Testing Measurement Equivalence of Eudaimonic and Hedonic Entertainment Motivations in a Cross-cultural Comparison

Within Hofstede’s framework of individualistic and collectivistic cultures, this contribution examines measurement equivalence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations in two different cultures, namely Germany representing a more individualistic culture (N = 180) and Turkey representing a more collectivistic culture (N = 97). By means of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we could secure configural invariance for both hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations across the German and Turkish sample. Metric invariance, however, could only be obtained for hedonic, but not for eudaimonic motivations. Scalar invariance was obtained for neither of the two entertainment motivations. The study points to the importance of equivalence testing when conducting cross-cultural research.     

The impact of cultural,ethnic, and national variables on attitudes towards the disabled in Israel: A review

Studies in Israel relating to attitudes of various ethnic, cultural and religious groups towards the disabled were reviewed. The results indicate that although there were differences in attitudes towards the disabled, these differences appear to be a function of interaction effects between many other variables and not necessarily only related to ethnic, cultural, and religious affiliation.     

Interethnic perception and the communication behavior among five ethnic groups in Hawaii

The purpose of this paper was to explore interethnic perception in an ethnically mixed society, and to examine the relationship between the degree of stereotyping toward certain ethnic groups and interethnic interpersonal communication and social capacity variables, such as education, age, occupational status, length of stay in the U.S., and English fluency. The study focused on three major aspects of stereotyping: homogeneity, polarity, and favorableness of interethnic attitudes. Homogeneity was defined as the degree to which an individual differentiates dimensions of perception, while polarity was the degree of extremity—either positive or negative—of perception. Favorableness was the degree of positive attitude toward other ethnic groups.The study was based upon a random survey conducted from 1978 to 1979 of five ethnic groups in Hawaii, including 401 Koreans, 203 Japanese, 200 Caucasians, 199 Samoans, and 208 Filipinos. Six bipolar dimensions of perception were explored: responsible-irresponsible, friendly-unfriendly, independent-dependent, good-bad, hard working-lazy, and wise-foolish. The results indicated that interethnic interpersonal communication had the strongest relationship with the level of favorableness. The hypothesized relationships between the social capacity variables and stereotyping were statistically significant, although the magnitude of the relationships were small.     

Immigrants' generational status affects emotional reactions to informal social control : The role of perceived legitimacy of the source of control

The study explores the emotional reactions and behavioral tendencies of people when they are told that their action deviates from current social norms. Of particular interest is the extent to which these reactions differ depending on the social controller's group membership. First- and second-generation North African immigrants in France (i.e., Maghrebians) were asked to imagine a situation in which they produced a counter-normative act and received disapproval from another Maghrebians immigrant or a member of the host community. They appraised the legitimacy of social control and the perception of being discriminated by this act of social control and rated their emotional and behavioral reaction to social control. First-generation immigrants reported less anger, more moral emotions, and a greater desire to repair their transgression when the social controller was presented as a member of the host society rather than a Maghrebian social controller. The results were reversed for second-generation immigrants. This asymmetry between first- and second-generation immigrants was mainly due to a mediating effect of the perceived legitimacy of social control, whereas perceived discrimination was not a significant mediator. This research demonstrates that the perceived legitimacy of social control based on the ethnic group membership of the social controller has profound effects on emotions and behaviors intended by the deviant.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Parental and Peer Attachment Styles among Adult Children from the United States,Puerto Rico,and India

Parental and peer attachment is central to perceived and actual communication behavior. This investigation examines perceptions of attachment among people from the United States, Puerto Rico, and India to investigate the variance in parental and peer attachment levels cross-culturally. Puerto Rican participants expressed less overall attachment to their mothers than did Indian and American participants. Indian participants conveyed stronger attachment to their fathers compared to participants from Puerto Rico. US participants showed stronger attachment to their peers than did people from India. This investigation suggests that the tenets of attachment theory are not culturally universal.     

