In the course of our study we conducted the poll of 562 people, where 51,4% were young men and 48,6% - girls. Thus we met the main poll requirement which provided for equal representation of young girls and young men. The major group was represented by 17-20 year old people who accounted for 74% of the total number of those involved in the study.

The biggest group of respondents comprised the 1st and 2d year University students (78%) and upperclassmen (16%), 4% of the working young people and 2% unemployed respondents.

At the time of the study 74,5% of them were living with their both parents, 18% were living with their mothers. 43% were living in families where their brothers (senior or junior) were also raised, 39% - in families with their other sisters. 14% of families had grandmothers and/or grandfathers living with respondents. 4% of respondents were married and living separately from their parent families.

One of the first questions in our questionnaire was: "Would you like to have the same structure of relationships in your future family as your parents?" In the girls‘ group 33% said "Yes" and 47% said "No". Young men were less critical in their assessments of their parent families: 41% gave a positive reply and 38% were negative. Number of young men who responded "don‘t know" (17%) and "don‘t want to have a family" (4%) almost corresponded to the number of such replies in the girl‘s group (16% and 4% accordingly).

With the aim of getting an assessment of the parents‘ gender roles as the well familiar adult men and women we suggested that our respondents should choose from the list of features which separately characterized their mothers and fathers. We alternated features on the list where masculine traits were numbered uneven and feminine - even.

Assessment given by young men and girls to their mothers‘ and fathers‘ features had minimal difference. Therefore we haven‘t found any relation between the sex of assessing people and his/her perception of the differences typical of men or women.

Young men and women were almost unanimous in assessment of their mothers‘ features. Maximum score was given to "prepared to lend support" (75%), "loves children" (74%), "loving" (59%), "feminine" (59%) and "self-reliant" (54%). Out of five most frequently mentioned features four were the feminine features and one masculine. The lowest score had a "courageous" feature (10%) because it was equally seldom mentioned either by young men or women. Traditionally acknowledged as exclusively feminine features "modest" and "unpredictable" were identified by our respondents in this study as the least typical of their mothers (less than 15% of questionnaires). On the other hand such traditionally deemed masculine features as "strong personality" and "self-reliant" were far from being the last (44% and 53% accordingly). Nevertheless, feminine features held the leading positions among all identified mother‘s features.

In description of their father‘s characters the young men and girls were almost similar in their replies too. Maximum score was given to such father‘s features as "courageous" (61%), "prepared to lend support" (58%), "maintains his opinions" (54%), "loves children" (53%), "self-reliant" (53%) and "strong personality" (50%). Out of six most prominent father‘s features 4 were masculine and 2 - feminine. To the respondents‘ opinion the "feminine" (2%) and "tender" (9%) features were mannish least of all. "Unpredictable", which had been mentioned among the last items in description of mothers accounted for 49% in description of father‘s features although it had been traditionally "feminine" .

Three father‘s features were differently assessed by girls and boys: "loving" (girls were 2,5 times more often to indicate this feature), "has leadership capabilities" (young men would indicate it 1,3 times more often), "loves children" (girls were 1,3 times more often to indicate this). Such difference is apparently resulting from the softer father‘s attitude to their daughters.

Maximum difference is observed with regard to the "courage" as a mannish feature typical mainly of fathers, and "feminine, tender and loving", mainly attributable to women and mothers. To the opinion of our respondents there couldn‘t be a single specific feature attributable to only one parent exclusively.

This set of questions was aimed at identifying the direct gender stereotypes of our respondents. Suggested tasks at this stage help to identify the attitude of young boys and girls to the social roles of men and women in various areas of life (family, job, personal relationships). Unlike the first set of questions these questions had been specially formulated so that "men" and "women" would be viewed as groups of people.

52% of respondents said "no" to a question "Do men or women have any individual character features?" This is a demonstration of their understanding that any personal features may be equally attributable both to men and women, i.e. they are common human features even if they may have different manifestation. 48% of respondents said "yes" and gave the options of such characteristics. Most frequent were the "manhood" and "femininity" to be specified as traditional features attributable to a certain sex. For instance, leadership self-reliance and commitment were indicated as exclusively male features, while modesty, caprice and shyness were referred to the exclusively female features. Having compared these answers with the respondents‘ assessments of their parents‘ characters we can assume that generalized images of men and women would are more often opposed to each other in description of the character features, i.e. they are stereotyped. This assumption was double-checked by another set of questions comprising 25 statements where respondents were suggested to express their viewpoints ranging from the absolute disagreement to the full agreement on a 5-score base scale.

