The psychological well-being of Russian and Ukrainian adolescents in the post-perestroika period: The effects of the macro- and micro-level systems

From the beginning of the 21st century, most of the republics of the former Soviet Union enjoyed a period of rapid economic growth and relative political stability which, however, in some countries, was accompanied by restrains of civil rights (Baker and Glasser, 2007; Shevtsova, 2005). This is in sharp contrast to the previous period of perestroika, which was characterized by drastic democratic reforms, but also by political turmoil, economic instability, and social unrest (Yakovlev, 1996). The effect of the recent socio-economic changes on the psychological well-being of the citizens of the former Soviet Union has not yet been investigated, and this study aims to partially fill this gap. In the present article, we compare macro-level socio-economic indexes in Russia and Ukraine in 1999 and 2007 and analyze socio-economic changes that occurred in the two countries during these years. We compare the psychological well-being of adolescents who attended high schools in Russia and Ukraine in 1999 with that of adolescents who attended high schools in these countries in 2007. Finally, we examine the demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological variables that affect the adolescents' psychological well-being.