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AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme Conference “New Forms of Public Religion” The Divinity School, St John’s College, Cambridge 5–7 September 2012 Robert Jackson, Elisabeth Arweck, Leslie J Francis Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, UK. Young People’s Attitudes to
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AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme Conference “New Forms of Public Religion” The Divinity School, St John’s College, Cambridge 5–7 September 2012 Robert Jackson, Elisabeth Arweck, Leslie J Francis Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, UK
Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity Project Introduction Robert Jackson
Building on REDCo Framework 6 Project involving 8 European countries Whole UK covered (England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland) + London as a ‘special case’ Mixed methods study, starting with qualitative and using findings in questionnaire design PhD student attached to the project
Main Research Questions Using qualitative methods, what are the key issues 13-16 year old students identify with religious diversity and how do they respond to these? Using quantitative methods, how widespread are the responses identified by the qualitative methods?
Further Research Questions Drawing on insights from individual differences psychology, how far can quantitative approaches, using recognised measures of personality and other individual-level variables (emotional intelligence, self-concept and empathy), explain attitudes towards religious diversity? Drawing on insights from social psychology,how far cansocial and contextual factors (school, family, media and local neighbourhood) explain individual differences in attitudes toward religious diversity?
Further Research Questions Drawing on insights from empirical theology, how far can religious affiliation, beliefs, practices and views of transcendence, explain individual differences in attitudes toward religious diversity? Drawing on insights from qualitative research, how can attitudes toward religious diversity be more adequately operationalised in quantitative studies?
Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity Project Quantitative Phase Leslie J Francis
Structure: • sources of theory • an empirical tradition • methods of measurement • instruments of measurement • data collection • descriptive analyses • model building analyses • publications
Part One Sources of theory
Sources of theory: • the qualitative project • psychology of religion • empirical theology
The qualitative project: • what matters to young people • how young people express themselves • a rich and deep tapestry
Psychology of religion: • Argyle (1958) • Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1976) • Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle (1997) • Hood, Hill and Spilka (2009)
Empirical theology: • Hans van der Ven • Journal of Empirical Theology • International Society for Empirical Research in Theology
Part Two An empirical tradition
An empirical tradition: • Teenage Religion and Values Project • Assessing Attitudes towards Religion • Outgroup Prejudice Project
Teenage Religion and Values: • survey of 34,000 13- to 15-year-old pupils • England and Wales • diversity of schools
Assessing Attitudes: • Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity • Kutz-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Judaism • Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam • Santosh-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Hinduism
Outgroup Prejudice Project: • York St John University • Dr Andrew Village • Dr Adrian Brockett
Part Three Methods of measurement
Methods of measurement: • fixed choice • binary options • Likert scaling
Methods of measurement: • Are you? • male 1 • female 2
Binary options: • Do you like going out a lot? • yes • no
Likert scaling: • I find life really worth living • agree strongly • agree • not certain • disagree • disagree strongly
Levels of measurement: • nominal • ordinal • interval • scaled
Part Four Instruments of measurement
Instruments of measurement: • psychological constructs • religious constructs • openness constructs
Psychological constructs: • Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised • self esteem • empathy
Religious constructs: • affiliation • practice (public) • practice (personal) • belief • attitude
Openness constructs: • a lot of good is done in the world by.. • I have friends who are.. • I am interested in finding out about.. • a lot of harm is done in the world by.. • I would not like to live next door to..
Part Five Data Collection
Data collection: • pilot study • main study • interim analyses
Pilot study: • questionnaire included variants • one school intensive examination • cognitive testing • quantitative testing • leads to shorter revised questionnaire
Main study: • Five nations of the UK: • England • Northern Ireland • Scotland • Wales • London
Main study: • 2000 pupils from each nation: • 50% religious character • 50% secular
Part Six Descriptive analyses
Example 1: • Females only • no affiliation, no attendance • Christian, no attendance • Christian, with attendance
I am interested in finding out about Muslims: • no religion 27 % • nominal Christian 40 % • practising Christian 55 % • χ² = 59.5 • p<.001
Muslims should be allowed to wear the headscarf in schools: • no religion 60 % • nominal Christian 59 % • practising Christian 79 % • χ² = 40.2 • p<.001
Example 2: • secular religious • % % • England • N Ireland • Scotland • Wales • London
Studying religion at school helps me understand people from other religions: • secular religious • % % • England 79 80 • N Ireland 83 89 • Scotland 68 71 • Wales 77 82 • London 85 86
I would be happy about a close relative marrying someone from a different faith: • secular religious • % % • England 66 55 • N Ireland 69 73 • Scotland 53 65 • Wales 59 61 • London 57 66
Part Seven Model building analyses
Model building: • testing scales • establishing correlations • multivariate models
Scale reliabilities: • Diversity .89
Correlations with diversity: • sex .24+++ • age -.06 +++ • school .01
Partial correlations with diversity: • extraversion -.04 • neuroticism .08 +++ • psychoticism -.32 +++ • lie scale .12 +++
Partial correlations with diversity: • empathy .36 +++ • self concept .21 +++
Partial correlations with diversity: • theism .22 • God image .27
Regression model: beta weights: • sex .12 +++ • age -.04+ • extraversion .00 • neuroticism .07 +++ • psychoticism -.27 +++ • lie scale .03 • theism -.01 • God image .20 +++
Part Eight Publications