Adolescent religious engagement and democracy: a comparison of student attitudes in Hong Kong and South Korea

ABSTRACT

Although the development of Asia adolescents’ citizenship values has been widely discussed, limited attention has been paid for the role of religion in shaping those values. The possibility has been suggested that Asian religious contexts may be understood differently from those in the West and research findings in those contexts are not necessarily applicable to Asia. This study, therefore, sought to understand further the association between the religious engagement of Asian adolescents’ and democratic values. The results indicated that attitudes to equality were moderately influenced by an understanding of democracy while religious engagement showed small, negative or non-significant associations with equality. Students’ understanding of democracy did not mediate the effect of students’ religious engagement. These results provide further support for the view that in Asian contexts religious engagement may not necessarily provide a conductive environment for supporting traditional democratic values.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious engagement
• Hong Kong
• South Korea
• secondary students
• citizenship

Disclosure statement

The views presented in this paper are personal only and do not necessarily represent those of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and The Education University of Hong Kong, and do not commit the respective organisations.