Adolescents' transitions between different views on democracy: Examining individual-level moderators

This study aims to identify individual patterns of adolescents' views on democracy, adolescents' transitions between the patterns over time, and individual-level predictors of these transitions. Two waves of longitudinal survey data from 768 Czech high school students (T1 mean age 15.97) were analyzed using latent transition analysis. Results suggested three basic patterns of adolescents' views on democracy: majority-oriented (disregarding minority rights and interests), conventional (having narrowed understanding of civil liberties), and liberal (supporting both minority rights and civil liberties). Of these, the liberal view pattern was the least stable over time, and its stability was linked to adolescents' institutional trust and civic participation. Specifically, adolescents who were less trusting of institutions were more likely to adopt the majority-oriented (vs. liberal) view, while less civically active adolescents were more likely to switch to the conventional view. Authoritarianism was linked to adolescents' initial views, but it did not predict change over time.