Search

Abstract Values and religious orientations are traditionally considered as fostering guidelines for individual life perspectives and choices. The present paper attempts to find out whether this is still true for Swiss adolescents. Hedonism, benevolence, self-direction and universalism are their preferred values, as data from a survey of 748 adolescents (aged 12-16) shows, tradition and conformity the least important. 25 of the surveyed adolescents were selected for an interview and confronted with the story of a young Muslim woman who has to decide whether she wants to wear a headscarf at school or not. The adolescents activate general knowledge about comparable situations in order to find a solution for the dilemma and they also refer to value-oriented rationales. Only five of ten possible values were used (universalism, benevolence, self-direction, tradition, conformity), self-direction being the most important value. Although the dilemma could be understood as a religious dilemma, adolescents rarely refer to religious concepts when discussing it.

The authors show how qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined in a 'mixed methods' research model to provide a multifaceted view of family religion and rituals. Results from a Swiss research project on bedtime rituals are reported and methodological issues connected with this approach are discussed. In this project case studies, qualitative content analysis and a family survey (N=1344) were combined to explore the 'patterned creativity' of today's families in their ritual and religious practices. Qualitative methods elucidate the families' unique capacity to shape their ritual and religious microcosms. Families vary in the selection, combination and staging of the ritual elements they incorporate in their evening rituals with children. Quantitative methods help to identify motives and types of evening rituals and to position these types in a societal context. Together the complementary approaches also broaden the scope of the study of family prayers.

The article focuses on how a dialectical relationship between empirical research and theological normativity can and should influence the design of an empirical study at important points of the planning process. It draws on a systems view of scientific activity proposed as a working model for family research by Lavee & Dollahite (1991). Many decisions, each connected with norms and values, have to be taken with regard to the selection of the research topic, the theoretical and methodological approaches and the application of research findings. Besides normativity rooted in consensual knowledge of the scientific community, reflective theological normativity can deploy a critical and disclosive power as is demonstrated in the article with regard to a research project centering on the theme of bedtime ritualisations in parent-child interactions, their intergenerational transmission and their relationship to the institutionalised ritual of baptism.

This chapter talks about the goal to describe different aspects of religion and to present the value orientations of young people and aims to understand how religiosity and value systems are connected. In the most recent Shell-Youth-Study developmental aspects are discussed but not empirically researched. Adolescents affiliated with non-Christian religious communities were also recruited through cooperation with relevant religious organizations and extra-curricular religious education programmes. The sample is described based on demographic characteristics, type of school, family and religious background, and migration background. A selection of results based on the answers to the questions by young people is presented categorized by religious group and gender. The attitudes of different religious groups is compared. Both Muslim and Hindu groups show great support for religious plurality and object to Christianity being the most important religion in Switzerland. Keywords: Christianity; Hindu; migration background; Muslim; religion; Shell-Youth-Study ; Switzerland; VROID-MHAP

This chapter focuses on parents and their influence on children. Four types of family influence on the centrality and different dimensions of religion for children are examined (individual influence by mother and father, influences of parents religious agreement, religious family climate(R-F-C) and transgenerational transmission of religion (T-T-R)). The data set is based on a Swiss survey of 393 families of which both parents and one child completed a paper and pencil questionnaire. Results show substantial effects of all the family variables on childrens religiosity. The individual influence of mother and father seems of paramount importance, but the actual and perceived spousal agreement concerning religion, the religious family climate and influences from the mothers and fathers families of origin also show a significant effect on childrens religiosity. The theoretical implications of these effects are discussed, both as they contribute to research on religious socialisation and empirical research in theology.Keywords: childrens religiosity; empirical research; family variables; parents religious agreement; perceived spousal agreement; religious family climate(R-F-C); religious socialisation; Swiss survey; transgenerational transmission of religion(T-T-R)