A study of the ethnic and religious identification of the youth was urgently needed. First of all, because an explosion of various forms of prejudice (ethnic, religious, political, etc.) has characterized dramatically the social circumstances in the former SFRY at the end of the twentieth century. Pluri-denominationalism and multinationality, which were characterized not only by tension but also by cooperation in the former Yugoslav community, almost instantly were transformed into open conflicts. The limits of tolerance between the members of different religions, denominations and ethnic groups proved to be quite unstable.

The second reason is the downfall of the socio-political and even economic system, and the introduction of a so-called "transitional phase of development." This was burdened with a long and exhausting economic crisis. But also the previous system of values was destroyed without there being a frame of reference for forming a new system of social values. Both the former and the latter had to have a direct effect on the consciousness and behaviour of the younger generation faced with growing-up and maturing in extremely dramatic social and historical circumstances. Therefore, all research on the social effects that a war, an economic crisis and anomie have on the formation of the consciousness of young people is not only relevant but, in a social sense, imperative.

The aim of the project: "The Ethnic and Religious Identification of the Youth in Yojvodina at the End of the 90s," was to examine how the discontent and conflicts, with their tragic consequences, affected the ethnic and religious self-identification of youth, as we’ll as their attitude towards members of other ethnic and religious groups.

This research work is especially interesting and complex because it was carried out in Vojvodina, a multinational, pluri-denominational and multicultural environment. In this environment, the various cultures intertwined and, considering the political circumstances, the level of religious and national tolerance was satisfactory.

The research, carried out in the period between February and July of 1997, included 374 subjects. Students attending the last year of public school and the last year of secondary school were tested in four cities, two towns and five villages. These age groups were chosen as a result of the opinion that youngsters between the ages of 13 and 18 are more exposed to the impact and changes which have an effect on how their identity will be formed than are some other age groups, for example, college students. Subjects were chosen according to nationality: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian. The research also included children of Serbian nationality who came from former Yugoslav Republics, but are now living in Vojvodina.

The primary thesis put forward in the research was that the extremely unfavorable social and political circumstances had an effect on the consciousness and behaviour of the younger generation. The assumptions were:

- that among youth ethnic identification was more pronounced than in earlier years;

- that a certain type of ethnic distance has been established in the relations of the youth; and

- that there is a greater tie between youth and the church and religion today than there was before.

Since the research included a limited number of subjects (374 pupils), we view it as a pilot research and can only formulate conclusions of a hypothetical nature. It is hoped that it will induce more extensive, complex and intense research on this subject. If so the aim of this project would be achieved.

This work presents part of the results of more extensive research work on "The Cultural identity of the Youth in Vojvodina at the End of the 90’s". Ethnic and religious self-identification, as well as ethnic and religious tolerance, appeared as significant dimensions of the cultural identity of the young population tested.

Ethnic identity, which is less comprehensive than cultural identity, refers to the history or mutual origin, but includes only a part of the culture of a group. The collective consciousness of an ethnic group is based on such objective facts as mutual language, race or religion, and perhaps even territory or mutual institutions, although some of these factors may be omitted.

Of the 374 subjects, 11.7 percent declared themselves Yugoslavs (mostly children from mixed marriages), 47.5 percent Serbs, 21.3 percent Hungarians, 15.7 percent Slovaks and 2.9 percent Romanians.

We attempted to evaluate more closely the ethnic tolerance of the youth by indirectly testing them through certain statements regarding their attitude towards ethnic groups, their attachment to these groups and how closed they are to other, wider communities. The subjects were offered statements arranged on a Lieckert type scale (I agree, I agree partly and I do not agree). Their tendency towards choosing more moderate answers, such as "I agree partly", indicates that their views on this matter are still not quite clear, but also that an ongoing process is taking place in their consciousness. One of the statements offered were used to test how open or closed they are to other nationalities and communities; it referred to mixed nationality marriages, and particularly to their stability. We should note here that Vojvodina is a region with the greatest number of mixed marriages in Yugoslavia and that this number is constantly increasing. We asked the subjects to comment on the following statement: "Mixed nationality marriages are foredoomed to failure". 10.l percent agreed with this statement, 17.6 percent agree partly, while 3/4 of the tested students discarded it completely. If we take into consideration the nationality of the subject and their attitude regarding this statement, the situation is as follows: subjects who declare themselves as Romanians rejected this statement the most (90.9 percent), followed by the Slovaks (83 percent), Yugoslavs (75 percent), Hungarians (72.5 percent) and finally the Serbs (65.7 percent). Every eighth subject agrees with the statement, "I would never enter into a marriage with a person of a different nationality", while 16.5 percent agree with it in part and 71.6 percent of the youth does not agree. The distribution of the answers among nationalities is as follows the Romanians are once again at the top in rejecting the statement (82 percent), followed by the Slovaks, Yugoslavs and Hungarians, all with the same percentage (80 percent) and, again the last, Serbs with 63.4 percent.

