Authors: Anastasiia Agafonova
Abstract: Adolescent identity development in non-Western transitional societies is shaped by the tension between institutionally promoted collectivism and the individualizing influence of global digital media. This paper examines how cultural values and educational systems jointly shape adolescent identity in Russia and China, two societies in which schools and families actively promote collectivist values. Drawing on secondary literature, this study combines Erikson’s psychosocial identity theory, Triandis’s individualism–collectivism framework, and the bicultural alternation model of LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gerton. Through this lens, it compares the roles of family, national identity, teachers, and peer groups in each country. It also considers digital environments as a source of individualizing pressure that is itself mediated by family and state regulation. The analysis suggests that adolescents do not simply replace collectivist identity with individualism. Instead, they appear to operate in two partially distinct registers: compliance within institutional settings and more individualized self-presentation in digital spaces. This pattern is produced through different mechanisms. In China, family, school, and nation form a mutually reinforcing chain of obligation, whereas in Russia, collectivism operates through institutions that function more independently of one another. The paper discusses the implications for educational policy and notes the limitations arising from its reliance on secondary sources and national-level generalization. It concludes that a single approach to globalization’s effect on youth identity is unlikely to work equally well in both settings.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23479736
