Jan Šerek
Biographic Data
| ID | 184206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan Šerek |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan |
| FAMILY NAME | Šerek |
| SIGNATURE | ŠEREK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Masaryk University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2358-7329 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Mobilizing Power of (Dis)Respect: How Politicians’ Responses Influence Youth Pro-Environmental Activism
This study examined how respectful or disrespectful responses by politicians to the environmental activism of young citizens influenced those youths’ willingness to continue their activities. We also explored the roles of emotions, identity labeling, and the type of activism (i.e., normative vs. non-normative). Three preregistered vignette experiments were conducted with young Czech participants aged 18 to 25 ( N s = 230, 363, and 331, respective…
What Are the Consequences of Online Civic Engagement for Youth? A Longitudinal Study of Bidirectional Links With Civic and Social Outcomes
Young people's civic engagement in online environments, particularly on social networking sites, is often assumed to have mixed consequences for individual development. Previous theorizing suggests that online civic engagement can foster civic development by stimulating interest in sociopolitical issues and strengthening a sense of sociopolitical control. At the same time, it may also entail problematic outcomes, such as heightened perceptions of…
Building Trust in Governmental and Educational Authorities in Adolescence: A Comparison of Early, Middle, and Late Adolescents in Four European Countries
Research on procedural justice shows that giving voice to citizens or experts, providing transparent explanations, and acting predictably fosters trust in authorities. Yet little is known about how these processes operate during adolescence. It remains unclear whether these aspects of authority behavior are relevant to trust-building at the onset of adolescence and how their importance evolves with age. This study reports findings from a cross-na…
The effects of youth civic participation on well-being: Results from a seven-wave longitudinal study
This study investigates whether youth civic participation predicts positive changes in well-being over time. Data come from a seven-wave longitudinal study of 1,257 Czechs aged 18–30. Participants were followed for 1.5 years, during which they repeatedly completed seven self-report online questionnaires. Three dimensions of participation (protest, conventional, and social) and three dimensions of well-being (emotional, psychological, and social) …
Volunteering in three cohorts of Czech adolescents: The socialization roles of family, school, and associations
This study aims to identify the proximal socialization processes that are consistently related to adolescents’ volunteering across changing macrosocial conditions. We focused on three groups of Czech adolescents: one living in an early post-communist society (1995) and two living in developed democratic conditions (2010 and 2019). Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed survey-based data from 14-year to 17-year-olds (Ns = 833, 893, and 2,…
How ideology shapes legal concepts: The case of public order
This study explores the intersection of ideology and legal reasoning using a novel systemic approach grounded in network thinking, analyzing the vague legal concept of public order (PO) as a social representation. Our findings support the presence of a broadly agreed-upon core of PO, alongside a periphery, which is variable and connected to ideology, especially right-wing authoritarianism. In this context, political beliefs seem to be linked with…
Authoritarian Youth: Bidirectional Effects Between Authoritarianism, National Identification, and Political Participation Among Czech Youth
Young citizens’ political participation can fundamentally affect the functioning of democracies. Therefore, this study examined patterns of political participation among the youth. Specifically, the focus was on authoritarianism, national identification, and their presumed bidirectional relations with youth participation. Structural equation modeling of data from the two-wave longitudinal questionnaire of Czech adolescents and young adults (age 1…
Welfare Users’ Perceptions of Distributive Justice and Trust When Facing Institutional Enigma
The article examines the relationship between perceived distributive justice and trust in the welfare system within complex and self-contradictory policy setting. Based on thirty-three in-depth interviews with social assistance users in Poland and Czechia, we find that policy assemblages in those countries are experienced as confusing ‘institutional enigmas’. We identify four patterns linking perceptions of welfare system’s distributive justice a…
That's how the trust began: Forming trusting friendships from adolescence to adulthood
Adolescence represents a sensitive period for embarking on trust-based friendships, which lay the foundation for successful close relationships later in life. The recent trust sequence model assumes that the trust process is universal regardless of the developmental stage. However, how the trust process may vary has been under-researched, especially during the critical period of adolescence and in the context of friendships. Therefore, this study…
Activating effects of elections: Changes in young voters’ political engagement over the course of an election year
Although the effects of elections and measures of direct democracy on policy outcomes have been well researched, their indirect “educative value” has received less attention, particularly in relation to political engagement of young people. This study examined the activating effect of the national elections in Germany (2009), Czech Republic (2010), and Sweden (2014) on young voters’ political engagement. Young voters (Germany: N = 388; Czech Repu…