Data which corroborates these results regards questions about values which the young rate as significant when choosing a friend or spouse. The subjects were offered seven virtues and were asked to choose three they thought were most important when choosing a friend. They are: moral virtues, out-look on life, education, national affiliation, intelligence, interest in sports and recreation, religion and social background. The following traits are te most valued by the young when choosing a friend: out-look on life (73.6 percent), interest in sports and recreation (61.1 percent), intelligence (60.4 percent). Only 5.6 percent of the subjects chose national affiliation as an important characteristic when choosing a friend. The following values were offered with regard to choosing a spouse (here too, they had to choose the three most significant): moral virtues, intelligence, physical appearance, nationality, out-look on life, financial status, virginity, religion. Again, from this group of values a considerably small percentage (7.2 percent) of the subjects chose nationality as a significant characteristic of their future spouse. For them, the following values are far more important: moral virtues (68.9 percent), intelligence (67.6 percent), out-look on life (67.1 percent) and physical appearance (58.2 percent).

The thesis introduced at the beginning of the research stating that national identification of the youth in Vojvodina is more pronounced today than in earlier years and decades, has not been confirmed. Similarly, the thesis stating that certain forms of national disassociation or even ethnic prejudice have begun to develop has not been verified in this research. The reasons for this can be found, first of all, in the ethnic complexity, migration and demographic processes in Vojvodina, which occurred without significant confrontations, with much tolerance, a developed system of political equality and with relatively good relations between the different nationalities. In addition to this, the young age of the subjects can also contribute. A developed national consciousness is not characteristic of the age group included in the research. Due to this, we tend to conclude that older youth and the parents of the subjects tested would give different answers to the same questions. All in all, the national tolerance present in the attitudes of the youth in Vojvodina is, currently, a significant dimension of their social life and a value which should be carefully nurtured and developed.

Whether or not they feel ties to the church, religion is without doubt a significant dimension of the overall social life of modern Vojvodina youth. In this research, we decided to examine only one dimension of religiosity among the youth, that being their religious self-identification.

Of the tested subjects, more than 3/4 of the students declared themselves to be religious. Among them, 48.6 percent strongly believe in the existence of God and 43.5 percent are religious, "although they do not accept all of the views their religion offers". Every sixth subject thinks of him or herself as indifferent with regard to religion, while only 7.2 percent stated that they were not religious. Certain regularities are apparent with regard to national affiliation and attachment to religion. Subjects of the Romanian nationality showed the strongest and most extensive attachment to religion (90.9 percent firmly believe in the existence of God, and 9 percent are moderately religious). No one was religiously indifferent or unreligious. They were followed by the Hungarians (45 percent firmly believe in the existence of God, 35 percent are moderately religious, 20.3 percent are religiously indifferent, while no one stated they were not religious). Subjects of Serbian nationality also identified themselves as exceptionally religious (52.8 percent are outstanding believers, 24.7 percent moderate, 13.4 percent are indifferent, while 6.6 percent stated they were not religious). The least religious, although the percentage was still high, were the young who declared themselves as Yugoslavs (38.6 percent firmly believe in God, 25 percent are moderate believers, 22 percent are religiously indifferent, while no one stated they were not religious).

