Study title

The main themes of the Finnish Youth Survey 2010 were safety and security, national defence, the conscription system, foreign policy, social values, immigration and racism, and national identity. First, the respondents were asked how much insecurity they felt regarding their own situation and future (regarding health, income, loneliness, social exclusion, job prospects, being subjected to violence etc.) or regarding society and world in general (social values, increasing immigration and disparity in Finland, climate change, social exclusion of young people, terrorism, world economy and globalisation, pollution, weapons of mass destruction, world population growth, Russia, conflicts between religions, racism, population aging etc). Values and personality traits were studied by presenting the respondents with pairs of contrasting values/traits and asking them to place themselves on those axes, for example, left-right, liberal-conservative, tolerant-intolerant, pessimist-optimist, heterosexual-homosexual etc. One theme pertained to the national defence system based on general conscription. Views were probed on what would be the best defence system for Finland (general, selective or voluntary conscription, professional army, no army), how to select if selective conscription were implemented, whether compulsory military service should apply to men or women or both. Female respondents were asked whether they had considered or performed voluntary military service. Some questions explored whether the respondents had performed military service or alternative civilian service, how long the military service had been, or if they had done neither, whether they had intention to perform military or civilian service. Factors influencing the respondents' choice of either military or civilian service were studied. The factors mentioned included patriotism, sense of duty, views of people close to the respondent, career prospects, physical requirements, duration of the service,...