Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques  
2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
J. Environ. Treat. Tech.  
ISSN: 2309-1185  
Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com  
https://doi.org/10.47277/JETT/1605  
Self-Identity of Adolescents in the Cross-Cultural  
Aspect (on the example of Mongolian and Russian  
Adolescents)  
1
*
2
3
4
Tuyana Ts. Dugarova , Evgeniya M. Trofimova , Aldar V. Damdinov , Larisa A. Andreeva ,  
5
6
7
Lidiya P. Sagalakova , Irina Zh. Shakhmalova , Tumen-Zhargal Ts. Dugarov  
1
Department of Developmental Personality Psychology, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia  
2
Department of General Psychology and Labor Psychology, Russian New University, Moscow, Russia  
3
Department of General and National History, Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Russia  
4
Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, East Siberian State Institute of Culture, Ulan-Ude, Russia  
5
Department of Department Subject-Cycle Commission of Pedagogy and Psychology, Tuvan State University, Kyzyl, Russia  
6
Department of Pedagogy and Methods of Primary Education, Nerungri Technical Institute (branch) of M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal  
University, Nerungri, Russia  
7
Faculty of Informatics and Control Systems, Moscow Polytechnic University, Moscow, Russia  
Received: 18/12/2019  
Accepted: 19/03/2020  
Published: 20/02/2020  
Abstract  
The article represents the empirical research results on self-identification of Mongolian and Russian adolescents. The research  
hypothesis is the assumption that there are culturally determined differences in the structure and content of the components of Mongolian  
and Russian adolescents’ personal and social identities. The sample of subjects consists of 185 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years (94  
adolescents living in the city of Khovd (Western Mongolia) and 91 adolescents living in Biysk (Altai Region). The main research method  
is a non-standardized test of M. Kuhn, T. McPartland “The Twenty Statements Test”. Statistically significant differences in the content  
components of identity are obtained, which are determined by the respondents’ nationality and gender. On the basis of the hierarchical  
cluster analysis, the self-description content and structural differences in the adolescents of different nationalities are distinguished.  
Keywords: Identity, self-identification, social and personal identity, traditional values, adolescents, cross-cultural aspect  
1
extends to the personal self, ... social norms determine and  
1
Introduction  
shape the activity of the personal self and vice versa” [4]. The  
relation of personal and social identities is not constant and  
depends on the life circumstances in which the person finds  
himself at the moment. Secondly, personal identity cannot be  
isolated from social one, since personal characteristics are also  
assessed based on comparing oneself with others, through the  
evaluation of others [5]. It is society that establishes those  
characteristics and the degree of their manifestation by which a  
person is evaluated. Thus, individual personal characteristics  
become social values indicators of a particular society.  
In the era of globalization, the research mainstream is a  
cross-cultural approach that considers the sociocultural  
conditioning of the phenomenon of identity. Within cultural-  
historical psychology the studies of identity transformations,  
cultural and social identity formation are presented. The works  
analysis, devoted to the genesis of identity, demonstrates the  
importance of the correspondence between the constructed  
internal identity and the socio-cultural environment. Research  
strategies, as a rule, are aimed at identifying components of  
identity (cognitive, affective), much less often the relation  
between social and personal identification is studied within the  
cross-cultural approach. The influence of historical and cultural  
features of society, the interconnection between identity and  
psychological, socio-cultural variables, certain types of identity  
in different cultural and ethnocultural groups require special  
attention of researchers.  
The transitivity of modern society and its changing values  
in the context of the “ethnic and cultural clash” exacerbate the  
problem of identity as a global problem of our time and  
stimulate the search for mechanisms contributing to the world  
and life perception in the diversity of cultures and human  
relations. From the standpoint of post-non-classical  
methodology, the phenomenon of identity being a complex  
self-developing system is presented as an interdisciplinary  
object. This gives rise to a multiplicity of approaches and a  
polysemantic nature of the term itself. So, in psychology the  
concepts of self-awareness, self-identification and self-concept  
are distinguished. The comparison of these concepts shows  
their partial inclusion in each other (more about this: [1]).  