Host society's dislike of the Islamic veil: The role of subtle prejudice, values, and religion

The wearing of the Islamic veil by Muslim women has become a source of tensions in Western European countries. In order to investigate majority members’ attitudes towards the veil, the present two studies (Ns = 166 and 147), carried out in Belgium, integrated three lines of research that have focused on (a) the role of subtle prejudice/racism on the host society's attitudes towards immigrants, (b) the role of values on acculturation, and (c) the role of religious attitudes on prejudice. Results revealed the effects of subtle prejudice/racism, values (self-enhancement values and security versus universalism), and religious attitudes (literal anti-religious thinking versus spirituality), in predicting greater levels of anti-veil attitudes beyond the effects of other related variables such as age and political conservatism. The studies also suggest the importance of including religious attitudes as part of the intergroup-relation factors that predict attitudes towards immigrants, at least with regard to specific components of intercultural relations.     

Parenting, role reversals and the preservation of cultural values among Arabic speaking migrant families in Melbourne, Australia

Immigration often results in changes in family dynamics and gender roles, the loss of social networks and cultural identity, and difficulties interpreting and negotiating a new legal system. Understanding the specific nature of these changes and how factors are interlinked is a challenge for researchers. We explored cultural values, practices and behaviors relating to the family dynamics that Arabic speaking migrants (Sudanese, Iraqi and Lebanese) are confronted with and how they negotiate them in their new Australian environment. This study used qualitative methodology involving seven focus group discussions (n = 64). Participants were purposively sampled from three metropolitan regions of Melbourne, Australia based on (1) geographic location, (2) country of birth, and (3) generation (parents vs. young people). Findings revealed a state of family disharmony characterised by three major themes: (1) parenting and youth freedom; (2) parents’ struggle to preserve cultural values; (3) changes in gender roles post-migration. This study demonstrates that family unity is a core value, a cultural framework through which decisions and the role of family members are determined, and a reference for support and negotiating post-migration experiences and challenges. However, Arabic speaking parents did not trust the legal system, with the perception that it was undermining and against family dynamics and values. Effective family interventions targeting this sub-population will need to incorporate support for parents and positive parenting programs and be built within an intergenerational framework to address an intergenerational acculturation gap.     

Explaining the relationship between socio-economic status and interethnic friendships: The mediating role of preferences,opportunities, and third parties

Interethnic contact is important for social cohesion and has been shown to vary with people’s socio-economic status (SES). There is some evidence that SES has opposite effects on interethnic contact for non-Western ethnic minorities and for majority members in Western countries. Whereas minority members with a higher SES tend to have more contact with natives, natives with a higher SES tend to have less inter-ethnic contact. To replicate and further understand these contrasting findings, we focused on interethnic friendships in particular and tested simultaneously for majority and minority members whether preferences for cultural similarity, opportunities to meet ethnic others, and disapproval of third parties, mediate the relationship between SES and having interethnic friendships. Analyses of 368 natives and 267 non-Western ethnic minority members in the Netherlands confirmed the contrasting effects of SES on interethnic friendships for these two groups. Importantly, we found that for minority members higher SES was related to more friendships with natives through more meeting opportunities. For natives, higher SES was related to fewer friendships with ethnic minorities, however, this relationship could not be explained by lower meeting opportunities. Preferences for cultural similarity and third-party disapproval did not explain the link between SES and interethnic friendships for any of the two groups.     

