“It wasn’t my idea to come here!”: Ownership of the idea to immigrate as a function of gender,age, and culture

The present study investigated gender, age, and culture differences in immigrants’ ownership of the idea to immigrate to Australia. Married immigrants (N = 1702) indicated whose idea it was to immigrate: their own, their partner's, or a joint idea. Consistent with a patriarchal model, female immigrants were significantly less likely to claim ownership of the idea than male immigrants, and this difference partially mediated gender differences in post-immigration satisfaction. In addition, age and culture qualified gender differences in ownership of the idea to immigrate. Young women and nonWestern women were least likely to claim ownership of the idea. The generality of the patriarchal model across age and culture is discussed.     

Cultural practices,age and the life course

Social science studies of cultural activity commonly focus on class, gender and ethnicity and often treat age as an unimportant background variable. This article demonstrates the central importance of age as a factor affecting cultural consumption, using data from the “Taking Part” Survey of England. As well as seeking to describe the main aspects of age differentiation, the article unpacks what is often called, in a simplified way, “age effects”. The socio-historical dynamics leading to the existence of age effects are examined, first theoretically, and second, through some empirical examples (doing sport, playing a musical instrument/singing, cinema, visiting exhibitions or collections of art/photography/sculpture, doing textile crafts). A number of influences are shown to account for the importance of age: health, the individual life course, the different socio-economic background of cohorts and other, more complex cohort effects. Possible interpretations of these cohort effects on cultural practices are discussed at the end of the article.     

The lyrics of laborious life: popular music and the reassertion of migrant manhood in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

The focal subject under investigation in this paper is the gendered identities of overseas male migrant workers as presented in the contemporary popular song lyrics from Northeastern Thailand. My reading of such lyrics is informed by my ethnographic fieldwork of Thai migrant workers in Singapore. I intend to uncover some complex, cultural junctures of transnational labor migration, in which men, mobility, and music have come across and formed a social force to reshape cultural imagination of migrant manhood. I argue that popular music celebrates male heroism of overseas migrant workers. Instead of challenging existing structures of hegemonic masculinity in the region, popular song texts poetically reaffirm and reassert the traditional dominant gender ideology and cultural practice. Overseas workmen are usually depicted as hard‐working, self‐sacrificial heroes in their attempts to rescue their families as well as romantic, caring lovers and morally responsible fathers.     

Predictors of international students’ psychosocial adjustment to life in the United States: A systematic review

This review systematically examined predictors of psychosocial adjustment of international undergraduate and graduate students in the United States. Sixty-four studies published in peer-reviewed journals between January 1990 and January 2009 were reviewed. Statistically significant predictors of psychosocial adjustment were grouped by adjustment outcome variables (e.g., psychological symptoms and sociocultural adjustment). The methodological quality of each study was examined using an 11-point grading criteria, assessing the employment of theoretical framework, reporting of data's validity and reliability, study design, and analytic techniques, among others.The most frequently reported predictors included stress, social support, English language proficiency, region/country of origin, length of residence in the United States, acculturation, social interaction with Americans, self-efficacy, gender, and personality. The mean methodological score of the reviewed studies was 6.25 (SD = 1.8; maximum possible score = 11). The reviewed studies overcame selected limitations pointed out by Church in a previous review (1982), by employing a wide range of theories, employing longitudinal designs, and comparing among countries/regions of origin. This review also discussed implications for health promotion for international students and directions for future research.     

Images of life in America: The impact of American T.V. in Israel

The present study sets out to uncover young Israelis' perceptions of the American reality using the postulates and methodology of the cultivation analysis approach to mass communication. The comparison of the perceptions of “light” and “heavy” T.V. viewers with measures of the actual reality reveals that heavy viewers demonstrate a strong and consistent tendency to paint a rosier picture of life in the U.S., in terms of wealth and standard of living, even when other factors (age, gender, residence and ethnic group) are held constant. The findings of this study have methodological implications concerning the study of media effects as well as theoretical implications regarding the ongoing debate on “media imperialism.”