The first most complete definition of identity is given by E.  
Erikson (1996), who describes it as an internal continuity and  
self-identity of  
a person, emotional integration, self-  
identification with certain social roles [2]. Other definitions of  
identity are so varied that it makes sense to focus on the most  
general one: it is “the experience of self-identity” [3], the  
experience of the personal self.  
The desire to make the description of identity more  
formalized and specific led to the allocation of two types  
(
components) of identity – personal and social. Both  
components are not autonomous from each other. First, they are  
included in a shared dynamic continuum, expressed in J.  
Turner's theory of self-categorization: “... social identity  
Corresponding author: Tuyana Ts. Dugarova, Department of Department of Developmental Personality Psychology Moscow Pedagogical  
State University, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: dugarovatts@gmail.com  
1599  
Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques  
2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
Psychologists explain the high scientific interest in the  
identity of adolescents in the cross-cultural aspect by the need  
to identify socialization patterns in a multicultural society and  
to study culturally determined differences in components of  
personal and social identities.  
identity, level of identity differentiation, relation between  
social roles and individual characteristics, reflection of the  
main life spheres and predominance of various identity  
components.  
To obtain data on self-esteem, T.V. Rumyantseva [8] made  
the following modifications to the diagnostic procedure and the  
results analysis: after writing his characteristics, a subject must  
evaluate each of them by a four-digit system (as positive,  
negative, ambivalent or with an unformed assessment). The  
relation between positively assessed qualities and negative ones  
allows the researcher to define types of self-esteem (adequate,  
inadequately overestimated and underestimated, unstable)  
based on the norms given by T.V. Rumyantseva [8].  
The results were processed by using the content analysis (in  
the program “Content Analysis 1.6”). Further data processing  
was carried out by using the IBM SPSS Statistic 22 software.  
The comparison of the responses distribution by categories in  
different samples was carried out by using Pearson's χ2 test. To  
analyze the self-descriptions structure, the hierarchical cluster  
analysis by Ward's method for standardized values was used.  
Teenagers belonging to  
a traditional society find  
themselves in special “conditions of conjugation between the  
world of tribal traditions and the world of cultural integration”  
(
Mongolian people belong to a little modernized traditional  
culture, preserving social organization structure, traditional  
forms of socialization and upbringing, ethnic customs and  
traditions). The relevance of our research consists in the acute  
demand for knowledge about the identity of adolescents, who  
are characterized by a special sensitivity to changes in society,  
especially to intra-ethnic and interethnic processes. The  
identity formation of adolescents is associated with the  
interaction with “theirs” and “others”, with “their” traditional  
values and values of the “other” globalization world [6, 7].  
2
Materials and Methods  
The research goal was to study self-identification  
characteristics of modern Mongolian and Russian adolescents  
in the cross-cultural aspect. The hypothesis of the research was  
the assumption that there are culturally determined differences  
in the structure and content of personal and social identities  
components of Mongolian and Russian adolescents. The  
sample of subjects consisted of 184 adolescents aged 12-15  
years (94 Mongolian adolescents (Hereinafter, the words  
3 Results and Discussion  
The research results of Mongolian and Russian adolescents  
were considered as follows: self-descriptions analysis, self-  
assessment analysis, comparative analysis of self-descriptions  
in order to identify differences in the identity structure of  
Mongolian and Russian adolescents. The structural and content  
analysis of self-descriptions was carried out by using the  
content analysis, where seven groups of adolescents’ self-  
descriptions were identified. The content analysis results are  
presented in the Table 1. The selected self-descriptions groups  
for the general adolescents sample include: features relating to  
macrogroups; personal characteristics; gender characteristics;  
features related to the social role of a teenager in the family;  
communication characteristics; active identity features;  
appearance characteristics.  
