Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany (English Version) - Cognitive Pretest

Abstract:

The research project "Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany" examines the patterns and social backgrounds, including the actors who promote such legitimation-providing attitudes among adolescents.
The subject of this pretest are questions about questions about religious affiliation, identification with religion, Islamist fundamentalist attitudes and experience with extremism.
The questionnaire was developed in German and translated into Turkish and Arabic, among other languages. The aim of the cognitive pretest was to test both the original questionnaire and the translations.
The questions were tested via face-to-face cognitive interviews.

*Note: The items were tested in German. The items documented here are English translations of the original German wordings.*

Citation:

Hadler, P., Lenzner, T., Neuert, C., Quint, F. & Steins, P. (2019): Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany (English Version). Cognitive Pretest. GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

DOI:

10.17173/pretest85

Number of Participants:

14

Selection of Target Population/Quotas:

Students of all types of schools, including vocational schools [Berufsschulen], aged 15-21, who feel that they belong to an Islamic faith.
In each case, 5 with German language skills, 5 with mainly Turkish language skills, and 4 with (highly) Arabic language skills. 3-4 male participants per language group.
In addition to these requirements there were no further demands on the sample.

Test Date:

08/2019 - 09/2019

Number of cognitive interviewers:

4

Pretests conducted in the lab (video-recorded):

14

Pretests conducted via phone or externally (audio-recorded):

-

Survey mode:

PAPI

Pretest mode:

CAPI

Procedure:

The interviews were conducted in the GESIS pretest laboratory. The questions to be tested were presented to the test subjects individually for answering. The cognitive questions were always asked directly after the individual questions (concurrent probing). The Turkish and Arabic speaking test persons received the questionnaire in their own language, were then asked the probes in German and also answered the probes in German.

Incentive for respondents:

30 Euro

Miscellaneous Information:

To test the Turkish and Arabic questionnaires, simultaneous interpreters were to be added to the cognitive interviews via video conference.
Recruitment took place via a recruitment agency commissioned by Bielefeld University. Recruiting adolescents according to the recruitment criteria proved to be challenging. In particular, no young people were found who only spoke the desired foreign language but not (yet) had a high level of oral and written proficiency in German. Even one participant who had only come to Germany three years ago spoke German at a level that did not require the addition of the planned interpreter. Thus, after consultation with the recruited participants, no interpreters had to be used. While the cognitive interviews could thus all take place in German, the adolescents also answered the questionnaires in Arabic or Turkish.
Only four Arabic-speaking adolescents could be recruited in total, which is why only four instead of the five planned interviews could take place to review the Arabic questionnaire.

Project Description:

Radicalized Islamist attitudes or expressions of opinion do not automatically lead to corresponding violent acts among young people from Islamist socialization milieus. But they contribute to the legitimacy of violent activities, because any violence against other groups is always dependent on such patterns of attitude, which imply a devaluation of foreign groups, which is given by the radicalized Islamist attitudes towards persons of other faiths. The research project "Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany" examines the patterns and social backgrounds, including the actors who promote such legitimation-providing attitudes among adolescents.

Client:

Uni Bielefeld
Stefan Kanis