How citizens evaluate the legitimacy of direct vote and representation-based decision-making: Findings from the focus groups on adoption of the Euro and acceptance of refugees
How should political decisions be made to ensure a high level of legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary citizens? In order to answer this question, we conducted six focus groups (N = 29) with adults (20-78 years old). We analyzed data using a thematic analysis, within the essentialist/realist framework and focused on the explicit meanings of the data. Two specific issues were explored: the adoption of the Euro and acceptance of Syrian orphan refugees…
Authoritarianism, Trust in Media, and Tolerance Among the Youth: Two Pathways
Young people’s authoritarianism is usually associated with lower tolerance toward immigrants. This study tests several alternative pathways through which authoritarianism translates into intolerance. Besides perceived threat from immigration and political alienation, trust in alternative media, which often express anti-immigration sentiments, are considered as potential mediators. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze two-wave longitud…
Perceived legitimacy of antipandemic measures: Findings from west and East Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia at the peak of the Covid-19 crisis
The relation between the cyberhate and cyberbullying experiences of adolescents in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia
This study investigates the structural relationship between two types of cyberaggression: cyberhate and cyberbullying. Cyberhate is online hate speech that attacks collective identities. Cyberbullying is defined by the intent to harm, its repeated nature, and a power imbalance. Considering these features and the shared commonalities, we used survey data from adolescents from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia (N = 3,855, aged 11–17) to exam…
Just a “Mouthpiece of Biased Elites?” Populist Party Sympathizers and Trust in Czech Public Service Media
Existing research indicates that people with populist attitudes express lower trust in media, especially in Public Service Media. It is assumed that these people are alienated because of their values: populist ideology stems from anti-pluralism whereas Public Service Media promotes pluralism. This study tests this assumption by comparing the predictors of trust in Public Service Media between the populist party sympathizers and the sympathizers o…
How a direct vote and public deliberation contribute to the legitimacy of political decision-making: Examining situational and individual-level moderators
What reduces support for civil liberties: Authoritarianism, national identity, and perceived threat
Although civil liberties are considered to be one of the pillars of democracy, their support among people is far from unconditional. The aim of this article is to examine the predictors of people's willingness to trade off their civil liberties for a more restrictive form of government. We hypothesize that civil liberties trade‐off is positively predicted by individuals’ authoritarianism and national identity and that the effects of both variable…
National and European Identity Formation: A Longitudinal Cross-National Comparison Study
This study examined social identity development on the national and European domain using the three-dimensional identity status model. We took a person-centered approach to identify identity statuses and to study stability and change of identity statuses across one year within two longitudinal samples of young people aged 15 to 26 (MT1 = 19.81, SDT1 = 3.22) from Germany (n = 1028) and Czech Republic (n = 1342). Latent profile analyses of question…
Role of school climate and personality in the development of Czech adolescents’ political self-efficacy
This study examined the effects of school climate (open classroom and positive student relationships) and personality dispositions (shyness and need for cognition) on adolescents’ political self-efficacy. Data were collected in 2014 from 1,954 Czech ninth- and tenth-graders (mean age = 15.60). A multilevel analysis showed that school-level political self-efficacy predicted self-efficacy for local politics. However, schools and classrooms were rat…
Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth
Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g., with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g., with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth' national identity on identification with Europe. We used mu…
Does ‘clicking’ matter? The role of online participation in adolescents’ civic development
This study focuses on the role of online civic participation in the civic development of adolescents. We build on the assumption that online civic participation differs from more traditional offline civic participation in several key characteristics, namely lacking proximity to other actors, possible disconnection between civic actions and their outcomes, and a reduced hierarchy within the online environment. Considering these specifics, the stud…
The New Young Masaryks? Support for Democracy and Its Principles among Czech Adolescents
This article investigates levels and predictors of support for democracy and two democratic principles (free speech and minority rights) among Czech 14- to 17-year-olds. An analysis of survey data collected in primary and secondary schools in four regions in 2014 (N = 1,959) reveals that among young Czechs general support for a democratic regime is relatively independent from more specific pro-democratic attitudes (although there is an associatio…
And What About Siblings? A Longitudinal Analysis of Sibling Effects on Youth’s Intergroup Attitudes
What's the Matter With Civil Society? The Declining Effect of Civic Involvement on Civic Identity Among Czech Adolescents
This study shows that the beneficial impact of adolescents' involvement in civil society on their civic identity cannot be taken for granted. Employing the case of the Czech Republic, it is shown that this effect has vanished since early postcommunism to the present day. Survey data from two different generations of Czech middle adolescents were analyzed: the postcommunist generation (collected in 1995; n = 1,127) and the current generation (coll…
