VALUE SYSTEM AS A FACTOR OF YOUNG PEOPLE’S TRUST IN EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THREE COUNTRIES OF SOUTHEAST EUROPE

Trust in institutions is important in the functioning of an individual society, especially in emergency situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.The aim of this paper is to investigate the trust of young people in education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia and to investigate the connection between trust in education and their value system. The research was conducted on 1024 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia using an online survey. The PVQ-RR questionnaire on 10 basic human values (Schwartz 2017) was used in the research – self-direction, benevolence, stimulation, achievement, tradition, security, conformity, power, universalism and hedonism.The results of the multiple regression indicate that the value of conformity is a significant predictor of trust in education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, while the values of tradition, conformity, stimulation and universalism are important predictors of trust in education in Croatia. These differences in results are very likely related to the specific situation in Croatia, which suffered a devastating earthquake in addition to the pandemic in its capital, which should be taken into account in the future when creating and implementing psycho-social support and assistance programs.