Differences of Personal Agency Between the Cohorts in Lithuania: Relating Gender, Period and Attitudes Towards the Breaking of Public Norms

Abstract

The article is aimed at showing how the perception of personal agency is interlinked with the attitudes towards keeping up or breaking the public norms among different age groups in Lithuania. The article proposes the general thesis that this link may be determined by the different experience and socialisation of generations. The article employs the quantitative representative data (collected in 2020) from the survey of the Lithuanian population aged 18–52, which is analysed using bivariate and multivariate methods by comparing two distinctive generations. The data analysis reveals the pattern – the middle-aged cohort has a weaker sense of agency and is more likely to justify breaking of certain public norms than younger adults. Additionally, the age cohort factor or generational categories are an important factor in explaining how the disapproval of breaking of certain public norms is correlated with higher levels of personal agency. The latter finding supports the conceptual thesis that socialisation in the Soviet system may be an important factor in determining differences in personal agency and the attitudes of public norm breaking in Lithuania.