“
Mongolian” and “Russian” will denote teenagers of Mongolia  
and Russia as carriers of the corresponding cultures), 47 boys  
and 47 girls living in the city of Khovd (Western Mongolia) and  
9
0 Russian adolescents, 45 boys and 45 girls, living in Biysk  
(
Altai Region).  
The methodology of “The Twenty Statements Test”  
modified by T.V. Rumyantseva [8]) was used as a diagnostic  
(
tool. The modification allows us to explore a subject’s self-  
esteem, and also offers a scheme for a formal-meaningful  
analysis of the test results according to the following indicators:  
gender identity, self-esteem, level of reflection, temporal  
Table 1: Frequency of identity indicators occurrence in self-descriptions of Mongolian and Russian adolescents  
Frequency of occurrence (%)  
Components and  
indicators of  
identity  
Total for  
the  
Mongolian Russian  
Total for  
the  
Significance  
Boys –  
Mongolian  
Girls –  
Mongolian  
Boys –  
Russian  
Girls –  
Russian  
(by criterion  
2
)  
sample  
sample  
Reflexive identity  
Overall identity  
assessment  
Active identity  
Human  
Name  
Physical identity  
Age  
91,5  
89,4  
42,6  
95,6  
24,4  
100  
90,4  
97,8  
0,035  
0,169  
14,9  
15,6  
28,7  
20,0  
95,7  
23,4  
19,1  
57,4  
25,5  
74,5  
19,1  
27,7  
36,2  
31,9  
51,1  
91,5  
27,7  
23,4  
23,4  
36,2  
93,6  
2,1  
91,1  
46,7  
4,4  
42,2  
4,4  
82,2  
24,4  
2,2  
51,1  
6,7  
17,8  
46,7  
8,9  
6,7  
0
2,2  
64,4  
4,4  
85,1  
21,3  
23,4  
46,8  
28,7  
43,6  
78,7  
19,1  
25,5  
24,5  
25,5  
92,6  
1,1  
86,7  
35,6  
3,3  
46,7  
5,6  
13,3  
38,9  
10,0  
4,4  
1,1  
2,2  
62,2  
4,4  
28,9  
26,7  
0,761  
0,032  
0,000  
0,985  
0,000  
0,000  
0,000  
0,080  
0,000  
0,000  
0,000  
0,000  
0,159  
0,074  
0,010  
Perspective identity 36,2  
8,9  
Family identity  
Civiс identity  
Ethnic identity  
Child  
Urban identity  
Student identity  
Religious identity  
Gender identity  
Friendly identity  
66,0  
10,6  
27,7  
25,5  
14,9  
91,5  
0
31,1  
11,1  
2,2  
2,2  
2,2  
60,0  
4,4  
31,1  
24,4  
38,3  
42,6  
44,7  
59,6  
26,7  
28,9  
41,5  
51,1  
Note: the last column shows the overall statistical significance of the differences between the Mongolian and Russian samples according to Pearson's χ2  
test.  
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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques  
2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
In order to analyze statistically significant differences  
between the data obtained in the Mongolian and Russian  
samples, the Pearson chi-square was calculated, for which the  
data were converted to a dichotomous scale (the presence of the  
feature (s) was indicated by one, and its (their) absence – by  
zero). The comparison of the self-descriptions results in pairs  
by nationality and gender showed a much greater number of  
differences between Mongolian and Russian adolescents than  
between boys and girls.  