We examined the religiosity of the youth in Vojvodina through answers to the question concerning church attendance by the youth, as well as the reasons for their attendance. 26.4 percent of the subjects do not go to church, which is statistically related to the total number of unreligious and religiously indifferent (24.6 percent) subjects. Religious students in Vojvodina go to churches or some other spiritual temples because: they firmly believe in God (31.5 percent), tradition (22.7 percent), they find comfort there (7.2 percent), cultural reasons (6.1 percent), curiosity (4.2 percent) and to be with their peers (1.6 percent). The fact that one third of the subjects said they go to church because they believe in God further substantiates the thesis on the increase in religiosity among the youth in Vojvodina.

We tested how much religion and religious life was a subject of interest to the tested students by asking them to state just how interested they are and how much of their free time is spent on learning about religion or practicing religious traditions. 66 percent of the youth in Vojvodina have shown great (23 percent) and medium (43 percent) interest in religion, while 32.3 percent stated they have no interest at all. The fact that the subject of religion, God and the church has been prevented for a long time and often suppressed, and that the taboo has only recently been lifted obviously provoked strong interest among the youth of Vojvodina.

However, in spite of pronounced religious self-identification and the interest in religion and the church, only every thirteenth subject feels he belongs, above all, to the religious community. The feeling of belonging is much more pronounced when it comes to their own generation. At the same time, as in the case of national affiliation, only 7.4 percent of the subjects gave high grades (8, 9 and 10) to religion as something of special value in their life. The following is the order of significance of religion in their life, in relation to national affiliation: 58 percent of the subjects, who declared themselves Romanians, gave high grades to religious affiliation; followed by 41 percent of the Serbs; 28.7 percent Hungarians; 22.7 percent Yugoslavs and finally, 18.6 percent Slovaks. As we stated earlier, the values which the youth of Vojvodina prefer the most are universal social values, such as: morality, peace, freedom, health, family. National and religious affiliation and social background are valued the least when choosing a friend and spouse, indicating that the young population tested in Vojvodina is not apt to value very highly such traditional values. So, 0.8 percent of the subjects value religious affiliation as significant when choosing a friend, while this percentage is a little higher, 12.5 percent, when choosing a spouse.

Even at first glance, some sort of contradiction is evident when it comes to the religious identification of the youth. On the one hand, when examining religious self-identification, we can conclude that religiosity has increased greatly among the youth in Vojvodina. But, on the other hand, the relatively weaker attachment of the youth to their religious community in relation to other social groups and the weaker status of religion in the personal lives of the subjects, also in relation to other social values, indicate that, although religiosity did increase among the youth, it is not a strong factor in their life orientation.

The analysis of the empirical structure nevertheless shows that the thesis regarding stronger religious self-identification of the youth in Vojvodina has been confirmed. We are of the opinion that the high level of religious self-identification among the young can most definitely be explained by the deep social crisis and the war in the regions of former SFRY. A greater increase in religiosity among the youth occurred as far back as the middle of the 80’s, with the increase in the social crisis. As the crisis became more intense, the future of the youth became more and more uncertain, without alternatives and the current system of values and strong beliefs began to erode. They began to turn to values which enabled them to flee from the anomic social state; religion was one of the primary such values. Still, the crucial point in the massive attachment of the youth to the church and religion is the war i.e., the factors and forces which produced and led to these confrontations. Of course, this does not lessen the role of the fall of socialism as a social system in the turning-point. On the contrary, this was one of the preconditions, i.e., freedom of religious expression, for the eruption of feelings which up to then had been banished and repressed. It is only logical that something forbidden and suppressed for several decades, as was the case with religion in former SFRY, would undergo a real social explosion. Religiosity of the youth became a rediscovered form of spirituality, a new conformism, a form of discovering ones own roots. While being religious was once a detriment, today religiosity has become socially desirable, an expression of the spirit of "new" times and a form of new identification for the youth.

1. Furio Radin, "Vrijednost i vrijednosne orijentacije," in Mladi osamdesetlh (Novi Sad, 1988).

2. Each value has been given a grade from a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 represents the lowest and 10 the highest grade) which the subjects used to express the importance of these values in their lives.

3. E. Susi, Giovani di confine valori e modeli culturali (Gorizia, Italy: Instituto di Sociologia Internazionale, No. 9, Settembre 1994).

4. Sergej Flere, "Mladi i etnos," in Mladi osamdesetih (Novi Sad, 1988).