Religious Socialization of 1.5th and 2nd Generation Turkish Youth within Family: the Case of New Jersey, USA

Socialization is one of the important problems for immigrant families and cultural differences often lead to identity crisis among subsequent generations. This article offers a qualitative research on the religious socialization of Turkish children in the USA and their adaptation to the American values while preserving their own identity and culture. Data were collected, using the technique of “in-depth interviews” of the grounded theory, from a sample of eighteen respondents consisting of 1.5th and 2nd generation Turkish youth living in New Jersey, USA. This research aims to investigate the influence of family members in terms of the religious socialization of the respondents and evaluates the children’s expression of their families’ attitudes in five categories: belonging and loyalty, nostalgia, conflict, assimilation and finally hybrid socialization in two cultures, and analyze these through typologization.