Social network sites and acculturation of international sojourners in the Netherlands: The mediating role of psychological alienation and online social support

Acculturation of short-term international sojourners, such as expats and international students, has received considerable attention from scholars in the past decades. Acculturation is commonly defined as the interplay between cultural maintenance, the sojourner’s desire to maintain their home culture identity, and host country participation, their desire to initiate contact with members of the host society. The present paper focuses on the role that Social Network Sites (SNS) play in the acculturation process of this group. Through a survey, we examined how 126 short-term sojourners in the Netherlands use SNS to interact with relations in both home and host country, and how this affects their cultural maintenance and host country participation. Furthermore, we examined psychological alienation and online social support as possible mediators. Our results show that on the one hand SNS contact with home country relations is positively related to online social support. On the other hand, it is also related to psychological alienation, which in turn is related to cultural maintenance. This shows that sojourners who keep in touch with friends and family at home also experience more loneliness and homesickness, and place more emphasis on their own cultural heritage. Finally, we found that SNS contact with host country relations predicts host country participation. Through online activities, sojourners are able to foster social interaction and strengthen friendships with locals.     

Intergroup contact and prejudice toward immigrants: A multinational,multilevel test of the moderating role of individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness

We performed a multilevel, multinational analysis of the 2014 European Social Survey dataset (N = 33,597, nested in 19 countries) to study how individual conservative values and cultural embeddedness moderate the link between contact with immigrants and the attitudes toward them. A combination of frequency and positivity of contact with immigrants showed a negative association with ethnic prejudice while, conversely, participants’ conservative basic values were directly and positively associated with prejudice. National cultural embeddedness was not associated with the dependent variable. Neither individual conservative values nor cultural embeddedness moderated the association between contact and prejudice. Strengths, limitations, implications and future directions of this study are discussed.     

The psychological impacts of COVID-19 related stressors on Syrian refugees in Turkey: The role of resource loss,discrimination, and social support

COVID-19 does not leave behind refugees. They are disproportionately affected during the current pandemic. The present study aimed to investigate the psychological impacts of COVID-19 related stressors -resource loss and perceived discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic- on Syrian refugees in Turkey. Further, the buffering role of perceived social support against the detrimental impacts of such stressors was examined.An online cross-sectional study was conducted between September-October 2020. A sample of 345 Syrian refugees in Turkey completed the questions about demographic characteristics, resource loss and perceived discrimination during the pandemic, perceived social support, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. A high level of depressive and anxiety symptoms was reported in our sample. Resource loss and perceived discrimination during the pandemic significantly and positively predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms. Perceived social support acted as a buffer against the detrimental effect of resource loss on mental health. For those with higher perceived social support, resource loss during the pandemic did not significantly predict depressive and anxiety symptoms. The results indicate the detrimental role of COVID-19 related stressors on refugee mental health. Social support is an important protective factor for mental health amidst the pandemic. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the precarious conditions of refugees in all COVID-19 responses and communications.     

Moderators of Acculturative Stress in Pakistani Immigrants: The role of Personal and Social Resources

International migration research has focused on the immigrants’ mental and physical health issues with little attention paid to factors that facilitate adjustment. Recently cross-cultural researchers have tended to focus on certain psychological and social moderators of stress that differentiate between migrants perceiving higher stress and those remaining relatively unscathed. The present study examined the moderating impact of coping resources (sense of coherence and perceived social support) and coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) on the relationship between acculturative stress and psychological well-being (positive functioning and negative health outcomes) in stress-coping model. On a final sample of 308 Pakistani immigrants residing in Greater Toronto Area a series of moderated hierarchical regression analyses were performed separately for positive and negative health outcomes. Results indicated that sense of coherence and perceived social support moderated between acculturative stress and positive functioning (self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth), and acculturative stress and negative health outcomes (depression, psychosomatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction).The current findings have implications for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers for the identification of resource factors that help to understand the resistant power of growing immigrant population to maintain positive functioning.     

