Methods

Sample

Eleven- and fifteen–year-old adolescents and their families will participate in the study. Participants come from six cultural groups, including migrants from the former Soviet Union to both Israel and Germany, Turkish immigrants to Germany, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and native samples from Israel and Germany. Each of the six groups will include a core sample of 200 families.

Design

The study is school-based, cross-cultural, and cohort-sequential. The first wave of the study will start in late Fall 2007 and participants will be questioned a second time 8 to 12 months later.

Instruments

The questionnaire will measure participant’s general value formation as well as adolescent’s value schemes in different social contexts, namely family, friends and school. Furthermore, the questionnaire will focus on certain variables relevant to value formations. These are self-esteem, life satisfaction, need for closure and cognitive complexity. Additionally, attitudes towards ‘the other’ as well as modalities of dealing with life threatening situations, plus questions pertaining to the value-of-children will be included in the questionnaire.