Religious Identity in Muslim Students (A Study of Young People Living in the Chechen Republic)

The paper presents outcomes of a social psychological study on the structure and content of various components of religious identity in Muslim youth using the methods of C. Leach and D. Van Camp. The study also aimed to reveal the relationship between the components of religious identity and social consolidation. The study was carried out in Grozny (Chechen Republic, Russia) in the autumn of 2015. The sample consisted of 417 first- and second-year students of Chechen universities with an average age of 19, 164 male and 253 female. Empirical testing of the original models on the sample of Muslim students showed that religious identity in the Chechen young people represents a four-factor structure comprised of the following parameters: individual religious identity; faith identity; social religious identity; religion as a means of social interaction. The study also revealed significant correlations between the various parameters of religious identity and social consolidation. The research was conducted with the assistance of the Russian Science Foundation (№15-06-10843 “Risks and Resources of Religious Identity in Modern Russia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis”).

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