British adolescents' and young adults' understanding and reasoning about the religious and nonreligious rights of asylum-seeker youth

This study examined British young people's understanding of the rights of asylum-seeking young people. Two hundred sixty participants (11-24ÔÇâyears) were read vignettes involving asylum-seeking young people's religious and nonreligious self-determination and nurturance rights. Religious rights were more likely to be endorsed than nonreligious rights. In general, younger participants were more likely than older participants to endorse the rights of asylum-seeking young people. Supporting a social cognitive domain approach, patterns of reasoning varied with the type of right and whether scenarios involved religious or nonreligious issues. Few developmental differences were found regarding participants' reasoning about asylum-seeking young people's religious or nonreligious rights. The findings are discussed with reference to available theory and research on young people's conceptions of rights.