Methodological challenges of designing a survey to capture young people’s (non-binary) affiliations in relationship to religion, sexuality and gender

ABSTRACT

Large-scale population studies surveying young people in relation to their worldviews have tended to frame their identities in a fixed and limited capacity while also treating the topics of religion/spirituality and sexuality/gender as discrete categories of scholarly analysis. We highlight the affordances and limitations of foregrounding fixed religious, sexual and gender-based identity categories in the process of collecting and analysing data related to the worldviews of young people. In this paper we argue the value of studying the complexities and intersections of these identities and worldviews together in one study. We do this through reference to the Australia’s Generation Z (AGZ) study: the first nationally representative sample focused on providing an evidence-based understanding of both the religious/spiritual/non-religious and sexuality/gender identities and worldviews of young Australians aged 13–18. We discuss how we built on existing surveys in designing the AGZ survey. We also demonstrate how this survey allowed for the incorporation of young people’s non-binary understandings of religion, sexuality and gender.

KEYWORDS:

• Quantitative survey methods
• young people
• identity categories
• worldviews

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. We acknowledge that all these countries’ engagements with the topics of religion, gender and sexuality have their own traditions affected by unique local and national as well as socio-political and cultural factors. We therefore do not propose that all approach research on these issues in exactly the same way, but rather that they are influenced by similar scholarly discussions in relation to controversial issues related to progressive sexuality education and religion. Research on English-speaking countries in particular not only produces interconnected discourses that rely on cross-referencing, even in relation to the development of study questionnaires (see e.g., Mason et al., 2007), but also on collaborative work. This project exemplifies this point, as the AGZ team collaborated with the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) scholars Elisabeth Arweck, Robert Jackson and Leslie Francis on this project who are Partner Investigators since 2014.

2. The fourth wave questionnaire about non-religious identities, which was used in 2013 when respondents were in their twenties, was not changed significantly compared to the first wave NSYR study survey instrument (Table 1).

3. It is significant to acknowledge that in the case of both studies, this limitation only applies to the quantitative aspect of data collection. Both projects adopted a mixed-method approach whereby the qualitative component in the form of follow up in-depth interviews and video diaries were specifically designed to not use fixed religious and sexual identity categories allowing for broadened response options. Given that this paper specifically focuses on the design of survey questionnaires, we do not elaborate on this aspect further.

4. Australian Research Council Discovery Project 160102367.

Additional information

Funding

The AGZ study was funded through an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant [DP160102367].

Notes on contributors

Mary Lou Rasmussen

Prof.Mary Lou Rasmussen has undertaken research in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Her research focuses on building transdisciplinary understanding of sexuality and gender across diverse lifeworlds, taking account of issues related to sexual citizenship, cultural and religious difference and technologies of sexuality, education and health. She is co-editor, with Louisa Allen, of the Handbook of Sexuality Education (Palgrave).

Sulamith Graefenstein

Sulamith Graefenstein (PhD) is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australian National University. She has undertaken research in Europe, North America and Asia. Her work in the area of Memory Studies and Museum Studies focuses on developing an understanding of how human rights museums and human rights memorial museums help promote notions of (trans)national justice and solidarity in an era of circulating Holocaust memory and human rights. She is author of the book The National Museum of Australia and the Debate about Australian Colonial History, published in German (Lit-Verlag 2013).

Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton (PhD) is a Professor of Sociology and Social Research at Deakin University. His research interests in the sociology of religion include secularisation, youth religion, personal belief, and alternative religions. Singleton has published extensively in these areas, both nationally and internationally. He is a co-author (with Michael Mason and Ruth Webber) of the book The Spirit of Generation Y: Young People’s Spirituality in a Changing Australia (Garrett Publishing, 2007) and the author of Religion, Culture and Society: A Global Approach (Sage, 2014).

Anna Halafoff

Associate Professor Anna Halafoff is a sociologist of religion and a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. She is also a Research Associate of the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations –Asia Pacific at Monash University. Anna’s current research interests include: religious diversity; interreligious relations; countering violent extremism; and education about religions and worldviews. She is the author of The Multifaith Movement: Global Risks and Cosmopolitan Solutions (Springer, 2013) and co-editor (with E. Arweck and D. Boisvert) of Education about Religions and Worldviews: Promoting Intercultural and Interreligious Understanding in Secular Societies (Routledge, 2016).

Gary Bouma

Gary Bouma is the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations –Asia Pacific and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Monash University. Current research interests include changing worldviews, religion and right-wing extremism, religion and social justice. He is an Associate Priest in the Anglican Parish of St John’s East Malvern. Author of over 25 books and 390 articles, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to Sociology, to interreligious relations and to the Anglican Church of Australia.