The Study of Reference Groups of the youth in Qom and the Social Criteria for choosing them: A Focus on the Clergy

The concept of “reference groups” is based on the fact that the formation of individuals’ social identity is the result of groups and individuals to whom they interact directly or indirectly. The analysis of the phenomenon about the youth is much more complicated because due to social and age conditions, the youth are more prone to be affected by reference groups. At this age, different individuals and groups are noticed by the youth in each social field.
Some sources, such as family in most fields as a reference, play the role of reference group, and others such as cultural and scientific dignitaries are noticed only in certain field. The extent to which they affect differs too: those with more trust, more connection and more acceptability to the youth would affect deeper, wider and longer than those of just a symbolized state. Furthermore, the way they influence is also different: sometimes face-to-face consultation, other times emotional inspirations, and also indirect patterning pave the way for tendency to reference groups. In this paper we explore the reference groups for the youth in Qom through survey and conclude a) they think and decide independently; b) they tend to their family, which contradicts generation gap; c) they act against social collapse; d) they are talented and favor being patent; e) they believe in following religious authorities; f) there is a distinction between religious students, clergies, scholars and religious authorities; g) holy shrines (especially Hadhrat Maasoumah’s) enjor high status; and finally h) there should be a focus on Iranian and Islamic identity.