Mauro C. Balieiro

Measuring Cultural Consonance: Examples with Special Reference to Measurement Theory in Anthropology

A valid and reliable anthropological measurement must be culturally appropriate for a particular social setting. Justifying the appropriateness of a measurement often depends on the skill of the researcher in describing the ethnographic setting. This has resulted in valuable research, but it is difficult to systematize and lacks transparency. Here the authors present a measurement model for anthropology that links structured ethnographic methods—cultural domain analysis and cultural consensus analysis—to the assessment of individual behavior and personal beliefs. These procedures are illustrated with the concept of cultural consonance, or the degree to which an individual approximates in his or her own behavior or belief the shared cultural model in some domain. The concrete steps taken to develop measures of cultural consonance in four domains (lifestyle, social support, family life, and national characteristics) are described, and the reliability and validity of these measures are evaluated. This describes a measurement model for anthropology.

The cultural construction of social support in Brazil: associations with health outcomes.

The association of social support and healthoutcomes has received considerable attention inrecent years, but the cultural dimension of socialsupport has not been extensively investigated. Inthis paper, using data collected in a Braziliancity, we present results indicating that thoseindividuals whose reported access to social supportmore closely approximates an ideal cultural model ofaccess to social support have lower blood pressureand report fewer depressive symptoms and lowerlevels of perceived stress. The cultural model ofsocial support is derived using a combination ofparticipant observation, semi-structured interviews,and the systematic ethnographic technique ofcultural consensus modelling. These results arethen used to develop a measure of an individual‘sapproximation to that model of social support in asurvey of four diverse neighborhoods in the city(n = 250). We call this approximation to the idealcultural model of social support ‘culturalconsonance’ in social support. The association ofhealth outcomes with cultural consonance in socialsupport is independent of individual differences inthe reporting of social support, and of standardcovariates. In the case of blood pressure andperceived stress, it is independent of diet, andother socioeconomic and psychosocial variables. Theassociation with depressive symptoms is notindependent of other psychosocial variables. Theimplications of these results are discussed withrespect to research on cultural dimensions of thedistribution of disease.

Studying Diversity and Sharing in Culture: An Example of Lifestyle in Brazil

The structure and distribution of cultural models within social groups have been studied in a variety of domains, using a variety of methods. In this article we examine cultural models of lifestyle in Brazil; here, lifestyle is defined as the accumulation of consumer goods and the adoption of behaviors that help to define ones social identity. Three issues are examined: (1) the structure and distribution of models of culturally appropriate lifestyles; (2) the association of these cultural models with actual behaviors, along with those factors that promote or inhibit adhering to the cultural ideal; and (3) the utility of using the Romney-Weller-Batchelder cultural consensus model for studying lifestyles. Results indicate that cultural models of lifestyle are highly structured and widely shared across socio-economic groups. Furthermore, a variety of economic, social, and psychological variables influence the individuals approximation to the cultural ideal. These results indicate that the extent to which cultural meaning systems are shared must be determined empirically and that both group-level and individual-level variability must be taken into account. The methods used here may prove useful in the investigation of a variety of cultural domains.

Culture, skin color, and arterial blood pressure in Brazil.

Populations of African descent in North and South America have higher mean blood pressures and higher rates of hypertension than populations of European descent or populations in Africa. Within populations of African descent, darker skinned persons have higher blood pressures than lighter skinned persons. Whether examined within or between populations, there is an interaction between skin color and socioeconomic status (SES) in relation to blood pressure, with persons with dark skin color and low SES having the highest blood pressures. This interaction was examined in Brazil using a measure of a cultural dimension of SES called “cultural consonance in lifestyle.” This measure was derived using cultural consensus analysis linked with social survey data. It was found that darker skinned Brazilians with lower cultural consonance in lifestyle had adjusted systolic blood pressures 16.2 mm Hg higher than darker skinned Brazilians with higher cultural consonance (P < .01); the corresponding difference in adjusted diastolic blood pressure was 9.7 mm Hg (P < .04). The differences for lighter skinned Brazilians were 6.4 mm Hg (P < .02) and 1.0 mm Hg (not significant), respectively. These results could be due either to an interaction of genetic predisposition and SES, or the result of a socially and culturally‐mediated process. Given that cultural consonance in lifestyle measures the ability of the person to live up to cultural norms, and given the existence of racial stratification in Brazil, it is argued that a social and cultural mediation of the relationship is more plausible. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 11:49–59, 1999.

How culture shapes the body: Cultural consonance and body mass in urban brazil

The aim of this article is to develop a model of how culture shapes the body, based on two studies conducted in urban Brazil.

