Further Analysis of Scale Attitudes to Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism
The variable Marriage Partner, which had the highest number of measured statistically significant associations with the religious beliefs, practices and values in the initial analysis and had a statistically significant correlation with the scale Attitudes to the Zoroastrian Religion, was seen to have a low correlation and no statistical significance with the scale Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism. On the other hand, Education: Abroad/ UK, which was the best predictor of Marriage Partner, was a good predictor of Zoroastrian attitudes both to the religion and to the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism. A scale Education was built so that a positive score indicated that the respondent had been educated abroad, had no education qualifications from the UK and a level of education which was below university level. Conversely a negative score indicated that the respondent was educated in the UK, had UK educational qualifications and was educated at university level. The variables used in this scale were:
1. Education Abroad: Yes/ No
2. Education UK: No/ Yes
3. Education Level: Low/ High
4. Education Qualifications UK No/ Yes
The scale Attitudes to Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism was subjected to a more rigorous statistical analysis. New variables were entered into the analysis and they were Self- Description as an orthodox or liberal Zoroastrian, Place of Residence in London or else-where in the UK, Age and Gender.
When zero-order relationships were considered, the best predictors were Self- Description: Orthodox/ Liberal, (r = .22), Education (r = .31), Marriage Partner: Zoroastrian/ Non-Zoroastrian, (r = .21), Place of Residence: London/ Other, (r = -.12), Language: English/ Other, (r = -.13).
When the independent action of the variables was looked at little change was found except Marriage Partner, (beta = .12). The best predictors of attitudes to the symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism were still Education and Self-Description. See Table 62.
In the more rigorous statistical analyses there was a difference in r for Marriage Partner, compared with the original statistical analysis. There were also changes in the values of r for other variables. See Table 63.
In the further analysis of the scale, Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism the scale was subjected to zero-order and independent action of the variables analyses.
When relationships between the dependent variable and the independent variables were considered together, the best predictors of Zoroastrian attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism were Self-description, Education, Marriage Partner, Place of Residence, and Language
. However, the independent action of the variables suggested that the best predictors of Zoroastrian attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism are Education and Self-description. The other variables did not have a statistically significant independent relationship with the scale. Zoroastrians who described themselves as "orthodox", or who were not highly educated, or did not receive their education in the UK, tended to support the traditional interpretation of the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism.
In the more rigorous, statistical analysis the variable Marriage Partner had a stronger relationship with the scale Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism than appeared to be the case in the original statistical analysis but again, as in the previous analysis, was not a statistically significant independent relationship. Although Marriage Partner, had a stronger relationship with the scale it added little to the explained variance in the scale, R Square increases from .12 to .14.
See Table 64. The variable Occupation's independent relationship with the scale Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism is much weaker than it appeared to be in the previous analysis and also it is not statistically significant. The only independent relationships to be statistically significant in the more rigorous analyses were Self-description and the Education scale. The variables Country of Origin, Gender, and Longest Occupation have little impact in the statistical explanation of the scale Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism and again, as in the previous analysis, they did not have statistically significant independent relationships with the scale. Note the back correlations in Table 61. There are also reductions in the strength of the relationships for these variables in the more rigorous statistical analyses compared with the previous analyses.
Analyses were conducted to see if social attitudes were associated with the scale Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism, the statistical exercise was repeated with the addition of a scale measuring social attitudes but without the variables Marriage Partner, Language, Place of residence, Country of Origin, Gender, Age, Occupation and Longest Occupation. The scale built to measure the social attitudes of the Zoroastrians in the 1976 sample included the following variables:
1. Do you belong to Zoroastrian organizations?
2. Do you keep in touch with non-family Zoroastrians?
A positive score indicated that the respondent kept in touch with other Zoroastrians and had memberships of Zoroastrian organizations. A negative score indicated the converse of this position. With this group of variables only twelve per cent of the variance was accounted for, compared with eighteen per cent for the first group of variables. The introduction of a new variable associated with social attitudes did not increase the explanatory power of the model.
In fact, the removal of the other variables diminishes the explanatory power of the statistical model. Whether the relationships are considered together or independently, the best predictors of Zoroastrian attitudes to the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism are Self-description and Education. See Table 65. Again it can be seen that Zoroastrians who described themselves as "orthodox", or who were not highly educated, or received their education outside the UK, tended to support the orthodox interpretation of the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism.
In the 1st analysis the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, r, was measured for each independent variable in isolation from other independent variables, whereas for the 2nd analysis the independent variables were measured in conjunction with each other against the scale, Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism. The relationships between the independent variables either bolstered, or deflated their relationships with the scale. The beta, for each of the independent variables, is the more accurate measure of the independent action of the independent variables with the scale, Attitudes to the Symbolic Boundaries of Zoroastrianism. It can be seen that for the variable, Marriage Partner, (beta = .12), was fairly close to (r = .08) in the 1st analysis.
When the zero-order relationships were considered, the best predictors were Self-description, (r = .23), Education Scale, (r = .31). Looking at the independent action of the variables it can be seen that the best predictors of attitudes to the symbolic boundaries of Zoroastrianism were still Education Scale, (beta = .28), and Describe Yourself, (beta = .18). The scale, Social Attitudes, did not have a statistically significant independent relationship. See Table 67.