All reviewed statements represent the existing gender stereotypes, which set the difference between men and women in terms of their behavior and attitude to the family, their own personalities, professional occupation and relationship between men and women. This allowed us to see the difference in attitude to the gender roles of meaningful real adults and gender stereotypes based on the generalized images of men and women.

We analyzed the obtained results in this section of our questionnaire and conditionally split the reviewed stereotyped statements into four groups:
- stable - agreed by majority of respondents of both sex;
- dynamic - reflect opinions contrary to the stereotypes specified in our questionnaire which have changed in minds of modern young people;
- debatable - statements, where girls and boys have different ideas and they are "debating" with each other;
- protesting - includes statements where girls and boys give contrary answers.

Thus one third of suggested statements (9 out of 25) was acknowledged by most of the girls and boys. Fixed stereotypes include equal number of "recommendations" for men and women (5:5).

Majority of respondents are not challenging a man‘s status and masculine features of his personality. Care about personal appearance has been deemed traditionally important for women. Men and women are equal in the respondents‘ replies with regard to their mandatory home responsibilities "typical" of each sex. Statements describing the relationship between men and women, to which the respondents have agreed to, traditionally assume active roles for men and passive roles for women.

Opposite to the stable stereotypes we identified in this set three dynamic items. They reflect the ideas about men absolutely contrary to the existing stereotypes.

Traditional idea about attractive looks being important only for women hasn‘t been confirmed, because nearly two thirds of the youth at the age of 15-22 find attractive looks equally important both for men and women.

In spite of the fact that 80% of young men and 75% of girls are sharing the stereotype that "career is a base of men‘s life", more that 50% of respondents of both sex believe that family is also important for men, although it has been traditionally viewed as an area of the "feminine" interest.

Every second respondent disagreed to the statement about impact of the occupation on human‘s behavior. It should be noted that a question "Are there any truly "masculine or "feminine" jobs?" was negatively replied by 43% of young men and 32% of girls. Positive replies were given by 57% of young men and 68% of girls when they indicated a "milkmaid", "prostitute" and "house janitor" as examples of typically female occupations. In other words they are the jobs which do not require any professional education or examples of low-skill jobs with low salaries and traditionally female areas of services including family members: "babysitter", "needlewoman" or "medical nurse". Respondents specified a "mine worker", "driver" or "programmer" as typically men‘s jobs. Sometimes our respondents would indicate job positions instead of occupations, such as a "director" or "boss‘, apparently being convinced that these should be referred to as typically men‘s business.

Dynamic stereotypes which tend to grow weaker or change effected only "men‘s" statements. To the opinion of the youth our men may be occupied in any area of work without any detriment to their personalities, it is essential for them to be attractive and have a family.

Debatable stereotypes are reflecting the difference between the girl‘s and boy‘s ideas about roles of men and women. The general trend of changing the stereotyped ideas is demonstrated by the number of those people who had difficulties to express any certain opinion (from 9% to 29%). Disagreement to the stereotypes was expressed by over 30% in the girl‘s group or in both groups.

Replies in this group of statements about the role of a family, professional growth and financial independence are demonstrating the change of stereotype ideas among respondents of both sex. Although it should be noted that difference in replies of young guys and girls ranges here from 10% to 20% whereas girls would demonstrate more often their disagreement with above statements, i.e. tend to give less stereotyped answers.

A group of protesting stereotypes includes statements to which 50% of boys and girls in average would give the contrary answers. Moreover boys would agree with suggested statements while majority of girls would disagree to them.

