Factors affecting development and education of the belief in Allah in high-school youth

In high school years, young people re-evaluate the knowledge and acquisitions they have gained from their close circle through their own mind filters. A young person who criticizes his religious knowledge and beliefs and reviews his/her pre-learning may be in doubt at some points. In this process, where there is a need for logical justification in religious matters, especially in the belief of Allah, it is of great importance to determine the concept of God that young people possess and the factors that influence the formation of this concept. Therefore, the aim of our research is to examine the factors that affect the development of belief in Allah positively or negatively in high school youth. For this purpose, in the 2018-2019 academic year, a questionnaire was applied to 910 high school students in 7 different schools in Bursa city center. Purposeful sampling method was preferred because the schools that differ in terms of the intensity of religious education and academic achievement were wanted to be included in the study. In order to determine the sample from the study population by random sampling, sampling by cluster (single stage cluster sampling) method was used. Belief of Allah in high school youth age, gender, school success, family factors (parental education level, religion and beliefs attitude towards, etc.), attitudes towards corporate religious education, the use of internet, social media and etc., and interpreted with descriptive and relational analysis. As a result of this research, it has been found that the attitude and approach of the family towards religion in general, and the relation of mother and father to religion in particular is effective in the development and education of belief in God in high school youth. Also, the type of high school (Imam-Hatip, Science, Social Sciences, and the others) they study, the perceptions and attitudes of the youth towards religion teachers, and whether they received religious education from any place other than school are other factors that affect the development and education of the belief in God in young people. Keywords: Belief in Allah, God image, deism, atheism, high school youth, family, religious education