The comparative analysis of Mongolian and Russian  
adolescents’ self-descriptions results revealed the following  
differences at a high significance level of 0.000. Mongolian  
adolescents distinguish features associated with name and age,  
with time perspective, with family and ethnic identity, and with  
social roles (student, family member). The comparison of the  
Mongolian and Russian samples results revealed significant  
differences (p <0.05) in the frequency of identifying reflexive  
identity features, as well as defining oneself through a person's  
status. There were no statistically significant differences in  
identity (p <0.01); appearance features, civiс and urban self (p  
<0.05). It is natural that Mongolian boys often mention  
appearance features (the most frequent of which are height and  
physical strength) and motor skills and abilities. There are no  
statistically significant differences in the self-descriptions of  
Russian boys and girls, with the exception of the feature  
“person”, which was much more frequently mentioned by boys  
(p <0.05). The analysis of adolescents' self-esteem indicators  
showed the prevalence of adequate self-esteem (41%). The  
importance of emotional-evaluative self-assessment in  
Mongolian adolescents was revealed. The results of the  
hierarchical cluster analysis by Ward's method for standardized  
values are presented in Figures 1, 2. The clustering results  
shown in Figure 1 allow us to distinguish four clusters. The first  
of them is opposed to all the others and determines active  
identity and external parameters associated with it. The other  
three clusters are connected with each other at a low similarity  
level. The second cluster has to do with personal identity  
features: character traits, religious affiliation, plans for the  
future and general assessment of oneself. The third cluster  
describes social identity and combines features associated with  
the interaction in small groups (a family, a class). The fourth  
cluster is also connected with social identity, but combines  
features associated with the awareness of oneself as a member  
of a large conventional group (ethnos, humanity, etc.).  
describing their external features, defining oneself through a  
general assessment, religious affiliation, and as a subject of  
activity. The comparative analysis of boys’ and girls’ self-  
descriptions of both nationalities showed that the differences in  
the descriptions of Mongolian boys and girls relate to the  
general assessment of personality, activity features, family  
Figure 1: The result of clustering the self-descriptions data of Mongolian adolescents  
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2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
Figure 2: The result of clustering the self-descriptions data of Russian adolescents  
The analysis of the self-descriptions clustering results of  
Russian adolescents allows us to distinguish five clusters. The  
two big clusters share active identity and associated features,  
which are related to a teenager interaction with the immediate  
environment, and reflexive identity with features that do not  
depend on a person (gender, nationality, etc.). Reflexive  
identity with adjoining religious identity and name (the last two  
features were rarely mentioned by Russian subjects) was  
clearly distinguished into a separate cluster. The rest of  
personal identity features are combined into one cluster with  
social identity features.  
In this section, we will summarize the results obtained  
above, which are of the greatest significance, discuss the results  
from the point of view of the research hypothesis, and show  
how our results agree with the results of other researchers.  
Let’s consider self-descriptions features by the seven  
groups identified. The first self-descriptions group is  
represented by the largest number of responses and includes  
features that classify a teenager in macrogroups. The number of  
these features in the Mongolian adolescents’ descriptions is  
significantly higher for all identity components: civiс (p =  
approved, aimed at helping their neighbor – hardworking,  
helping; other qualities are manifested in communication with  
peers and reflect the image of a friendly teenager. In the  
Russian self-descriptions, many features are represented by  
antonymous pairs (especially in the girls’ ones). Moreover, the  
hardworking / lazy dichotomy more frequently refers to the  
lazy one, which is practically absent in the Mongolian  
descriptions. Even if a Mongolian teenager describes himself /  
herself as “lazy” he / she phrases it this way: “hardworking, but  
sometimes lazy”.  
In the self-descriptions, gender characteristics are  
mentioned by 41.5% of the Mongolian respondents and 28.9%  
of the Russians (p = 0.074) indirectly through the family role  
indication (a daughter, a son, a sister, etc.) or through the direct  
gender naming (a girl, a boy, a man, a woman). The Russian  
boys’ responses reflect their stereotyping under the mass media  
influence: a man, a Lovelace, a macho, a lady’s man, which is  
not typical for the Mongolian boys, whose characteristics are  
mostly formal and emotionally neutral. The girls’  
characteristics of both nationalities are more formal (a girl, a  
lady). The overwhelming majority of the boys' responses were  
emotionally neutral; they rarely ascribe to themselves  
emotionally negative features; isolated responses were  
emotionally positive (a handsome guy). In the Mongolian girls’  
self-descriptions, half of the responses were emotionally  
negative (an ordinary, simple girl). As for the Russian girls,  
such responses make up a quarter. At the same time, the  
adolescents who indicated gender characteristics in the features  
list always put them in the first ten positions. This shows the  
importance of these characteristics in their self-identification.  
