The fluidity of Finnish youths’ Personal worldviews

ABSTRACT

This article aims to understand the personal worldviews of Finnish youths. The fluidity of young people’s personal worldviews has been highlighted in a number of previous studies, and this study presents more information by focusing on possible spiritual and religious elements in the personal worldviews of young people and on the influences that affect their personal worldviews. The data of this study consist of a quantitative questionnaire acquired from Finnish upper secondary school students (N = 973). The results show that young people’s personal worldviews are not fixed but are fluid and that nominal membership in a religious community does not explain their worldviews. Young people do not see religion as important to them, and they see religion more as a part of culture and their environment than as a part of their personal worldview. The most important sources of information for the construction of their personal worldview are school and the Internet.

KEYWORDS:

• Youths
• youths’ personal worldviews
• worldviews

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Lipiäinen Tuuli

Lipiäinen Tuuli (M.Ed.) is a lecturer in Normal Lyceum of Helsinki and Doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. Her research interests include teacher profession, worldviews in educational context, and integrated worldview education. https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/tuuli-kristiina-lipi%C3%A4inen

Kuusisto Arniika

Kuusisto Arniika is Professor (Early Childhood Education) at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. Her research includes Academy of Finland projects ”Growing up radical? The role of educational institutions in guiding young people's worldview construction” (2018–2023) and ”Child in Time – Existential Resilience in Early Childhood” (2023–2027). https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/arniika-kuusisto

Kallioniemi Arto

Kallioniemi Arto is Professor of Religious Education (since 2001). He also holds the UNESCO chair on Values, Dialogue and Human Rights. He has published several books and articles related worldview education, human rights education and leadership. https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/arto-kallioniemi