Michaela Hynie

The Role of Culture in Interpersonal Relationships Do Second Generation South Asian Canadians Want a Traditional Partner

Two studies examined the influence of Eastern cultural heritage on relationship preferences among second generation immigrants to the West, and explicitly tested the mediating roles of interdependence and familial cultural influence in mate preferences. The first used a between-subjects approach to compare the preferred mate attributes of South Asian Canadians (n= 97) to those of Euro-Canadians (n= 89). The second study used a within-subject approach by using the strength of cultural identity of South Asian Canadians (n= 92) as a predictor of preferred attributes. Both studies found a culture influence on “traditional” mate attribute preferences. Moreover, familial cultural influence (e.g., family allocentrism) was a better mediator of the culture-traditional attribute preference relationship than the more generic measure of interdependent self-construal. The results further suggest that a cross-cultural approach, rather than a strength-of-culturalidentity approach, is better suited to tap into non-conscious influences of culture on behavior.

Interdependence as a Mediator between Culture and Interpersonal Closeness for Euro-Canadians and Turks

The present study examines cross-cultural differences in interpersonal closeness to different people and whether these differences can be explained by independent and interdependent self-construal. Turkish and Euro-Canadian samples of university students were asked to indicate how close they feel and how close they ideally would like to be to family members, romantic partners, friends, and acquaintances. As predicted, Turkish participants scored higher on interdependent self-construal, whereas there was no culture difference on independent self-construal scores. Turkish participants rated their actual and ideal closeness with others higher than Euro-Canadian participants did. Both Turkish and Euro-Canadian participants reported feeling closest and ideally wanting to be closest to their romantic partner, and then to their families and friends, followed by acquaintances. Turkish participants desired more closeness with family members and acquaintances than Euro-Canadian participants did. Interdependent self-construal was found to partially mediate the relationships between culture and actual closeness scores forfamily, friends, and acquaintances and between culture and ideal scores for family and acquaintances.

Effects of Life Stress, Social Support, and Cultural Norms on Parenting Styles Among Mainland Chinese, European Canadian, and Chinese Canadian Immigrant Mothers

The effects of life stress, social support, cultural beliefs, and social norms on parenting styles were examined for mainland Chinese (MC), Chinese Canadian (CC) and European Canadian (EC) mothers of 2- to 6-year-old children. Authoritarian parenting increased with stress and traditional parenting beliefs and decreased with social support. EC mothers used less authoritarian parenting than either CC or MC mothers. This cultural difference was fully mediated by stress. For authoritative parenting, there was a country of residence effect, which was not mediated; MCs were less authoritative than either CCs or ECs. All mothers were more authoritative when less stressed, when they had lower traditional childrearing beliefs, and when they were more individualist. The results suggest the importance of the immediate social environment in influencing these cultural differences.

Self-Conscious Emotions and Self-Regulation in the Promotion of Condom Use

Two prospective studies examined the self-regulatory role of anticipated negative self-conscious emotions (ANSCE) in the theory of planned behavior. In Study 1, 147 undergraduates reported condom attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, ANSCE (shame and guilt) should they not use condoms, and intentions to use condoms during the coming 6 weeks. At a 6-week follow-up, ANSCE predicted condom use intentions and behavior and partially mediated the effect of attitudes and norms on both. Study 2 experimentally tested the social nature of self-consciousness in ANSCE; 61 female undergraduates read a scenario priming the private-self or social-self or were assigned to a no-scenario control. They reported condom attitudes, perceived control, ANSCE, condom use intentions, and a 6-week follow-up. ANSCE again predicted condom use intentions. A test of moderated mediation indicated that ANSCE influenced condom intentions more in the social-self condition than in the control condition. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Perceptions of Sexual Intent: The Impact of Condom Possession

This study examined whether knowing that a victim of a sexual assault was carrying a condom influenced perceptions of her sexual intention and subsequent judgments of the sexual assault. Participants (N = 165) read a vignette describing a date that culminated in an alleged sexual assault. Condom possession (carrying a condom, not carrying a condom) of both the female and male target was systematically varied. When the woman was carrying a condom, the woman was perceived as more sexually willing and the sexual assault claim perceived as less valid. In contrast, the male targets condom possession had little impact on judgments.

