of the study is a comparative analysis of the social well–being of the youth of Tyumen and Penza. Materials and methods. To achieve this goal, an author's study of the social well-being of young people in Tyumen (2025, n=406) was conducted, the toolkit was based on previous experience in preparing socio-cultural portraits of Russian regions. A secondary analysis of data from the Penza Youth social well-being study (2019, n = 356), as well as data from the 2024 Penza and Saratov Youth Survey (n = 700; 2024) was carried out. Results. The peculiarities of the manifestation of social well-being among the youth of Tyumen and Penza are revealed, the reactions of young people to the ongoing political, social and economic changes, the main motivation factors and obstacles to improving their lives are assessed. Conclusions. The conducted study of the social well-being of the youth of Tyumen and Penza made it possi-ble to determine that social optimism prevails among the youth of the studied regions, alt-hough it tends to decrease with age. Young people mostly note a good emotional state and a desire to change things for the better, but this is often hindered by lack of time and financial difficulties. The main fears about the future among young people are the fear of loneliness, loss of loved ones, illness and childlessness. Data analysis shows that Tyumen embodies a model of “material well-being”, where confidence is consists in economic factors, and Pen-za embodies a model of “cultural and educational capital”, where social stability is ensured by intangible assets and personal achievements. Despite the different paths, the youth of these cities come to a similar positive sense of the future.