The fourth group consists of features associated with the  
social role of a teenager in the family. In the Russian  
descriptions, family roles are mentioned almost twice less often  
than those of the Mongols (p = 0.000). Moreover, they are  
represented only by a family role statement (a son, a brother, a  
daughter, a sister, a granddaughter) without specifying and  
0
0
.080), ethnic (p = 0.000), urban (p = 0.000), and student (p =  
.000). The Mongolian respondents describe themselves as a  
Mongolian, a citizen of Mongolia, a resident of a certain  
settlement and a student of a certain school. While the Russian  
adolescents do not specify their locality and school, but often  
mention the roles associated with conditional interest groups: a  
gamer, a sportsman, a music lover.  
The second group of content characteristics includes  
personal characteristics. The analysis of personality traits  
attributed to themselves by the Russian adolescents shows their  
greater structure in comparison with the Mongolian self-  
descriptions. In addition, the number of reflexive identity  
features in the Russian self-descriptions is significantly greater  
than that of the Mongols (p = 0.035). The content analysis of  
the Mongolian respondents’ features presents them as socially  
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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques  
2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
giving it additional emotional coloring. In the Mongolian  
descriptions, such a role is almost always concretized by  
indicating a child’s birth order in the family (an eldest son /  
daughter) or referring to another family member (a son /  
daughter of the father (almost never – of the mother)). Apart  
from the direct family role naming, the descriptions often  
contain indirect indications of family ties through the  
references to their household duties: cleaning the house, taking  
the younger children from kindergarten, cooking dinner, etc. In  
the Russian self-descriptions, there is practically no indirect  
mention of family ties.  
The fifth self-description group combines characteristics  
related to communication. The only characteristic frequently  
mentioned by the Mongolian adolescents (I have many friends)  
is of a stating nature and not significant in the life of a teenager.  
When pointing out relations with society, the adolescents wrote  
such features as: I love parents, classmates, teachers, and never  
ancestors, which promotes clan consolidation and deep tribal  
ties of the Mongolian people [6, 7, 11].  
Age is a significant feature (rights, duties and status of a  
traditional society member are determined by age). In the self-  
descriptions of a Mongolian adolescent claiming status in  
society, there are clearly visible value orientations towards  
traditions and customs – the code of laws of their ancestors.  
Thus, the family concept reflects nationally-specific ideas  
about family traditions, norms of intrafamily communication  
between parents and children, older and younger people, men  
and women. The pronounced sports and labor activity of  
adolescents is conditioned by physical and labor education  
traditions in Mongolia from early childhood (horse riding,  
national wrestling, archery). Our results are consistent with the  
results of other researchers, which show a much greater  
influence of social (including family) norms on leisure and  
preferred types of activity [12]. For Mongolian girls, it is more  
important than for boys to realize their belonging to a family,  
city, country, that is, to various social groups. It is curious that  
the studies in which American citizens of both sexes acted as  
subjects gave similar results [13]. This allows us to consider  
this trend as generally independent of cross-cultural  
differences.  
A modern Mongolian teenager feels like a part of a single  
whole, in connection with which there are frequent definitions  
of himself as a Mongol, a citizen, a member of a family, headed  
by the father, and in which everyone has a range of  
responsibilities. The self-descriptions of adolescents convey  
the idea of part and whole connectedness, the integrity of the  
traditional Mongolian worldview. Earlier identity studies of  
Western and Eastern cultures representatives also show the  
predominance of an independent and interdependent view of  
their “Self”, respectively [13; 14].  
Our data also correspond with the results obtained in the  
research of Mongolian students’ traditional values. The  
research results have shown an orientation towards collectivism  
and mutual help among Mongolian students in comparison with  
Russian ones [11]. This is due not only to cultural traditions,  
but also to the people number. According to the socio-  
psychological research data, people belonging to smaller  
groups think more about their group membership in  
comparison with large groups members [15].  
