Postawy prospołeczne i egoistyczne młodzieży polskiej
Pro-social and selfish attitudes of Polish youth

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses pro-social and self-centered attitudes among high school graduates during the 2008/2009 school year in five Polish cities (Szprotawa, Puławy, Kraśnik, Dęblin, and Gdańsk). The recent survey was a follow-up to an analogous study carried out in the same schools and classes during the 1993/1994 school year. Altogether 992 youth in their final grade of high school took part in the study. The empirical data gathered from various urban milieus and compared with that from the 1994 and 2009 studies, allows one to formulate broad generalizations in terms of moral dynamics among high school graduates. It appears that only one-in-ten high school graduates studied was inclined to prefer the good of others (pro-social) to his/her own. Interestingly, compromise and egoistic attitudes were almost at equivalent levels. However, from 1994–2009, there was a slight drop in the level of egoistic attitudes at the expense of compromising and undecided attitudes. Still pro-social attitudes are represented in significant minority of the youth studied (11%); whereas, compromising (39%) and egoistic (34,4%) attitudes continue to dominate, respectively.

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