Are Birds of a Feather Praying Together? Assessing Friends’ Influence on Muslim Youths’ Religiosity in Germany

Abstract

Muslim religiosity is often portrayed as a barrier to integration into secular societies, especially in Europe. Scholars suggest that religiously segregated networks reinforce Muslims’ religiosity and religious identification, but solid evidence is scarce. Based on longitudinal German data, we examined whether friendship networks influence Muslim youths’ religiosity. Using stochastic actor-oriented models, we also assessed whether religiosity in turn relates to friendship choices. We found that higher shares of Muslim friends neither increase Muslim youths’ religious identification nor their frequency of prayer, but they are associated with more frequent mosque attendance. Furthermore, Muslim youths assimilated their Muslim friends’ mosque attendance and frequency of prayer. Friends’ actual religious practices, rather than shared group membership, thus seems to shape individual religiosity. Finally, religiosity does not hamper interreligious friendships; it was unrelated to friendship choices. Results are similar for Christian youths, suggesting that these patterns are not unique to Muslims.

Friendships

“…Adolescents tend to adjust their ethnic identification toward that of their friends (Santos et al 2017), especially if these friends come from the same ethnic group (Jugert et al 2020). There also is evidence that adolescents tend to adopt the religiosity and religious behaviors of their friends (Cheadle and Schwadel 2012;Leszczensky and Pink 2020). By contrast, there is no consistent evidence that friends' mere group membership affects adolescents' social identities; neither is national identification of ethnic minority adolescents influenced by having ethnic majority friends nor is Muslim youth's religious identification influenced by having Muslim friends (Leszczensky and Pink 2020).…”

“…Regarding attitudes, adolescents are inclined to befriend peers with who are similar to them in general xenophobia and tolerance (van Zalk et al 2013). Research also has shown that adolescents tend to befriend peers with similar levels of religiosity (Cheadle and Schwadel 2012;Leszczensky and Pink 2020). By contrast, a recent study found no evidence that adolescents befriend peers with similar levels of homophobic attitudes (La Roi et al 2020).…”

Peer Relationships and Indonesian Muslim Adolescents' Religiosity and Religious Coping: Selection and Influence

“…We assessed religious influence in a homogenous ethnic and religious sample with the finding that friends influenced each other with respect to both religiosity and religious coping. This research expands upon the findings of religious influence by Leszczensky and Pink (2020) who also assessed selection and influence within a sample of Muslim adolescents. Consistent with Leszczensky and Pink (2020), it appears that influence over religiousness may be particularly strong when homogenous religious samples are assessed.…”

“…This research expands upon the findings of religious influence by Leszczensky and Pink (2020) who also assessed selection and influence within a sample of Muslim adolescents. Consistent with Leszczensky and Pink (2020), it appears that influence over religiousness may be particularly strong when homogenous religious samples are assessed.…”

“…Second, intra-religion selection was confounded with interreligion selection and ethnicity. Leszczensky and Pink (2020) explored intrareligion selection and influence separately for 13year-old Muslim and Christian youth in schools that enrolled large numbers of immigrant students. The researchers found that Muslim students were influenced by their Muslim friends with respect to praying and mosque attendance but there was no evidence of selection.…”