Statements of this group are providing more independence and benefits for men and imposing certain restrictions on women with regard to their personal and professional relations. Thus the biggest 35% difference between girls and of girls were positive about it. For comparison let‘s review the replies to a question "Your attitude to the sexual contacts before marriage":

Majority of girls find quite acceptable for themselves to have sexual contacts before marriage(76%) and they have similar attitude to the possible sexual contacts of their future partners(90%). Young men find sexual contacts before marriage quite acceptable for themselves in 94% of cases, while similar behavior of their future female partners is deemed acceptable almost twice as seldom.

In general the group of protesting stereotypes is demonstrating that girls are interested in their professional growth and career promotion as well as their intention to be self-reliant and independent in their intimate and family relations.

Set of the questions focused on the attitude to stereotype ideas about roles of men and women in our society was ended by request to finish a sentence "Mentality and character of a man or woman is…"

19% of young men and 14% of girls believe that any human with certain sex characters is sure to have a specific set of individual features and capabilities. Boys more often than girls (36% and 30% accordingly) believe that any human may decide for himself independently what kind of a person he/she should make and do not see any obstacles for their self-actualization.

The smallest number of respondents said that everything is determined by society, its standards and traditions. Over one third of young men and every second girl would admit that society builds up a personality and has an impact on the changing values and behavioral features of people. Being members of such society the participants of our study are demonstrating the change of certain gender stereotypes into the new "standards" and "rules" which are less restrictive for self-actualization of people of both sex.

The purpose of this set of questions was to explore the respondents‘ values and their attitudes to the future as well as double-check the "reliability" of their replies in the first and second part of our questionnaire.

Thus they gave the following replies to a question " What is going to be most important for you in the future?"

Replies in both groups showed that the preferences belong to a family. Young men were more often to choose this option than girls especially in the age group of 15-16 year old, which was the largest to give such reply. Financial independence appears to be the least important factor at the given moment of time, although the respondent‘s group of 16 and downward assign a noticeably higher priority to it versus other age groups. One forth of the interviewed young men and over one third of girls do acknowledge that their own happiness would be the essence of their life and could mean a family, prestigious job or something else in various periods of their life.

For the purpose of understanding the extent to which the young people may be dependent on the public opinion we addressed them a question: "What may other people respect you for most of all?"

Peculiar thing about it is that with the age our respondents would more often reply that "it is important what kind of a person I am" (in the youngest group of 15 and downward such response accounted for 50% of the teens, in the eldest group it accounted for 80%). Girls were more frequent (77%) to give such response than young men (67,6%).

Prestigious job and fair salary was mentioned most frequently in the group of 15-16 year old (13%).

Stable family as a guarantee of other people‘s respect was acknowledged by 50% of boys under 15. In other age groups the share of those who mentioned this option varied from 12% to 20%.

1. Analysis of assessments given by young people to the gender roles played by their parents as meaningful adults shows minimal difference between the girl‘s and boy‘s replies. This reveals the "generality" of ideas about features and roles specific to their mothers and fathers as men and women.
2. In general the mother‘s image is viewed by the youth as typically feminine, although independent and by majority of assessments devoid of any modesty and unpredictability. Fathers to the respondents‘ opinion, have a streak of both masculine and feminine features.
3. Less than fifty percent of respondents of both sex would like to structure the relationship in their future families similar to that of their parents, while girls would more often find their parents‘ pattern of relations unsuitable to follow.
4. Respondents have controversial attitudes to the stereotyped ideas regarding the standards of behavior and roles of men and women in society. Young men are more prepared to support the stereotypes when they are relating to women, their roles, features and rules of behavior. In instances when the statements are reflecting ideas about men, the young boys would more often tend to reject those stereotypes which may impose certain restrictions on any capabilities and interests of men. Power, domination and active position have been remaining steadily masculine for majority of girls and boys. Girls more often tend to disagree with restricting provisions for both sex. Along with the stereotype ideas of men‘s and women‘s values which they are absolutely positive about, they would declare with the same certainty the values of financial and personal independence both for men and women.
5. Analysis of personal values and attitudes showed that the respondents of both sex gave preferences to their future families and happiness of their relatives. Moreover they would expect other people to respect them for their personal qualities but not for the family or prestigious job. Girls demonstrated more often than boys their self-sufficiency and own personality‘s value rather than the necessity to be involved into relationships, which most probably can be explained by the need to articulate their independence and self-esteem.