Different Developmental Pathways from Parental Warmth to Adolescents' Trust in Peers and Politicians: Mediating Roles of Adolescent-Parent Attachment and Belief in a Just World
National and European Identity Formation: A Longitudinal Cross-National Comparison Study
This study examined social identity development on the national and European domain using the three-dimensional identity status model. We took a person-centered approach to identify identity statuses and to study stability and change of identity statuses across one year within two longitudinal samples of young people aged 15 to 26 (MT1 = 19.81, SDT1 = 3.22) from Germany (n = 1028) and Czech Republic (n = 1342). Latent profile analyses of question…
The Roles of Individual Characteristics and Liberalism in Intentional and Unintentional Exposure to Online Sexual Material Among European Youth: A Multilevel Approach
Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth
Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g., with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g., with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth' national identity on identification with Europe. We used mu…
Different Developmental Pathways from Parental Warmth to Adolescents' Trust in Peers and Politicians: Mediating Roles of Adolescent-Parent Attachment and Belief in a Just World
And What About Siblings? A Longitudinal Analysis of Sibling Effects on Youth’s Intergroup Attitudes
Changes in late adolescents’ voting intentions during the election campaign: Disentangling the effects of political communication with parents, peers and media
This article investigates the effects of political discussions with parents, political discussions with peers and exposure to political news during an election campaign on the voting intentions and behaviour of first-time voters. Longitudinal data collected in the Czech Republic are employed in the main analysis ( N = 223). Results show that young people who frequently discuss politics with their peers are characterized by higher voting intention…
Ethnic Majority and Minority Youths’ Ascription of Responsibility for Solving Current Social Issues: Links to Civic Participation
The study examined current social issues that adolescents and young adults from majority and minority groups consider to be pressing issues in society, such as the environment, racism, and unemployment. Fourteen focus groups were conducted with majority (Czech) and minority (Roma and Ukrainian) participants (15-26 years of age). The issues were discussed with an emphasis on where the participants believed the responsibility lay for finding a solu…
Extent Matters: Exposure to Sexual Material Among Czech Adolescents
Adolescents use media that exposes them to sexual material. This study focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively high rates of exposure to sexual material (ESM). A sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years ( N = 495) taken from the project EU Kids Online II was examined for predictors of the following: frequency of ESM, place of ESM, and, for online ESM, the types of sites. The only predictors of sporadic ESM were ag…
Welfare Users’ Perceptions of Distributive Justice and Trust When Facing Institutional Enigma
The article examines the relationship between perceived distributive justice and trust in the welfare system within complex and self-contradictory policy setting. Based on thirty-three in-depth interviews with social assistance users in Poland and Czechia, we find that policy assemblages in those countries are experienced as confusing ‘institutional enigmas’. We identify four patterns linking perceptions of welfare system’s distributive justice a…
Predicting Online and Offline Civic Participation among Young Czech Roma: The Roles of Resources, Community Perceptions and Social Norms
Roma in the Czech Republic represent a large ethnic minority that faces intolerance and social exclusion. This study aims to describe factors that boost civic participation among Roma adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, it asks whether different factors apply to Roma and members of the majority, and whether different factors boost offline and online participation. Survey data were analysed from Roma (n = 157) and majority (n = 573) par…
That's how the trust began: Forming trusting friendships from adolescence to adulthood
Adolescence represents a sensitive period for embarking on trust-based friendships, which lay the foundation for successful close relationships later in life. The recent trust sequence model assumes that the trust process is universal regardless of the developmental stage. However, how the trust process may vary has been under-researched, especially during the critical period of adolescence and in the context of friendships. Therefore, this study…
Just a “Mouthpiece of Biased Elites?” Populist Party Sympathizers and Trust in Czech Public Service Media
Existing research indicates that people with populist attitudes express lower trust in media, especially in Public Service Media. It is assumed that these people are alienated because of their values: populist ideology stems from anti-pluralism whereas Public Service Media promotes pluralism. This study tests this assumption by comparing the predictors of trust in Public Service Media between the populist party sympathizers and the sympathizers o…
Twenty Years After the Velvet Revolution: Shifts in Czech Adolescents’ Perceptions of Family, School, and Society
Families and schools are traditionally seen as substantial socialization agents forming adolescents’ social values and their views of society. Special attention is paid to the question whether the relative importance of these influences remains stable in times of major social changes. In this study, two different generations of Czech middle adolescents are compared: (a) the “post-totalitarian” generation that grew up in the last decade of the com…
