(Lyudmila Nikonenko)

Institute of Social and Political Psychology, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

Introduction. Clarification of the role of micro- and macro-environmental factors in formation of person’s political and legal consciousness is one of the central problem of political psychology. In conditions of a military conflict, research of them becomes of particular significance, because the main target of powerful information attacks is the citizens’ consciousness of the countries that are included in opposition. Youth communities are in the area of ​​special attention, because youth is a sensitive period for the formation of individual’s political and legal consciousness.

Methodology. The empirical study (2013-2015 years) was conducted to find out the peculiarities of obtaining, cognitive processing of information on the political and legal content of students in conditions of military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Its aim is finding out the role of various sources of information of political and legal content in informing students.

The study of strategies was carried out through questionnaires and using of factor analysis procedures. On the basis of ten universities of Kyiv, 428 students (2-6 grades) were involved. The processing and analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS Statistics 20.

Results. According to theoretical analysis of scientific literature, significant sources of information of political and legal content are identified. They are follow:

• Close social environment of the person: members of the family; friends and acquaintances;

• Educational environment of the university: students from the academic group; students of other academic groups, faculties, universities; leaders of student self-government; university lecturers; methodists from the educational work; management of the university.

• public institutions: representatives of civil movements, volunteers; church ministers, activists of religious communities; politicians, activists of political parties; representatives of the authorities;

• media: social networks; thematic internet sites; newspapers; radio; TV; official Internet-resources of the authorities.

Respondents were asked to evaluate the intensity of using different sources for obtaining information of political and legal content according to the 4-points interval scale (options: "never", "sometimes", "often", "permanently"). The 5-points Likert scale has been applied to find out the level of trust to the same sources of information of political and legal content.

Factoring procedures are made separately for the using and trust of various sources of information of political and legal content. The measure of selective adequacy gave the follow results: the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin criterion (0.8) and the Bartlett spherical criterion is 2589, (p≤0,001). The obtained six-factor model of the use of various sources of information of political and legal content describes 66.79% of the total dispersion. For confidence as a result of the verification, the measure of selective adequacy has been clarified: the Kaiser Meyer-Olkin criterion is 0.842; the Bartlett spherical criterion is 2967,7 (p≤0,001), which proves the validity of the use of factor analysis. The five-factor model, which describes 66.79% of the total dispersion, is obtained. The optimal number of factors and their statistical significance were verified according to Cattell’s scree test when applying the principal component method (Varimax Normalized).

Students often refer to the sources with a minimum social distance (social networks, thematic Internet sites, friends and acquaintances, family members) for obtaining information of political and legal content. At least they use information from methodologists from educational work, church ministers and activists from religious communities. The six-factor model of using sources is reconstructed. The factors are statistically stable and describe 66.65% of the total dispersion. Scales are included in the factor (contribution to the total variance is given in brackets): 1) information from the main subjects of political and legal interaction (14,7%); 2) receiving information from the mass media (12,56%); 3) receiving information from university staff (11.23%); 4) receiving information from students (9,98%); 5) sources with a minimum social distance (9.56%); 6) receiving information from religious organizations (8.2%).

The most students trust in family members, friends and acquaintances; teachers, and representatives of civil society. Anti-trust leaders are politicians, activists of political parties, representatives of the authorities. The five-factor model (66.79% of the total dispersion) includes the follow scales: 1) confidence in educational environment of the university (18%); 2) trust in the media (15.53%); 3) trust in close environment (12,9%); 4) trust in representatives of civil society (10.3%); 5) trust in the authorities (10.1%).

Conclusions: There is a qualitative peculiarity of factor structures for the use of various sources of information of political and legal content and trust in them.

The high intensity of using the information receipt channel does not provide automatic trust in it. The rare use of particular source does not always imply a personal emotional rejection of the received information. Formation of a guide to trust or distrust of information takes place in the process of multiple communication of the individual with representatives of the surrounding environment, various public institutions, and the educational environment of universities and the use of various media.

Mostly students turn to sources with simplified access and minimal social distance (media, representatives of a close social environment) with information requests on politico-legal topics. Outsiders of political and legal informing of students are methodologists from educational work and representatives of religious organizations.

Leaders of trust for students are persons from the close environment, teachers and representatives of civil society. Instead, the information received from politicians, representatives of public authorities is the least trusted.

Keywords: personality, students, eating in the media space, information of political and legal content, factor structure of trust information, factor structure of the use of information sources.