Current information: www.confirmation-research.eu

From 2020 a new international project will provide material for quality development of confirmation work based on the feedback of confirmands. See www.confirmation-research.eu for details!

The following page is an archive of the previous studies from 2007-2008 (first international study) and 2012-2016 (second international study).

Starting from autumn 2019 the partner countries of the "International Network for Research and Development of Confirmation and Christian Youth Work" are planning a new tool for online-feedback in confirmation work. Under the name "i-conf" the tool provides questionnaires for a self-evaluation of confirmation work based on Smartphone-questionnaires. The data will provide a starting point for both: Development of confirmation work on the local level as well as scientific research in the field.

More information will be available on www.confirmation-research.eu soon.

Based on the results of the first study (data from 2007/2008) the second study on confirmation work in Europe scrutinizes the changes during the five years between the studies and offers the possibility to compare results from two studies in different times. But the focus of the second study is broader than just a repetition: Confirmands who are confirmed in 2013 received a questionnaire "t3" two years after confirmation. How is the confirmation experience perceived two years later? What is the perception of confirmation day in retrospect? What factors are decisive for motivating adolescents for voluntary work in confirmation work or in other fields? Questions like these could be answered on a broad empirical database.

Main results can be found in the following Powerpoint:

Main results of the second international study (pptx)

From 3-5 May 2017 the conference "Confirmation Work in Ecumenical and International Perspectives" took place in Erfurt/Germany. With 80 participants from 10 countries it was one of biggest international conferences in this field of research.

Overview of the conference programme

Documents from the Erfurt conference

Here you find a selection of lectures and workshops presented during the Erfurt conference. There will be no printed documentation from the conference, as the book "Confirmation, Faith, and Volunteerism" (2017) covers most of the topics presented during the conference.

Lectures

• Friedrich Schweitzer
• Wibke Riekmann
• Michael Weinrich
• Richard R. Osmer (presentation provided by Katherine M. Douglass)
• Thomas Schlag

Workshops

• Adolescents' Religious Attitudes and their Relationship to the Church (by Dagmar Lagger and Ida Marie Høeg)
• Workers' Perspectives
• Confirmation Work and Youth Work
• Adolescents’ Experience of Worship Services
• Confirmation Work in the United Methodist Church in Germany and the US
• Experiences in Central-Eastern Countries (Poland and Hungary)
• Confirmation Work in Germany
• A New Self-Evaluation Tool for Confirmation Work

This book holds the results from the second study on confirmation work in Germany with special attention to the results from the survey t3 (two years after confirmation).

The book is available here:

http://www.randomhouse.de/Paperback/Jugendliche-nach-der-Konfirmation/Friedrich-Schweitzer/Guetersloher-Verlagshaus/e501785.rhd

For more information see:

www.randomhouse.de/Paperback/Youth-Religion-and-Confirmation-Work-in-Europe-The-Second-International-Study/Friedrich-Schweitzer/e486734.rhd

Background: The first European study (2007-2009)

The first European study, published in 2010, covered seven European countries:

Schweitzer, Friedrich / Ilg, Wolfgang / Simojoki, Henrik (eds.) (2010): Confirmation Work in Europe: Empirical Results, Experiences and Challenges. A Comparative Study from Seven Countries. Gütersloh.

"The extensive and intensive both qualitative and quantitative study is an admirable piece of work ... and ... the result of an extraordinary form of cooperation" (book review in: Journal of Empirical Theology 24, 131).