De impact van een geradicaliseerde vriend tijdens de adolescentiefase op vriendschappen.

Abstract

Abstract Past research has introduced the political and societal impact of radicalization. This qualitative bachelor research aims to assess the impact of a radicalized friend on adolescent friendships. The four key factors of friendship determined by Oswald, Clark, and Kelly (2004): positivity, openness, supportiveness, and interaction are used to operationalize the construct of friendship. A snowball approach is adopted for the study. The research population consists of 16 participants between the ages of 16 and 21. Nine semi-structured individual interviews with participants who have a radicalized friend and one focus group interview with participants without a radicalized friend were performed to collect data. Both global questions about friendships as well as questions about the impact of the radicalized friend were used to determine whether the participants perceived an impact on their friendships. The data was analyzed by recording and transcribing the interviews. This research has not lead to a clear view of whether there is an impact of a radicalized friend on the key factors of friendship and friendships overall, due to the divergent answers given by the participants. This doesn’t mean that none of the participants are affected by the radicalization of their friend. The results are discussed in terms of the quality of the relationship with the radicalized friend, personality traits of the participants, and the emotional state of the participants during the interviews. Implications for future research are noted.