The Values and Character Dispositions of 14-16 Year Olds in the Hodge Hill Constituency

The influence of Religion

This study has not been directed at investigating any special role of religion in young
people’s thoughts about character. Religion was considered only as one among a number
of potential explanatory variables in the quantitative parts of the study. However, religion
has pushed itself forward as very influential.

Religion was seen to be important in two ways. Firstly, in the qualitative phases of the
study young people often made spontaneous references to religion when talking about
character, showing that they thought it was important. Secondly, in the factor analysis
religion was frequently one of the variables that proved to have explanatory value.
Distinct, though sometimes very subtle, differences were found in the structure of
responses from different religious groups. Muslim pupils stood out as being especially
distinctive. Pupils espousing other non-Christian religions were sometimes even more
distinctive; but due to their small numbers little can be deduced from this. Similarly, the
number of Roman Catholics is too small to support any analysis of their views (this is
largely because most of those living in the area attend Catholic schools outside it and
outside the study). Church of England, other Christians and even those who claimed no
religious faith sometimes stood out.

Any discussion of why religion proved important in these two ways would involve
speculation beyond the scope of this report.

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