In the conditions of unstable modern community development we should secure our future. Thus, the issue of social responsibility among both individuals (citizens, representatives of different professions), and collective subjects (corporations, governments, states) becomes more and more relevant. In this article, taking into account the experience of Russian and foreign scientists, the methodology of the activity approach, social and active education and theories of positive action of the youth, we may reveal the potential of the social test method in the development of social responsibility among secondary school students. The peculiar feature of this method being applied consists in ensuring the students’ voluntary participation in socially important activities. Moreover, these activities include the following discussion and feedback concerning their social responsibility (its value bases, the ways of demonstration and implementation, the effect on the participants and people around them) together with the consistently increasing authorship and social interaction experience in the course of analyzed activity.

The article presents a study aimed at studying the relationship between involvement in various types of socially significant activities and the structural elements of responsibility in schoolchildren. The study was conducted in the form of an online survey in 2020 (N = 85 students aged 11 to 17). Study methods are "Responsibility-110" methodology (V.P. Pryadein and O.V. Mukhlynina) and a questionnaire survey. The results are as follows: 1) schoolchildren are more massively involved in athletic (over 50% of the respondents) and creative (about 30%) activities; 2) the breadth of participation in different types of activities correlates with the responsibility characteristics; 3) differences were found in the structure of responsibility among schoolchildren involved in athletic and creative activities. The authors conclude that the breadth and content of schoolchildren's social activities are related to the structure of their responsibility. The results of the study expand the understanding of the relationship between involvement in socially significant activities and the structure of schoolchildren's responsibility. The limitations of the study indicate that a deeper study of responsibility in the context of social activity is needed in the future.