Centre for Modern Childhood Research

Satanism definition has been a significant issue for the various social actors through ages. Satanic moral panic could be treated as one of the examples for the social struggles on the power to name something satanic or not. For contemporary Russian society the satanism definition also became relevant, Russian politicians, lawmakers frequently use the word “satanism” in their claims and have to make decisions on what should be named satanic. Due to the significance of satanism definition for the scholar and non-scholar public, in this thesis, I dealt with the development of the application of sociological classifications to the distinction between satanic discourses. In particular, I attempted to compare three types of satanic online discourses (using definition of satanism proposed by Petersen) and discover the distinctive features of the satanic discourses in Russian social network “VK” on the semantic level. For that purpose, semantic network analysis was used, in addition to this, the social network analysis was applied to the reconstruction of the structure of the satanic discursive field. The results of my Thesis contribute to the satanism research, discourse analysis studies of online discourse propagation, digital religion research, social network analysis studies and could be utilized as a first step towards the formation of the mechanisms for the automatic distinction between satanic discourses in the Russian social networks.

"Emerging adulthood" is a unique developmental stage between adolescence and early adulthood. During this period, individuals experience a transition towards adult roles and begin to view their lives as full of opportunities for identity exploration, experimentation, possibilities, and self-focus. Previous research has questioned the universality of emerging adulthood as a developmental stage and its’ applicability to young adults from lower socioeconomic backgrounds without higher education. This paper contributes to this debate by analyzing the relationships between education, socioeconomic background, and emerging adulthood. We use the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) to measure emerging adulthood among 2177 Russian young people aged 24-26 who participated in the Russian Longitudinal Panel Study of Educational and Occupational Trajectories (TrEC) in 2021. Our findings confirm that emerging adulthood is not limited to the US, where the concept was coined, but also occurs in developing countries.

Digital traces are often used as a substitute for survey data. However, it
is unclear whether and how digital traces actually correspond to the survey-based
traits they purport to measure. This paper examines correlations between selfreports
and digital trace proxies of depression, anxiety, mood, social integration
and sleep among high school students. The study is based on a small but rich
multilayer data set (N = 144). The data set contains mood and sleep measures,
assessed daily over a 4-month period, along with survey measures at two points
in time and information about online activity from VK, the most popular social
networking site in Russia. Our analysis indicates that 1) the sentiments expressed
in social media posts are correlated with depression; namely, adolescents with
more severe symptoms of depression write more negative posts, 2) late-night
posting indicates less sleep and poorer sleep quality, and 3) students who were
nominated less often as somebody’s friend in the survey have fewer friends on VK
and their posts receive fewer “likes.” However, these correlations are generally
weak. These results demonstrate that digital traces can serve as useful supplements
to, rather than substitutes for, survey data in studies on adolescents’ well-being.
These estimates of correlations between survey and digital trace data could provide
useful guidelines for future research on the topic.

Animal-assisted therapy and intervention have demonstrated their effectiveness in improving the quality of life of people with mental health issues that are connected to social functioning difficulties. Anorexia is a mental health disorder that is associated with problematic formation and maintenance of long-lasting personal relationships. There is a limited number of papers that describe how people with eating disorders, including anorexia, treat their pets. Since the perceptions of people with anorexia of their pets are largely unexplored, in this article, I aim to contribute to this lacuna. In particular, I study the meanings that young women with anorexia attach to their pets. The data on this topic was collected through semi-structured biographical interviews and the concentric circles method (N = 50). The narratives were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that pets are scarcely included in personal networks. Only seven women out of 50 mentioned them as members of these networks. Pets as parts of personal networks are referred to in five ways: (1) as providers of needed emotional support, (2) as targets of care that help to find the reason to be alive; (3) as triggers of depression and other mental health problems, (4) neutrally, or (5) as family members who are both in need of care and capable of providing support. Based on the results of the present research, I suggest the cautious implementation of animals in the provision of mental health services for young women with anorexia because these individuals tend to create strong bonds with their pets and the sudden cut of these ties (for instance due to pet death) could result in the worsening of the mental health of these vulnerable women.Animal-assisted therapy and intervention have demonstrated their effectiveness in improving the quality of life of people with mental health issues that are connected to social functioning difficulties. Anorexia is a mental health disorder that is associated with problematic formation and maintenance of long-lasting personal relationships. There is a limited number of papers that describe how people with eating disorders, including anorexia, treat their pets. Since the perceptions of people with anorexia of their pets are largely unexplored, in this article, I aim to contribute to this lacuna. In particular, I study the meanings that young women with anorexia attach to their pets. The data on this topic was collected through semi-structured biographical interviews and the concentric circles method (N = 50). The narratives were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that pets are scarcely included in personal networks. Only seven women out of 50 mentioned them as members of these networks. Pets as parts of personal networks are referred to in five ways: (1) as providers of needed emotional support, (2) as targets of care that help to find the reason to be alive; (3) as triggers of depression and other mental health problems, (4) neutrally, or (5) as family members who are both in need of care and capable of providing support. Based on the results of the present research, I suggest the cautious implementation of animals in the provision of mental health services for young women with anorexia because these individuals tend to create strong bonds with their pets and the sudden cut of these ties (for instance due to pet death) could result in the worsening of the mental health of these vulnerable women.