Intergroup contact in context: The mediating role of social norms and group-based perceptions on the contact–prejudice link

The prejudice-reducing effects of intergroup contact have been well documented. However few studies have investigated the importance of the broader context within which contact occurs. The current study examined the predictors of social distance from Muslims in a large sample of Australian secondary school children (N = 980). Intergroup contact was an important predictor of reduced social distance even after demographics and perceptions of parents, school, media and broader intergroup dynamics were taken into account. However, in part the contact–social distance relationship was mediated by perceived parental support for intergroup relations and perceived fairness of media representation. Student's perceptions of broader group dynamics relating to collective threat and differentiation between groups impeded the relationship. The findings attest to the importance of the broader context within which contact occurs. Having contact with outgroup members leads to reduced social distance to the outgroup, however perceived norms and outgroup perceptions play a pivotal role in explaining this relationship.     

Social capital and the well-being of migrants to Australia: Exploring the role of generalised trust and social network resources

Few studies have explored the role of social capital in migrant well-being. This is important to examine, as changes in social capital are often expected following migration. The present study, using standardised measures, investigated the relationships of two components of social capital – generalised trust and network resources – with two dimensions of well-being – flourishing and psychological distress – among 1036 Australian migrants. Participants completed a national online survey and were from four different cultural backgrounds (Anglo, Other European, Indian, Chinese). Compared to the Anglo group, the Indian group was found to have lower levels of both generalised trust and network resources. The Chinese group had lower levels of generalised trust but similar levels of network resources. Multiple regression analyses found higher generalised trust was linked to higher flourishing and lower psychological distress for all groups. For network resources, however, all groups had an association with higher flourishing, except for the Other European group, while the only group with an association with lower psychological distress and network resources was the Chinese group. These results suggest that generalised trust has some positive implications for migrant well-being, consistent with previous research. This study also suggests that the role of network resources in psychological well-being and its development may vary across different groups of migrants and requires further research.     

The influence of social support on the wellbeing of immigrants residing in Italy: Sources and functions as predictive factors for life satisfaction levels,sense of community and resilience

Moving from one country to another involves not only separation from the country of origin, but also the tiring process of integration into a new physical, institutional, and sociocultural context, which may expose migrants to acculturation stress. The loss of former support networks, or at the very least their transformation, presents immigrants with the need to rebuild their social support systems in the host country, involving an active search for support. Therefore, the aim of study is to analyze the structure of informal social support and its capacity to predict immigrants’ sense of community, resilience, and satisfaction with life. The results confirm that social support predicts satisfaction with life, sense of community, and resilience. Our findings highlight the way sources and frequency of support, and the satisfaction with which they are associated, have different degrees of predictive value on the dependent variables under investigation. In this study, it can be concluded that social support is an important factor in the well-being of migrants and their integration into the host community. The results have an important practical value in promoting interventions that improve immigrants’ support networks and, consequently, increase their satisfaction with life, sense of community, and resilience.     

MNC commitment, OCB role definition and intent to leave in subsidiary top managers: The moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance values

The current paper analyses in depth and expands on the study of the consequences of organisational commitment in the MNC setting. To that end the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance as a personal cultural value is studied and two consequences of MNC commitment are analysed: intent to leave and organisational citizenship behaviour. The empirical analysis carried out on a cross-organisational sample of 101 top managers of MNC's subsidiaries located in Spain confirms the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance for the affective and normative commitments, as well as its moderating effect on the influence that organisational citizenship behaviour role definition exerts on intent to leave. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.     

Measuring the ethnic diversity of the museum workforce and the impact and cost of positive-action training,with particular reference to the Diversify scheme

This paper attempts to determine the ethnic profile (sometimes called “cultural diversity”) of the museum sector workforce. It sets the museum sector workforce in the context of the population as a whole and makes some comparisons to the diversity of the wider cultural sector workforce. It looks also at positive action training schemes, targeted at under-represented minority groups, in particular the Museums Association's Diversify scheme, looking at their cost and effectiveness in securing employment. It also describes other positive action schemes such as Arts Council England's Inspire programme and Diversify management-level traineeships and traineeships for deaf and disabled people. It tentatively considers the impact and value for money of positive-action training. It also sets out the legal and policy context for workforce diversification, in particular the implications for data collection of section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976.

