Students and Social Problems: Do Political Party Preferences Have Anything to Do with It?

U ovome su radu izloženi i interpretirani rezultati istraživanja provedenog 2010. godine metodom skupnog anketiranja na uzorku studenata Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (N = 612). Osnovni cilj rada jest utvrditi latentne dimenzije i strukturu studentske percepcije prisutnosti društvenih problema u Hrvatskoj, sukladno njihovoj polaznoj klasifikaciji (Mooney, Knox i Schacht). Usto, cilj je rada i utvrditi preferencije političkih stranaka ispitanika te njihovu povezanost s latentnim konceptima i dimenzijama percepcije društvenih problema. Zaključno, pokazalo se da je prostor društvenih problema mjeren primijenjenim instrumentom obilježen trima latentnim konceptima: globalizacija; ekonomske i društvene nejednakosti; osobna i društvena dobrobit. Rezultati istraživanja upućuju na to da nema razlike u percepciji društvene stvarnosti između stranački neopredijeljenih i opredijeljenih ispitanika. No, unutar skupine stranački opredijeljenih ispitanika utvrđene su interpretativne razlike u procjeni prisutnosti društvenih problema u Hrvatskoj s obzirom na njihove preferencije političkih stranaka.The results of research conducted in 2010 are presented and interpreted in this paper. A group poll method was used on a sample of students from the University of Zagreb (N = 612). The general aim of the paper is to identify latent dimensions and the structure of the students’ perception of social problems in Croatia, according to their start-up classification (Mooney, Knox and Schacht). Additionally, the aim of this paper is also to identify political party preferences of the respondents and their correlation with latent concepts and dimensions of social issues perception. In conclusion, it is shown that the space of social problems measured with the applied instrument is characterized by three latent concepts: globalization; economic and social inequalities; personal and social well-being. Research results indicate that there is no difference in the perception of social reality between political party undecided and decided respondents. However, within the politically oriented respondent groups, interpretative differences in relation to assessments of social problems in Croatia were identified with regard to the political party preferences of the respondents