Abstract

The article explores aspects of university students' attitudes and behaviours, especially as regards their value options and cultural consumption activities, through the analysis of data collected in a sample survey of 450 students enrolled at the University of Bologna. In terms of value orientations, the major difference between university students and other youth populations concerns the greater role played by study and culture in the lives of the former. On the basis of a principal components analysis and a subsequent cluster analysis, three major groups of students are identified: idealists, universalist materialists and particularist materialists. The three groups express different degrees of appreciation for culture as a value and - as shown by an analysis of consumption levels and styles in the following sectors: reading, listening to music, theatre-going, visiting museums and art exhibits, cinema, use of personal computers - divergent cultural preferences. "Idealists", who tend to be enrolled in humanist faculties, are the most culture-loving, whereas particularist materialists, who tend to study technical-scientific disciplines, attach the least importance to cultural pursuits. Other important differences in cultural consumption reflect students' gender and usual place of residence.