Socio-Demographic Determinants of Online Dating Practices Among Russian Students

Klimenko, German

Dating phenomena hold significant interest for researchers because of direct influence on the predicted level of marriage and birth rates. Key aspects of this analysis include dating methods, goals, and preferred characteristics in a romantic partner. Despite the significance of these factors, dating remains under-explored within the scientific discourse in Russia, particularly regarding statistical data on these key aspects.

This study aims to analyze the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on dating practices among Russian students who have experience using online dating methods. A survey was conducted involving 3,838 students from 164 universities across various specializations in 46 regions of the Russian Federation. Approximately 80% of the respondents reported experience with online dating through social networks and specialized online dating services, forming the basis for the subsequent analysis.

The initial phase of the study involved the development of a probabilistic model incorporating eight dating goals and eleven key characteristics. Subsequently, factor analysis was employed to categorize these aspects. Dating goals were clustered into four groups: family formation, finding friends, long-term and short-term relationships. Key characteristics were grouped into three categories: internal and external characteristics, as well as minimum requirements for a partner. Influence models were constructed based on these categorizations.

The following findings emerged:

Male students demonstrated a higher likelihood of engaging in dating for both short-term and long-term romantic relationships.
The popularity of short-term relationships within the online dating increased with the age of the student.
Marriage and children were not the primary goals of student dating; however, long-term relationships were more common among this group.
female students exhibited a higher degree of partner selectivity, placing greater emphasis on both internal and external characteristics
Male students demonstrated a preference for physical attractiveness
The significance of internal characteristics tended to decrease with age.