Mika Haritos-Fatouros

Transcultural Similarity in Personal Significance of Esthetic Interests

A measure of esthetic interest in visual art-tendency to prefer art which experts consider esthetically better-was developed in the United States, but showed high internal consistency in Greece as well. Measures of self-characterizations correlated with esthetic interest, and of active versus passive preferences in food and drink, originally developed in the United States, also showed internal consistency in Greece. The correlations among these measures found in the United States, moreover, were substantially replicated in Greece. The personal significance of esthetic interests is thus shown to have marked transcultural stability. In both countries, esthetic interest is positively related to liking for autonomy, variety, and challenge.

Prevention and Treatment of Community Stress: How to be a Mental Health Expert at the Time of Disaster

In an extraordinary document, Cater, Revel, Sapir, and Walker (1993) provided a four section report of community disasters. These sections include (1) why a report was needed, (2) a world picture of disasters, (3) the dynamics of disasters, and (4) disaster database. Among the more interesting revelations is found in this last section.

A study of migrant mothers: Return home and role change

For migrant groups moving from one place to another usually means dealing with contradictions between home and host countries and with different cultural norms. Taking into consideration migrant womens previous status in the village and their new one in the host country, it can be said that migration is a turning point in womens lives. Research findings show that increased employability of women in the host country increases their independence and leads to sex role changes and changes within the family.Return migration is the last stage in the migration cycle and it is a rather neglected and little researched topic as yet. The purpose of this paper is to report on research on role changes within the family.Three groups of migrant mothers (two groups living in West Germany and one group repatriated) were compared with a control group in the District of Drama, Macedonia, on work employment and types of responsibilities concerning their childrens upbringing.Results showed that mothers who live in West Germany are equally responsible with fathers for the childs social behavior, school performance and expenses and were significantly different from the control group. Return mothers were as much as fathers responsible for the childs school performance in contrast to the control group. More mothers than fathers, however, were responsible for the childs relationships and fewer mothers than fathers were responsible for the childs expenses; in this respect both parents resembled those of the control group. It seems therefore, that migrant mothers take over different roles in the host country than those of the controls, whereas return mothers adopt to a large extent the stereotyped role of control mothers.