Citizenship as given or taken? Meanings and practices among majority and minority youth
Present study sheds more light on the conceptualization of citizenship and civic engagement among majority and minority youth. In order to understand the meanings of citizenship, fourteen focus groups were conducted with young people aged 16–26, with both civically engaged and disengaged young ethnic Czechs, Roma, and Ukrainians. Results suggest that young people understand the citizenship as having multiple dimensions (legal and personal, and in…
Extent Matters: Exposure to Sexual Material Among Czech Adolescents
Adolescents use media that exposes them to sexual material. This study focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively high rates of exposure to sexual material (ESM). A sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years ( N = 495) taken from the project EU Kids Online II was examined for predictors of the following: frequency of ESM, place of ESM, and, for online ESM, the types of sites. The only predictors of sporadic ESM were ag…
Online only: Which Czech young adults prefer online civic participation
This study examined whether people who prefer online over offline civic participation differ from those who participate in both environments, who prefer offline participation, or do not participate. Using a cross-sectional sample of young adults (age 18-28) recruited in the Czech Republic (N = 720), we compared these four groups (defined by their types of civic participation) regarding their socio-demographic profiles, trust (social, individual, …
The Roles of Individual Characteristics and Liberalism in Intentional and Unintentional Exposure to Online Sexual Material Among European Youth: A Multilevel Approach
Twenty Years After the Velvet Revolution: Shifts in Czech Adolescents’ Perceptions of Family, School, and Society
Families and schools are traditionally seen as substantial socialization agents forming adolescents’ social values and their views of society. Special attention is paid to the question whether the relative importance of these influences remains stable in times of major social changes. In this study, two different generations of Czech middle adolescents are compared: (a) the “post-totalitarian” generation that grew up in the last decade of the com…
Ethnic Majority and Minority Youths’ Ascription of Responsibility for Solving Current Social Issues: Links to Civic Participation
The study examined current social issues that adolescents and young adults from majority and minority groups consider to be pressing issues in society, such as the environment, racism, and unemployment. Fourteen focus groups were conducted with majority (Czech) and minority (Roma and Ukrainian) participants (15-26 years of age). The issues were discussed with an emphasis on where the participants believed the responsibility lay for finding a solu…
Changes in late adolescents’ voting intentions during the election campaign: Disentangling the effects of political communication with parents, peers and media
This article investigates the effects of political discussions with parents, political discussions with peers and exposure to political news during an election campaign on the voting intentions and behaviour of first-time voters. Longitudinal data collected in the Czech Republic are employed in the main analysis ( N = 223). Results show that young people who frequently discuss politics with their peers are characterized by higher voting intention…
Predicting Online and Offline Civic Participation among Young Czech Roma: The Roles of Resources, Community Perceptions and Social Norms
Roma in the Czech Republic represent a large ethnic minority that faces intolerance and social exclusion. This study aims to describe factors that boost civic participation among Roma adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, it asks whether different factors apply to Roma and members of the majority, and whether different factors boost offline and online participation. Survey data were analysed from Roma (n = 157) and majority (n = 573) par…
Different Developmental Pathways from Parental Warmth to Adolescents' Trust in Peers and Politicians: Mediating Roles of Adolescent-Parent Attachment and Belief in a Just World
Does ‘clicking’ matter? The role of online participation in adolescents’ civic development
This study focuses on the role of online civic participation in the civic development of adolescents. We build on the assumption that online civic participation differs from more traditional offline civic participation in several key characteristics, namely lacking proximity to other actors, possible disconnection between civic actions and their outcomes, and a reduced hierarchy within the online environment. Considering these specifics, the stud…
The New Young Masaryks? Support for Democracy and Its Principles among Czech Adolescents
This article investigates levels and predictors of support for democracy and two democratic principles (free speech and minority rights) among Czech 14- to 17-year-olds. An analysis of survey data collected in primary and secondary schools in four regions in 2014 (N = 1,959) reveals that among young Czechs general support for a democratic regime is relatively independent from more specific pro-democratic attitudes (although there is an associatio…
And What About Siblings? A Longitudinal Analysis of Sibling Effects on Youth’s Intergroup Attitudes
What's the Matter With Civil Society? The Declining Effect of Civic Involvement on Civic Identity Among Czech Adolescents
This study shows that the beneficial impact of adolescents' involvement in civil society on their civic identity cannot be taken for granted. Employing the case of the Czech Republic, it is shown that this effect has vanished since early postcommunism to the present day. Survey data from two different generations of Czech middle adolescents were analyzed: the postcommunist generation (collected in 1995; n = 1,127) and the current generation (coll…
Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth
Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g., with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g., with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth' national identity on identification with Europe. We used mu…
Role of school climate and personality in the development of Czech adolescents’ political self-efficacy
This study examined the effects of school climate (open classroom and positive student relationships) and personality dispositions (shyness and need for cognition) on adolescents’ political self-efficacy. Data were collected in 2014 from 1,954 Czech ninth- and tenth-graders (mean age = 15.60). A multilevel analysis showed that school-level political self-efficacy predicted self-efficacy for local politics. However, schools and classrooms were rat…
What reduces support for civil liberties: Authoritarianism, national identity, and perceived threat
Although civil liberties are considered to be one of the pillars of democracy, their support among people is far from unconditional. The aim of this article is to examine the predictors of people's willingness to trade off their civil liberties for a more restrictive form of government. We hypothesize that civil liberties trade‐off is positively predicted by individuals’ authoritarianism and national identity and that the effects of both variable…
National and European Identity Formation: A Longitudinal Cross-National Comparison Study
This study examined social identity development on the national and European domain using the three-dimensional identity status model. We took a person-centered approach to identify identity statuses and to study stability and change of identity statuses across one year within two longitudinal samples of young people aged 15 to 26 (MT1 = 19.81, SDT1 = 3.22) from Germany (n = 1028) and Czech Republic (n = 1342). Latent profile analyses of question…
The relation between the cyberhate and cyberbullying experiences of adolescents in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia
This study investigates the structural relationship between two types of cyberaggression: cyberhate and cyberbullying. Cyberhate is online hate speech that attacks collective identities. Cyberbullying is defined by the intent to harm, its repeated nature, and a power imbalance. Considering these features and the shared commonalities, we used survey data from adolescents from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia (N = 3,855, aged 11–17) to exam…
Just a “Mouthpiece of Biased Elites?” Populist Party Sympathizers and Trust in Czech Public Service Media
Existing research indicates that people with populist attitudes express lower trust in media, especially in Public Service Media. It is assumed that these people are alienated because of their values: populist ideology stems from anti-pluralism whereas Public Service Media promotes pluralism. This study tests this assumption by comparing the predictors of trust in Public Service Media between the populist party sympathizers and the sympathizers o…
How a direct vote and public deliberation contribute to the legitimacy of political decision-making: Examining situational and individual-level moderators
How citizens evaluate the legitimacy of direct vote and representation-based decision-making: Findings from the focus groups on adoption of the Euro and acceptance of refugees
How should political decisions be made to ensure a high level of legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary citizens? In order to answer this question, we conducted six focus groups (N = 29) with adults (20-78 years old). We analyzed data using a thematic analysis, within the essentialist/realist framework and focused on the explicit meanings of the data. Two specific issues were explored: the adoption of the Euro and acceptance of Syrian orphan refugees…
Authoritarianism, Trust in Media, and Tolerance Among the Youth: Two Pathways
Young people’s authoritarianism is usually associated with lower tolerance toward immigrants. This study tests several alternative pathways through which authoritarianism translates into intolerance. Besides perceived threat from immigration and political alienation, trust in alternative media, which often express anti-immigration sentiments, are considered as potential mediators. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze two-wave longitud…
Perceived legitimacy of antipandemic measures: Findings from west and East Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia at the peak of the Covid-19 crisis
Activating effects of elections: Changes in young voters’ political engagement over the course of an election year
Although the effects of elections and measures of direct democracy on policy outcomes have been well researched, their indirect “educative value” has received less attention, particularly in relation to political engagement of young people. This study examined the activating effect of the national elections in Germany (2009), Czech Republic (2010), and Sweden (2014) on young voters’ political engagement. Young voters (Germany: N = 388; Czech Repu…
The effects of youth civic participation on well-being: Results from a seven-wave longitudinal study
This study investigates whether youth civic participation predicts positive changes in well-being over time. Data come from a seven-wave longitudinal study of 1,257 Czechs aged 18–30. Participants were followed for 1.5 years, during which they repeatedly completed seven self-report online questionnaires. Three dimensions of participation (protest, conventional, and social) and three dimensions of well-being (emotional, psychological, and social) …
Politics (24 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Political science (23 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Social Media and Politics (16 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Czech (13 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works)