Adolescents’ Perception of Religious Education According to Religion and Gender in Spain

Abstract

The aim of our study is to verify the influence of Religious Education on Spanish adolescents by applying a quantitative study based on descriptive and social research methods which reflect the religious and social plurality of Spain, with a total of 679 secondary education students. By means of the Delphi technique, an exploratory and semi-confirmatory factor analysis, and a confirmatory analysis using structural equations, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire designed are guaranteed. Using a multivariate analysis of variance, after the Levene test, multiple comparisons are made in order to assess the difference between religions and gender with respect to school Religious Education. Significant differences and large effect sizes are found. The results show first that experiences with regard to religion in school are more positive for the group of Christian women and that of Muslim men; second, that the knowledge of religion helps in the daily development of adolescents; third, that men from the two major religious groups and Jewish women demand more autonomy; and lastly, that students consider that the curricular development of religion in school should be reviewed, although it is confirmed that Religious Education is regarded as important for their life and future development.

Analysis of the Perceptions Shared by Young People about the Relevance and Versatility of Religion in Culturally Diverse Contexts

“…The results allow us to affirm that the students' perception about the relevance of religion (RR) by gender is not significant (t = 1.56, p = 0.423). However, other research studies have revealed gender differences, such us more positive experiences in relation to religion at school in the case of Christian women [26] and the consideration of religion as important during adolescence for Israeli Orthodox Jewish women [37].…”

“…This brief review of the scientific literature shows an interest in investigating all of those key factors that gradually shape adolescents' collective identity. One of them would be religious education in educational institutions, which has been the focus of a large number of research studies [26,27] dealing with the importance attributed by adolescents to religion in the official curriculum in the formal educational context. These studies show that they consider religion to be an important element for their life and their development as human beings, showing other ways of interrelating with peers and, even in some cases, improving their academic results [28], in addition to becoming into a facilitating or limiting factor in the process of social inclusion [3].…”

“…Thus, it was deduced that the number of years of religion studies of young people does not influence the importance attributed to it, the reason why Hypothesis 3 is partially rejected. Nevertheless, previous studies point out the relevance of religious education for the development of this group, as it promotes their development and positive prosperity [38], as well as the need to review the development of the religion curriculum across the different educational stages [26].…”