Status Inconsistency and Marginality in Malaysia

Abstract

Drawing upon the theory of status inconsistency and the theory of the marginal man, several hypotheses regarding the consequences of occupying an unusual combination of statuses were formulated and tested with data from a large sample survey of Malaysian secondary school students. Hierarchical modeling of incomplete contingency tables revealed that between-group differences on nine dependent variables for 26 status-combinations of race, religion, and origin language were adequately explained by the independent effects of one or more of the statuses. No support was evident for nonadditive representations of inconsistency or marginality as consequences of stressful interaction.