CHAPTER 6: The Personal Aspirations and Cherished Ideals of Muslim Adolescents Living in Norway and Singapore

Norway and Singapore are two countries where both ethnic majority and ethnic minority adolescents endorse prosocial behavior, civic harmony, and religious tolerance. In this multimethod study, 332 Muslim and 432 non-Muslim young adolescents (mean age = 13.7) described the ideal man and woman by rating the importance of 10 qualities and drawing pictures of the ideal man or ideal woman. Two hundred sixty-eight of these participants also listed their future occupational possibilities. It was hypothesized that most participants would express prosocial values. Additionally, it was hypothesized that Muslim adolescents would demonstrate higher aspirations and occupational ambitions than non-Muslim adolescents and that minority Muslim adolescents would be likely to adopt some values of the majority culture in which they lived. Adolescents from Norway and Singapore drew many pictures of the ideal person helping others. Muslim and non-Muslim adolescents valued kindness, honesty, and liking children but differed in how important they thought these qualities were for the ideal (ps < .05). Muslim adolescents expressed higher career aspirations than non-Muslims (p < .01). Muslim Singaporeans seemed to incorporate aspects of latest fashions and brand names into their identity constructs more often than did Muslim Norwegians, whereas Muslim Norwegians incorporated nature, the outdoors and sports more often than did Muslim Singaporeans. In summary, regardless of their religious and ethnic backgrounds, the Norwegian and Singaporean youth in this study espouse prosocial values and show positive identity development, ideals and aspirations. However, the Muslim adolescent participants in this study came from especially supportive environments in Norway and Singapore and may not be representative of the Muslim youth in those countries.