Abstract
I met the Finnish researcher Arniika Kuusisto at one of the youth research conferences, in the parenting section. She presented findings of her research among the Seventh-day Adventist religious minority in pluralist and increasingly secular Finland regarding the factors stimulating religious values and practices, e.g., Sabbath [Saturday] observance, adult baptism through immersion, Bible reading, strong emphasis on a healthy lifestyle and education. I remember how interesting I found the results showing that democratic parenting style, which encourages and supports young people’s personal exploration, critical thinking and agency—in combination with emotional quality of relationship between parents and children and the parental example of a personally meaningful way of life—is decisive for successful transmission of values and affiliations. And that strict, authoritarian home education is more likely to be followed by rebellion and developing a counter personal ideology and lifestyle choices.
Later on, and especially reading this book, I became aware that Kuusisto’s presentation was actually only a part of her comprehensive, interdisciplinary, mixed-method study of young people growing up in this specific context. A context that often comprises many more socialization agents than only congregational places such as schools and universities, various extra-curricular programmes, strong and cohesive social networks, neighbourhoods—though there are less than 4000 members of this religion in Finland.
So, Kuusisto’s book brings various theoretically-grounded and subtle empirical insights into the growing-up processes and contexts of Finnish Adventist youth, for example, their identity construction, religious identity as such, negotiations on values and different social memberships, self-esteem, and social capital. In this regard I found particularly fascinating the author’s subtle and in-depth analysis of identity negotiations and occasional struggles of children from families with only one Adventist parent—when there is diversity already within the family—and those attending a mainstream, and not a denominational, school. The book presents a wide spectrum of the research participants’ personal experiences stemming from an intricate interplay of home socialization and various aspects of different social contexts. Surprisingly, Kuusisto found only a slight correlation between intensity of experienced religious identity and self-esteem. Her considerations go beyond the religious minority context, reflecting the identity processes and values and lifestyle negotiations taking place in contemporary late-modern societies in general. This valuable broader reflection can, for example, be read from the viewpoint of affiliation to some other minority, or from the self-positioning perspective in terms of late-modern values and life-style choices. There is actually only one substantial emphasis that I missed while reading such a thorough inquiry—but it would probably stand out of the current red thread—that is, a more in-depth scrutiny of the spiritual aspect of young people’s religious identity. That would be significant in the recent rise of (non-orthodox) spiritual values, ‘technologies’ and practices.
Methodologically the author proficiently combines ethnographic pursuit to describe the values, beliefs and practices of Adventist youth and phenomenological search for the nature of experience and personal meaning that religious membership offers to the young people in a quantitative-qualitative design. The first data collection stage embraces 10 interviews with young adults (1998), on the basis of which a survey questionnaire was developed (1999, n = 106). The second stage, building-up the topics from the first empirical phase, includes a questionnaire (n = 100) and interviews with teenagers (n = 10) and questionnaire with parents of teenagers (n = 55) from families with at least one Adventist parent (2004/5). The measures used are informed by some established instruments, but predominantly self-constructed. Kuusisto also acknowledges and adeptly reflects her insider research position as a person who has herself grown up affiliated with the Adventist church and is still a member of the denomination. Also, the not unproblematic choice of summer camps as data gathering venues is thoroughly reflected.
The book is organized in two substantial parts: the first part is a concise presentation of her study in a strict scientific form, embracing research problem statement, theoretical and methodological framework, summary of findings of empirical studies, discussion and conclusion. The second part comprises of reprints of the author’s five original publications from books (e.g., Mixed Methods in Youth Research, 2005; Analysis of Educational Policies in Comparative Perspective, 2005; Youth and Social Capital, 2007) and journals (Journal of Beliefs & Values, 2003; Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2010). The book also includes interview outlines and questionnaire forms but unfortunately no summary data are added to the closed questions in questionnaires so that one could quickly get an impression of the quantitative part. Taking into account the scope and picturesqueness of the gathered material in my opinion it is a pity that the format is so rigorously scientific. Therefore it is probably rather limited to expert readers. Nevertheless the book is a valuable read for many expert groups, for example, researchers from the fields of education, social and religious psychology, and youth research, and also for practitioners working in religious, multicultural and multifaith settings. I would especially like to set out its potential for developing competences for intercultural and interfaith dialogue. I shall end with the words of one of the study’s participants: ‘[I realized that] the outsider friend [also has] really high values’.