| Abstract [eng] |
This thesis examines social mobility in contemporary Lithuania (the object of the study) based on Blau and Duncan's (1967) status attainment model. The aim of this paper is to discover which family characteristics promote social mobility (education and occupation) of individuals in contemporary Lithuanian society and which factors have the most influence on it. The theoretical part of the thesis presents the concept of social mobility (types and research strategies), and describes the main factors defining and promoting social mobility, which allows for identifying the influence on the achievement of education and occupation level. Taking into account the relevance and problematics of social mobility as a social phenomenon and the work of European and Lithuanian researchers, the aim is to fill the niche of research on this topic by using Blau and Duncan's model of status attainment as well as the methods applied in similar works. The research is based on quantitative methods - descriptive, correlation, and regression analyses. The European Social Survey 2020 (Round 10) is the main data source. The empirical study revealed that social mobility in Lithuania can be associated with structural mobility, which is a result of the country's historical past - belonging to the Soviet Union, and the transition to a market economy after the restoration of independence. It also highlighted the key factors that can promote and limit social mobility in contemporary Lithuania. The interaction between the mother's and father's education promotes the attainment of a higher level of education, while the mother's profession and the respondent's gender (male) limit it. Meanwhile, the achievement of a higher occupational level can be significantly positively influenced by the interaction between the mother's and father's education, the highest level of education acquired by the respondent, and negatively influenced by gender. The paper raises two hypotheses. The first is that father's education and occupation have the greatest influence on social mobility. The study found that the father's occupation is not a significant factor (in both the education and occupation models), and the father's education is only a significant factor in the interaction with the mother's education. Thus, the first hypothesis is rejected. The second hypothesis is that the interaction between a mother's and father's occupation has the greatest impact on an individual's social mobility. The regression models showed that the child's own education has the largest impact on the upward movement of a person's occupational level, while the interaction between the mother's and the father's education, although it can affect vertical upward movement, has a small impact. Therefore, the second hypothesis is only partially confirmed. |
