Висвітлено поняття цінностей та наведено класифікацію цінностей. Визначено, що пріоритетними цінностями сучасної студентської молоді виступають матеріальні, пошук сенсу життя, власна індивідуальність, досягнення, власний престиж, високе матеріальне становище, саморозвиток і креативність. Досліджено основні фактори та інститути впливу на формування цінностей, зокрема культурно-духовна сфера життєдіяльності суспільства, релігія, ідеологія, засоби масової інформації, система освіти, культура (у т. ч. і масова), сім"я. Серед соціально-педагогічних, психологічних чинників виокремлено зовнішні та внутрішні. Доведено, що визначальний вплив на формування цінностей мають внутрішні психологічні чинники, зокрема бажання самореалізації та самовдосконалення.
Inthis article it has been defined the main values that are common for modern students youth. It has also been found out social and pedagogical, psychological factors, which influence on the process of values formation and development. It has been figuredout the definition of "value", which is usually considered as importance, significance or usefulness for a personality, society or ethnic group. It has been stated that values formation for a person happens in hard conditions in comparison with socia&l norms and values. Such factor causes contradiction and, perhaps, strong and notable conflicts. In modern students youth environment, high common to all mankind values are diminished and lost; they are namely, kindness, honour, humanity, sincerity, &justice, and compassion for other people. Sometimes students youth prefers not spiritual moments of human-being, but the values of material welfare forgetting that the best and most important in life, such as love, smile, family, happiness, can be ob&tained free of charge. It has been singled out the mental manifestations of spirituality, among which there are development, religiosity, creativity, search, and love. It has been presented here the sociological researches of value orientations among& students" youth of the last decade. These researches convince that the certain personality type has been forming in the consciousness of modern youth. This type is common for the Western society that is a person who first of all values themselves an&d thinks that their activity, success in life and all of this depend on them. It has been studied that, from a psychological point of view, value orientations are a special meaningful value and sense dimension, which characterizes the subject as a pe&rsonality. It has been revealed that mass media strongly influences the formation of youth value orientations, considering that mass media occupies the leading positions in the system of communications of the individual in the modern society. Accordi&ng to the conducted study of values and views of young people, the main priorities in life, for most of them, are family happiness and career. Of the lower priority among youth preferences there are the opportunity to be free and independent in their& decisions and actions and to be able to realize their talents and abilities. Young people living in urban areas, compared to rural youth, say mostly about their family-oriented happiness, their intentions to make a career and to be able to realize t&heir talents and abilities. As a result of the study, it has been found out that the values of modern youth are significantly influenced by the environment, in which the individual resides and the place of residence. This all defines his opportunitie&s and, accordingly, values orientations.