Family Relationships of Afghan, Karen and Sudanese Refugee Youth

Research with immigrant and refugee families consistently documents acculturation gaps and role reversals between migrant youth and their parents. However, debate exists over whether these necessarily lead to family conflict and distress. This question was explored in this community-based qualitative study through focus groups and interviews with 70 newcomer refugee youth aged 16 to 24 from the Afghan, Karen and Sudanese communities in Toronto. Thematic analysis revealed that youths’ responsibilities increased following migration, often involving service navigation, language interpretation, and providing financial and emotional support, in addition to household chores and pursuing education and employment. Several youth explicitly took on parental roles in the absence of a parent. These changes did not necessarily lead to conflict, and where family conflict and distancing occurred, other factors such as lack of time together or low levels of family support seemed to be the contributing factors. Youth were clearly “resettlement champions” for their families, which increased family-level well-being, often at the cost of individual-level well-being. Policy implications are discussed. Une recherche documentée sur les familles d’immigrés et de réfugiés montre de manière consistante des écarts dus à l’acculturation ainsi que des renversements de rôle entre les jeunes immigrés et leurs parents. Il y a cependant un débat sur la question de savoir si ceci doit forcément mener à des conflits familiaux et à une certaine détresse. Cette question a fait l’objet d’une étude qualitative réalisée dans les communautés afghanes, karènes et soudanaises de Toronto à partir de groupes cibles et d’entrevues menées avec 70 jeunes réfugiés nouvellement arrivés et âgés de 16 à 24 ans. Une analyse thématique a révélé que les responsabilités de ces jeunes augmentaient suite à l’immigration, souvent afin d’aider les leurs à s’orienter dans les services, à leur servir d’interprète et à leur apporter un soutien financier et émotionnel, et ce en plus de tenir la maison, de continuer des études et de gagner leur vie. Plusieurs d’entre eux ont pris explicitement le rôle de parents en l’absence de l’un d’entre eux. Ces changements n’ont pas automatiquement provoqué de conflits sauf que, là où il y en a eu dans la famille ou qu’elle a souffert de distanciation, d’autres facteurs tels que le manque de temps en commun ou un bas niveau de support familial semblent y avoir contribué. Les jeunes sont clairement les «champions du réétablissement» pour les leurs, améliorant le bien-être familial, souvent au prix d’un mieux-vivre individuel. Il s’agit donc de voir ce que cette situation implique au niveau des politiques à leur égard.

The effects of gender and socioeconomic status on youth sexual-risk norms: evidence from a poor urban community in South Africa

HIV and AIDS remains one of the most serious problems facing youths in many sub-Saharan African countries. Among young people in South Africa, gender is linked with a number of HIV-risk behaviours and outcomes. The literature suggests that factors such as socioeconomic status, intimate partner violence, and several psychosocial factors contribute to gendered differences in sexual behaviour among youths in South Africa. However, the existing body of literature scarcely addresses the interaction between gender, confounding factors (particularly peer norms) and sexual behaviour outcomes. This study uses a survey design (n = 809) to examine how gender and socioeconomic status moderate the effects of norms and attitudes on higher-risk sexual behaviours among secondary school learners in a low-income community in South Africa. The findings suggest that gender interacts significantly with peer norms to predict sexual behaviour. Peer norms and the experience of intimate partner violence were significantly associated with sexual risk behaviour among girls participating in the study. The article discusses both the wider implications of these findings and the implications for school-based and peer-facilitated HIV interventions.

COMMITMENT, INTIMACY, AND WOMEN'S PERCEPTIONS OF PREMARITAL SEX AND CONTRACEPTIVE READINESS

A person-perception study was conducted to examine the influence of intimacy and commitment on the acceptability of premarital sex and contraceptive preparedness. Ninety-six women rated a female targets personality and behavior after reading a diary entry describing a couples initial sexual encounter. The nature of the couples relationship and who provided the condom were manipulated between participants. Women inferred a committed relationship when intimacy was present. Women rated the target, and her behavior, as more acceptable when she had sex in a relationship with commitment. When she provided a condom, the target was perceived as less nice in the noncommitted than in the committed relationship. When her partner provided the condom, however, commitment level did not influence personality ratings.

Culture Moderates the Pliability of Ambivalent Attitudes

Ambivalent attitudes are comprised of conflicting components. In response to this evaluative conflict, North Americans are more likely to change high ambivalent attitudes than low ambivalent attitudes. However, East Asians exhibit greater tolerance for inconsistencies than do North Americans. Hence, we hypothesized that culture would interact with ambivalence in influencing the degree of attitude change in response to a persuasive attempt. Results indicated that culture significantly moderated the relationship between ambivalence and attitude pliability, such that ambivalence and the degree of attitude change were positively associated for European Canadians but not for East Asian Canadians. These results add to the extant literature on attitudinal ambivalence, demonstrating cultural variability in the pliability of ambivalent attitudes.

Utilization of internal evaluation results by community mental health organizations: Credibility in different forms

Internal evaluations are numerous but the literature is largely focused on external evaluations. There have been few explorations of the factors affecting the use of findings from internal evaluations that are carried out by program staff in community organizations. This study examined the instrumental use of internal evaluation findings within 19 community mental health organizations in Ontario, Canada. All but one respondent reported instrumental use in their organization, using the evaluation findings to make program-related decisions. For these non-controversial programs, qualities such as the ability of internal evaluators to identify relevant information, their role/expertise within the organization and the consistency of evaluation findings with current understanding appeared to influence use more strongly than evaluator objectivity.