The analysis of the Russian adolescents’ self-descriptions  
shows the predominance of personal identification over social  
one, the weak integration of the Self-image with the We-image,  
the predominance of religious identity, and the weakness of  
time perspective. The revealed significant differences (p <0.05)  
in the frequency of identifying reflexive identity features, as  
well as the positioning of a person's status by the adolescents,  
are consistent with the results of many other identity studies.  
The Russian adolescents most often mentioned their ethnicity  
in combination with their physical characteristics. In general,  
the clustering of the Russian self-description features showed a  
structurally more differentiated picture compared to that of the  
Mongols. Perhaps this is due to the variety of socialization  
factors in modern Russian society.  
–
I love friends. in In the Russian adolescents’ self-descriptions  
the mention of their friendly roles is even less common and also  
has a stating character: a friend, a girlfriend.  
The last two groups combine characteristics, the use  
frequency differences of which in the Mongolian and Russian  
samples are statistically insignificant. The sixth group was  
represented by active identity features, which is reflected in the  
Russian descriptions with the same frequency as in the  
Mongolian ones. At the same time, the self-description content  
is different: the Mongolian adolescents describe themselves  
through their physical skills, domestic work duties, and the  
Russian ones – through their favorite activities, the main of  
which are: walking, listening to music, drawing, reading,  
playing on the computer, singing.  
The seventh group consists of appearance characteristics,  
the total number of which in the adolescents’ self-descriptions  
in both samples is small. The only frequency characteristic in  
this series among the Russians is a general appearance  
assessment (handsome / ugly, on average, 13% of subjects),  
among the Mongols – tall / short (5% of boys).  
So, self-descriptions of the Mongolian respondents show  
the predominance of We-images (civic, ethnic, regional, school  
self-identifications), pro-social orientation, gender self-  
identification, the importance of family-role relations,  
reflection of friendship and comradeship values, sports and  
labor activity, the identification of sports-related physical  
features. The content analysis of the Russian adolescents’  
characteristics shows their greater involvement in reference  
interest groups, personality traits differentiation, predominance  
of reflexive identity, stereotyped gender role, insufficient  
reflection of the family sphere, focus on hobbies and  
appearance. The comparison of the self-description results by  
nationality and gender showed a greater significance of the first  
factor compared to the second one.  
The self-description analysis makes it possible to state the  
prevalence of social identification over personal one in the self-  
identification of a Mongolian adolescent, regardless of gender.  
Social identity characteristics in the Mongolian self-  
descriptions make up 35% of the total (in the Russian ones –  
only 15%). However, the personal identity characteristics of the  
Mongolian adolescents have a clear social orientation, they are  
consistent with the code of behavior in the traditional  
Mongolian culture, and are closely associated with the current  
traditional values “duty to the clan, tribe, nation”, “duties of a  
family and society member” [9, 10]. The Mongolian  
adolescents are much more likely to use their name as a  
defining feature. Traditionally, the name performs several  
functions (from protective to symbolic), it reflects generations  
succession and a family genealogy. Until now, in traditional  
societies, it is considered worthy to remember names of  
According to the research, most adolescents are  
characterized by adequate self-esteem. Inadequate self-esteem  
depends on gender: the boys have high self-esteem twice often  
than the girls, who have low one. This is consistent with the  
foreign studies data: in early adolescence, in parallel with the  
active self-awareness development, girls’ self-esteem usually  
falls [16]. Difficulties in emotional and evaluative  
characteristics self-assessment of the Mongolian adolescents  
are determined by cross-cultural factors: the significance of  
traditional communication norms and generic values (saving  
1603  
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2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages: 1599-1605  
emotions, ethnocultural values of restraint  
/
modesty,  
values. The significance of traditional ideas about male and  
female roles is manifested through the differentiated gender  
characteristics among Mongolian adolescents. Secondly, we  
have identified the social orientation of Mongolian adolescents  
(a perspective vision of oneself as a “good citizen” and “a  
worthy family member” which is not found among Russian  
adolescents).  