Finding Culture Change in the Second Factor Stability and Change in Cultural Consensus and Residual Agreement

This article reports the replication after 10 years of cultural consensus analyses in four cultural domains in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Additionally, two methods for evaluating residual agreement are applied to the data, and a new technique for evaluating how cultural knowledge is represented by residual agreement is introduced. We found that overall cultural consensus observed in 2001 was replicated in 2011 in four cultural domains. Significant residual agreement in all four cultural domains was observed using a technique for assessing the structure of the respondent-by-respondent agreement matrix. Analysis of loadings on the second factor from the cultural consensus analyses indicated that time period was associated with residual agreement in the domain of lifestyle, while other variables were associated with residual agreement in other domains. The variation in the configuration of elements in the cultural model of lifestyle within each time period, relative to the overall consensus, was examined using deviation scores. Implications of these results for the study of culture and the distribution and sharing of culture are discussed.

Does perceived stress mediate the effect of cultural consonance on depression

The importance of appraisal in the stress process is unquestioned. Experience in the social environment that impacts outcomes such as depression are thought to have these effects because they are appraised as a threat to the individual and overwhelm the individuals capacity to cope. In terms of the nature of social experience that is associated with depression, several recent studies have examined the impact of cultural consonance. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with more depressive symptoms both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In this paper we ask the question: does perceived stress mediate the effects of cultural consonance on depression? Data are drawn from a longitudinal study of depressive symptoms in the urban community of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. A sample of 210 individuals was followed for 2 years. Cultural consonance was assessed in four cultural domains, using a mixed-methods research design that integrated techniques of cultural domain analysis with social survey research. Perceived stress was measured with Cohens Perceived Stress Scale. When cultural consonance was examined separately for each domain, perceived stress partially mediated the impact of cultural consonance in family life and cultural consonance in lifestyle on depressive symptoms. When generalized cultural consonance (combining consonance in all four domains) was examined, there was no evidence of mediation. These results raise questions about how culturally salient experience rises to the level of conscious reflection.

Culture and the Immune System: Cultural Consonance in Social Support and C‐reactive Protein in Urban Brazil

In this article, we examine the distribution of a marker of immune system stimulation-C-reactive protein-in urban Brazil. Social relationships are associated with immunostimulation, and we argue that cultural dimensions of social support, assessed by cultural consonance, are important in this process. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate shared cultural models. A measure of cultural consonance in social support, based on a cultural consensus analysis regarding sources and patterns of social support in Brazil, was developed. In a survey of 258 persons, the association of cultural consonance in social support and C-reactive protein was examined, controlling for age, sex, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, depressive symptoms, and a social network index. Lower cultural consonance in social support was associated with higher C-reactive protein. Implications of these results for future research are discussed.

Depressive symptoms and C-reactive protein in a Brazilian urban community

Psychological depression is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. C-reactive protein has been implicated as a mediator of the effect of psychological depression. Several studies have found that individuals, especially men, who report higher levels of psychological depression also have higher levels of C-reactive protein. The current study was undertaken to replicate these results in a Brazilian population, in which there is a much wider range of variation in both background characteristics (such as socioeconomic status) and coronary artery disease risk factors. A sample of 271 individuals was interviewed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Fasting blood samples were obtained and evaluated for C-reactive protein (assessed by a turbidimetric immunoassay using a Dade Behring kit) analysis in a subsample (N = 258) of individuals. The mean +/- SD C-reactive protein for the entire sample was 0.43 +/- 0.44, with 0.42 +/- 0.48 for men and 0.43 +/- 0.42 mg/L for women. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis, controlling for age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic status, tobacco use, and both total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Higher reported depressive symptoms were correlated with higher C-reactive protein for men (partial r = 0.298, P = 0.004) and with lower C-reactive protein for women (partial r = -0.154, P = 0.059). The differences in the associations for men and women could be a result of differential effects of sex hormones on stress reactivity and immune response. On the other hand, this difference in the associations may be related to gender differences in the disclosure of emotion and the effect that self-disclosure has on physical health and immune response.

Culture as a mediator of gene-environment interaction: Cultural consonance, childhood adversity, a 2A serotonin receptor polymorphism, and depression in urban Brazil

Research on gene-environment interaction was facilitated by breakthroughs in molecular biology in the late 20th century, especially in the study of mental health. There is a reliable interaction between candidate genes for depression and childhood adversity in relation to mental health outcomes. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of culture in this process in an urban community in Brazil. The specific cultural factor examined is cultural consonance, or the degree to which individuals are able to successfully incorporate salient cultural models into their own beliefs and behaviors. It was hypothesized that cultural consonance in family life would mediate the interaction of genotype and childhood adversity. In a study of 402 adult Brazilians from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, conducted from 2011 to 2014, the interaction of reported childhood adversity and a polymorphism in the 2A serotonin receptor was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Further analysis showed that the gene-environment interaction was mediated by cultural consonance in family life, and that these effects were more pronounced in lower social class neighborhoods. The findings reinforce the role of the serotonergic system in the regulation of stress response and learning and memory, and how these processes in turn interact with environmental events and circumstances. Furthermore, these results suggest that gene-environment interaction models should incorporate a wider range of environmental experience and more complex pathways to better understand how genes and the environment combine to influence mental health outcomes.