Duration of Research: 2006-2009

Funding Agency: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Researchers:
Zvi Eisikovits (P.I.)
Gideon Fishman (P.I.)
Gustavo S. Mesch (P.I.)
Chaya Koren (Research Coordinator)

Collaborators and Partners:
Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer and his team from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University, Germany.

Project Description:
In period of three years - May 2006 until April 2009 - the cooperative project groups of the IKG and the University of Haifa will do research on the conflict attitudes and behavior of young migrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The German group will address to the so called Russian Germans, while the Israeli group will focus on Jewish migrants. With a comparative design and qualitative interviews of juveniles we will survey the similarities and differences of the two ethnic groups.

The main interest of the research is about the peculiarities of the socialization in the FSU concerning norms, violence, and the set of normative values as a cultural inheritance with which the migrants arrive to the new society and which might be the initial guideline for the newcomer. We estimate that the socialization in the country of origin is quite common for both groups. Secondly, we will focus on the effects of integration in the new social surroundings of school, labor market, and so on. Because of different constellations in the two receiving societies we estimate differences on which we will focus with our comparative design. Besides some common experiences, the level of rejection and prejudice seems to be different in both countries. Thirdly, we will examine the role of peers and the family in the process of increasing or decreasing norm conflicts and violence. We estimate that peers as well as the family have the function of a buffer for the youth to deal with the new experiences after the migration.

The central assumption is that only a small number of migrants from the FSU regard delinquency in general and violence in particular as an acceptable way to act, however, such behavior when it occurs can obstruct social integration. The alternative is high-risk integration in sub-cultural milieus with a high probability of developing a criminal career.

Publications:
Koren, C., & Eisikovits, Z. (2011). "Continuity and discontinuity of violent and non-violent behavior: Towards a classification of male adolescent immigrants from the FSU in Israel", Sociological Focus, 44(4), 314-338

Duration: 2000-2002

Funding: Israel Foundation of Trustees (Grant number 23/2000)

Researchers: 
Gustavo S. Mesch (P.I.)
Ilan Talmud (P.I.).


Project description:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the structure of computer-mediated social relationships among Israeli adolescents. The aims of this research were to characterize the adolescent population, which is involved in virtual networks, the social proximity of these relationships, the nature of resources being exchanged, and the extent to which relationships started in the Internet migrate to other, off-line settings.


Publications:
Mesch, Gustavo S.(2001)."Social Relationships and Internet Use among Adolescents in Israel". Social Science Quarterly, 82(2):329-340.

Mesch, Gustavo, S. (2003). "The Family and the Internet: The Israeli Case". Social Science Quarterly. 84: 1038-1050.

Mesch Gustavo S. (2006). "The Family and the Internet: Exploring a social Boundaries Approach". Journal of Family Communication, 6(2): 119-138.

Mesch Gustavo and Ilan Talmud. (2006). "Online Friendship Formation, Communication Channels, and Social Closeness". International Journal of Internet Sciences. 1, 1, 29-44. available at http://www.ijis.net/

Mesch, Gustavo and Ilan Talmud. (2006)."The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships, the role of multiplexity and duration". The Information Society, 22(3), pp.

Duration of Research: 2001-2006

Funding Agency: German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP) - On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Researchers: 
Gideon Fishman (P.I.) 
Zvi Eisikovits (P.I.)
Gustavo S. Mesch (P.I.)
Hagit Turjeman (Research Coordinator)
Vicki Brat - (Research Assistant)
Olga Agour - (Research Assistant)
Orly Ross - (Research Assistant)

Collaborators and partners: Prof. Rainer Silbereisen and his team from the University of Jena, Germany. 

Project description:
The purpose of the study has been to study the adjustment and mal-adjustment of immigrant adolescents from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). In particular the study focused on the issue of delinquency and well being as possible outcomes of the immigration process. The longitudinal design aimed at looking at time in the host country as a factor that might affect the acculturation process of the adolescents.
Within the study other important variables were focused on such as changes in social identity, the impact of relations with the family, the family structure and its functioning as a control agent, association with delinquent peers, school performance and subjective feelings of alienation and discrimination.

The study population in the Israeli study was selected from towns where there was a large concentration of immigrants and it was identified in out of school setting and through investigating informants in the neighborhood as to adolescents who answer to the criteria set for inclusion in the sample. Over 1400 adolescents were selected and a face to face interview that lasted about an hour was conducted in the Russian language by trained interviewers. In addition an in depth interview was conducted with 40 respondents and these interviews were qualitatively analyzed.

This study in addition to being longitudinal, it also was a panel study where the same respondents were contacted 3 times with one year intervals so that the effect of time could be examined as well. The last wave left us with about 55% of the original sample which is an expected rate of attrition in such a study.

Once the adolescents were interviewed for the third time, their family were contacted and additional information was obtained, some of it added to our understanding of the immigration process, and some information helped to verify and validate the information gathered from the interviews with the adolescents. That was done in the third and fourth year of the study. An additional round of interviews was conducted in the fifth year with the families in order to check on the adjustment of the parents and with the intention to elaborate on the information the adolescents supplied by adding more family background information.

In order to read the report of the first wave (In Hebrew only), please enter the link

Publications:

Mesch, GS., Turjeman, H., Fishman G. (2008) . "Social Identity and violence among immigrant adolescents" New Directions for Youth Development. (119):129-50.

Turjeman H.; Mesch  GS.; Fishman G., (2008). "Social identity, identity change and delinquent behavior" International Journal of Comparative Sociology. 49:111-126.

Turjeman, H., Fishman G., Mesch GS., (2008) "The effect of acculturation on depressive moods: Immigrant boys and girls during their transition from late adolescence to early adulthood". International Journal of Psychology. 43(1): 32-44.

Mesch, GS., Turjeman, H., Fishman, G. (2007). "Percieved discrimination and well being of immigrant adolescents". Journal of Youth and Adolescents. 37: 592-604.

Fishman G. &  Mesch GS., (2005), "Acculturation and Delinquency among Adolescent Immigrants from the FSU". Journal of Conflict and Violence Research. 7(2):14-40.

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