The identity feature of Mongolian adolescents is the  
polarization of their social and personal identity, in comparison  
with Russian ones. At the same time, in the cluster analysis  
results of both samples, the personal self features, which do not  
directly depend on an individual, are included in the social self.  
This allows us not only to evaluate this fact as supercultural,  
but also forces us to reconsider personal identity components.  
traditional norms of evaluative dependence on society) [11].  
The adolescents’ self-descriptions do not contain clear  
features (in accordance with the empirical data of other authors)  
related to communication with peers, including ones of the  
opposite sex, and to appearance. So, for example, when  
describing a person, adolescents experiencing violent bodily  
changes during puberty indicate the skin condition much more  
often than subjects of other ages [5]. Rather, the body ego  
features are at an unconscious level, since ideas about one's  
own body and its boundaries are formed before an individual  
fully masters his native language. Besides, such results may be  
associated with the cross-cultural taboo of this topic.  
Our research hypothesis about the existence of culturally  
determined differences in personal and social identities  
components of Mongolian and Russian adolescents was  
additionally confirmed during the empirical testing based on  
the hierarchical cluster analysis. The analysis of the grounds for  
dividing the clusters of the Mongolian adolescents’ self-  
description features allows us to single out three parameters:  
perception of oneself as an activity or reflective subject;  
separation of personal and social identity; separation of  
membership in small and large groups. The last division  
parameter is also confirmed by the research data of Russian  
sociologists. The data obtained in the survey and interviewing  
made it possible to single out two dichotomous factors:  
involvement in the group (alienation) and concreteness, i.e.  
membership in a particular small group (abstractness) [17]. The  
analyzed grounds for dividing the clusters of the Russian  
adolescents’ self-description features allow us to discuss three  
parameters: perception of oneself as an activity or reflective  
subject; predominance of personal identity over social one and  
religious self-identification.  
Acknowledges  
This work is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic  
Research  
(project  
№
16-23-03005  
«Auto-  
and  
heterostereotypes of indigenous minorities of Mongolia:  
culture, language, self-identification»). The authors are grateful  
to their colleagues from Khovd State University for the  
organizational and linguistic support provided during the  
empirical research.  
Ethical issue  
Authors are aware of, and comply with, best practice in  
publication ethics specifically with regard to authorship  
(
avoidance of guest authorship), dual submission, manipulation  
of figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on  
research ethics. Authors adhere to publication requirements  
that submitted work is original and has not been published  
elsewhere in any language.  
Considering the relationship problem between social and  
personal identities, we support those authors (more about this:  
Competing interests  
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that  
would prejudice the impartiality of this scientific work.  
[
18]) who consider social identity as primary in relation to  
personal one. The use of the clustering procedure in the study  
19-20] showed the inclusion of personal characteristics in a  
[
Authors’ contribution  
All authors of this study have a complete contribution for  
data collection, data analyses and manuscript writing.  
person’s social identification. Our data, obtained earlier on  
preschoolers, confirm the primary influence of social  
representations (and social identity) on personal identity  
formation [21-22].  
Summarizing the cluster analysis results of both samples,  
we can state about partial autonomy of personal identity from  
social one. At the same time, the personal self features, which  
do not directly depend on an individual (his age, the general  
assessment of his personality, which depends more on social  
stereotypes, belonging to the human race) are included in the  
context of the social self. In the Mongolian sample, such a  
personal identity feature as a name is closely “intertwined” into  
social identity in the minds of Mongolian adolescents. Thus, the  
subjective internal criterion for dividing self-description  
features into personal and social identity ones is the degree of  
involvement and control of a subject in these features  
formation. This assumption, based on the empirical data, is  
theoretically confirmed in the work of A. Sh. Tkhostov and E.I.  
Rasskazova [3]. In the concept of bodily identity, the authors  
consider a subject's control feeling as a universal identity  
criterion (“a universal phenomenological experience”) [3].  
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