ABSTRACT

Family, national (ethnic) origin, and citizenship have been found to form the hierarchy of group affiliations among undergraduate students attending the American University of Beirut (AUB). Interestingly no significant differences were found between the results of the study conducted in 1957 and 1971.

A 36-item forced choice questionnaire was administered in October 1977, to a random sample consisting of 420 Arab undergraduate men and women at Kuwait University (KU). Mean age of the respondents was 21.48. Ninety-nine percent were Moslems.

The results indicate that Arab undergraduates representing 13 Arab states in addition to Palestinians attending KU ranked religion first in their hierarchy of group affiliations followed by family, citizenship, national origin, and political ideology, regardless of sex.

It is, however, understood that our findings cannot be generalized to other populations.