The work importance study: Recent changes of values in Croatia

The paper analyses value change in Croatia, a country that has undergone ma jor political, social, and economic changes since 1990. The instrument used was the Work Importance Study (WIS) Values Scale, a multiscale, Likert-typ e instrument providing for the assessment of 19 values. In November 1993, t he Values Scale was administered to 446 secondary-school students in Zagreb . These data are compared with the 1983 data for 949 secondary-school stude nts from Croatia. In spring 1994, the Values Scale was administered to 298 university students from various departments. These data are compared with the 1983 data for 348 university students of similar departmental compositi on. The 1983-1993/94 comparison showed that two groups of values changed si gnificantly in both groups of students: utilitarian values and individualis tic values increased in importance. An attempt has been made to interpret t he changes in the light of the present socio-economic situation in Croatia. The implications for the general problem of durability of psychosocial phe nomena are also discussed.