Professor, Dr.Hab. L.I. Lubysheva
Professor, PhD V.P. Mochenov
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow

It is the value personal orientations that are known to determine the spiritual mainstream of a human being; manifest his/ her attitudes to the world and his/ her own self; largely influence the ways and content of the individual social activity; inspire the life with senses; play the role of a main channel for the social spiritual culture being accepted by the individual; and form a system-building element of the personal world outlook.
Value orientations of university athletes are specific in a variety of aspects and individual characteristics due to the top priority being given to competitive activity in their lifestyles.  Increasingly intensive athletic activity heavily contributes to the student’s personality shaping process, and it is only natural to assume that the sport subculture is of notable influence on the personal value orientations formation process.
Objective of the study was to make a sociological analysis of the university athletes’ value orientations. Subject to the sociological study were 216 university athletes of different skill levels including Honorary Masters of Sport, International Class Masters of Sport and Masters of Sport.
Our analysis of the university athletes’ value orientations showed that the system of generally important values of the young people engaged in sports is dominated by the fundamental values typical for the common national mentality. As demonstrated by the preliminary data analysis, the personal life plans of the university athletes are dominated by successful sport careers, high quality education, family values and self-fulfilment agenda.

Keywords: university athletes, questionnaire survey, socialization, value orientations.

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