The Value Priorities of Adolescents in Estonia, Lithuania and Finland: a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Aims: Values are listed as motivational factors that determine an individual’s lifestyle. This paper presents a study, which aims to compare value priorities in Estonian, Lithuanian and Finnish students. More than 3,000 teenagers (about 1,000 per country) ranked 16 values according to priority number. The data was gathered using an electronic questionnaire. The objective of the study was to answer two questions: (1) How do the value priorities of adolescents differ in the three countries? (2) Which are the most and least important values among adolescents in the three countries? Study Design: Casual comparative study. Place and Duration of Study: Estonia, Lithuania and Finland over two years. Methodology: 3,043 participants, almost 1,000 from each country in two age groups: 13–15 years old and 16–18 years old. Differences in the ranking of values in the three countries were compared using an ANOVA analysis. Results: Despite some differences in the value priorities of adolescents in these countries, the study generally shows that the priorities were similar rather than different. Adolescents of all three countries reported having friends and honesty as the most important value (in Lithuania shared with esteem from others). The Finnish respondents ranked having a good time and the respondents in both Baltic States the esteem from others (in Estonia this was shared with knowledge) as the third most important value. The least important in all the countries were modern clothes and high position in society, in Lithuania also the ability to work, in Estonia wealth and in Finland good looks.