The headline finding is that the proportion of people from minority-ethnic backgrounds in the UK museum sector increased from 2.5% in 1993 to about 7% in 2006–2008. This varies between 1.3% and 10.4% depending on the type of museum and the type of job and compares to an overall minority-ethnic working age population of 12.6% in England in 2008.

There is a significant under-representation of most (but probably not all) minority-ethnic groups in most areas of museum work. The paper concludes by making brief suggestions about how policy makers and researchers might respond.     

Ingroup norms, intergroup contact and intergroup anxiety as predictors of the outgroup attitudes of majority and minority youth

This study focused on the interplay of perceived parental and peer norms and the quality of intergroup contact in predicting outgroup attitudes among majority and minority youth. In addition, the role of intergroup anxiety on the contact-attitude association was studied simultaneously with the effects of social norms. 225 adolescents (93 Finnish majority and 132 Russian-speaking minority youth) were surveyed. As was hypothesized, the effects of intergroup contact and social norms on the outgroup attitudes were different depending on the group status: perceived norms and the quality of intergroup contact had a joint effect on outgroup attitudes only among minority youth. While perceived norms and contact experiences affected the outgroup attitudes of majority group members independently of each other, minority group members’ negative contact experiences were associated with negative attitudes towards the majority only when the perceived ingroup norms supported the expression of negative attitudes. Surprisingly, intergroup anxiety mediated the contact-attitude association only in minority youth, and the effect of contact quality on outgroup attitudes was stronger among the minority than among the majority. The results are discussed in relation to the specific intergroup context in question. It is suggested that both positive ingroup norms and pleasant personal contact experiences play a crucial role in the formation of positive attitudes among minority as well as majority youth, and in some contexts positive norms may be even more important than positive intergroup contact.     

Ethnic categorization of immigrants: The role of prejudice, perceived acculturation strategies and group size

People usually perceive immigrants from different national origins as similar to each other, and thus as belonging to a limited number of ethnic out-groups [Sporer, S. L. (2001a). Recognizing faces of other ethnic groups: An integration of theories. Psychology, Public and Law, 7, 36–97, Sporer, S. L. (2001b). The cross-race effect: Beyond recognition of faces in the laboratory. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 7, 170–200.]. In this study, we examine how host nationals (i.e., Italians) categorize immigrants and how prejudice and perceived acculturation strategies influence this process. In our research, photographs of male faces of members of 16 immigrant groups were shown to the participants (N=305). They were asked to identify the national origin of each person on the photographs. In line with the expected over-inclusion into more numerous and more devalued out-groups, the researchers found that (a) participants who perceived Albanians or Moroccans to be the most numerous, were most likely to categorize immigrants as belonging to these groups; and (b) this over-inclusion effect was most pronounced when participants were prejudiced toward these groups and when they perceived them as wanting to maintain their cultures of origin.     

Threat and Prejudice against Syrian Refugees in Canada: Assessing the Moderating Effects of Multiculturalism,Interculturalism, and Assimilation

A survey experiment (N = 529) was used to test the moderating effects of intergroup ideologies (assimilation, multiculturalism, and interculturalism) on the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and expressions of prejudice under conditions of intergroup threat. Moderated multiple regression analyses suggest a multicultural integration frame moderates the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrian refugees in Canada when the target outgroup is portrayed as a source of intergroup threat. This moderating effect was unique to the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrians and did not extend to other correlates of prejudice including beliefs in zero-sum group competition or a multicultural ideology, nor did it extend to more general measures of prejudice (i.e., attitudes toward immigrants or evaluations of intercultural contact). Findings suggest the prejudice-reducing effects of a multicultural integration narrative affect group evaluations and functions by targeting beliefs in social dominance, rather than zero-sum group competition or ideological support for cultural diversity. The results offer insights into the prejudice-reducing potential for two alternative integration narratives that are institutionalized in Canada.