Can children develop a dual identity when immigrant mothers feel homesick? A short-term longitudinal study among Turkish immigrants

Abstract

Turkish immigrant-origin youth in Western Europe often develop strong ethnic and weaker national identities. To advance our understanding of this pattern, we investigated the concurrent development and intergenerational transmission of both identities over time in conjunction with maternal homesickness. Our study was based on a sample of 176 Turkish mother-child dyads from Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. Mothers (M _t1 = 38 years) reported on their identities and homesickness at T1 and children (M _t1 = 12 years) on their identities at T1 and T2. Our results showed that children’s ethnic and national identities became more incompatible over time, mother’s homesickness strengthened children’s ethnic identities, and mother’s ethnic identities in combination with high levels of homesickness weakened children’s national identities. We conclude that early adolescence is a critical time for Turkish immigrant youth’s identity development and that a focus on parental acculturative stressors can advance ethnic socialization and cultural transmission research.     

Personality,Ideological Attitudes,and Group Identity as Predictors of Political Behavior in Majority and Minority Ethnic Groups

Prior research on personality and politics has largely investigated relationships using national samples from North America and Europe. In contrast, we used multigroup path analysis to assess how Big Five personality, ideological attitudes (RWA, SDO), and group identities (National and Ethnic Identification) predicted right versus left Political Behavior (party support, past voting, present voting intention) across majority and minority ethnic groups in a New Zealand national sample (N = 6,333). The effects of personality on ideological attitudes and group identities were mostly invariant across ethnic groups and consistent with prior findings. In contrast, the effects of ideological attitudes on Political Behavior varied across ethnic groups being moderately strong for the European majority but nonsignificant for the minorities. Group identities had little effect on Political Behavior. We discuss cultural and contextual factors that might account for this disconnect between ideology and politics among the minority ethnic groups.     

Culture and attitudes toward psychological help-seeking influence clients’ self-disclosure

Cultural factors are known to influence aspects of psychotherapy. The influence of cultural values on self-disclosure was explored through surveys of Greek migrants to Australia (n?=?106), native Greek Cypriots (n?=?189), and Australians (n?=?35) on individualism–collectivism, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and measures of self-disclosure. It was hypothesized that more collectivist participants would have less positive attitudes regarding self-disclosure. Against our predictions, all three groups showed highly similar attitudes toward seeking help and self-disclosure that were not related to the predicted links with individualism–collectivism.     

Are your cross‐ethnic friends ethnic and/or national group identifiers? The role of own and perceived cross‐ethnic friend's identities on outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism

We investigated how own ethnic and national identities and perceived ethnic and national identities of close cross‐ethnic friends may predict outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism among Turkish (majority status, N = 197) and Kurdish (minority status, N = 80) ethnic group members in Turkey (M_age = 21.12, SD = 2.59, 69.7% females, 30.3% males). Compared with Turkish participants, Kurdish participants were more asymmetrical in rating their cross‐ethnic friend's identities relative to their own, reporting higher ethnic identity, but lower national identity for themselves. Own ethnic identity was negatively associated with attitudes and multiculturalism, whereas own national identity was positively associated with only attitudes. Perceived cross‐ethnic friend's national identity was positively related to both outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism. Shared national identification (high levels of own and friend's national identity) led to most positive outgroup attitudes and highest support for multiculturalism. Findings were discussed in the light of social identity and common ingroup identity models.     

A latent profile analysis of coping responses to individuals’ most traumatic event: associations with adaptive and maladaptive mental health outcomes

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives: This study explores how empirically-derived coping response patterns influence mental health.

Design: Emerging adults, currently enrolled in college and aged 18–24 (N?=?432; M_age?=?19.66; SD?=?1.65), completed self-report measures of trauma exposure, coping responses to self-selected most traumatic event (MTE), resilience, posttraumatic growth (PTG), depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS).

Methods: Eight coping subscales were included as indicators in a latent profile analysis. Then, associations between established profiles and mental health outcomes were examined, covarying for demographic and trauma-related variables.

Results: Considering fit statistics, class size, profile patterns, and theory, the four-class model was deemed most appropriate: High Overall Coping (HCOPE; n?=?146, 34%), Low Overall Coping (LCOPE; n?=?92, 22%), High Engagement Coping (HENG; n?=?115, 27%), and High Disengagement Coping (HDIS; n?=?73, 17%). HENG participants endorsed above-average resilience and PTG, coupled with below-average depressive symptoms and PTSS. Compared to the sample average, HDIS participants endorsed lower resilience and PTG, coupled with higher depressive symptoms and PTSS. LCOPE participants endorsed low levels of all outcomes. HCOPE participants endorsed high levels of all outcomes.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that clinicians who promote engagement coping and discourage disengagement coping among trauma-exposed individuals may engender the most desirable constellation of mental health outcomes.     

Cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of well-being: invariance across 25 years

This study addressed: (a) whether any changes in well-being over time could be attributed to participants’ aging or to economic or historical events; (b) whether predictors (e.g. age, religiosity, and financial status) were similarly associated with well-being in cohorts of college seniors assessed at different times; and (c) whether predictors of well-being were similar for the same cohort over a 25-year time span. Using three cohorts of emerging adults (1982, n?=?189; 2007, n?=?188; and 2010, n?=?79) and a subsample of the 1982 cohort followed across 25?years (n?=?83), the findings indicated that well-being declined over time, possibly due to historical influences rather than changes associated with aging. Well-being was similarly predicted by religiosity, relationship status, and financial status across cohorts. Longitudinal analyses indicated that earlier religiosity was inversely associated with later financial status and later financial status was associated with higher well-being.     

Ethnic Identity in Emerging Adults in Sub‐Saharan Africa and the USA,and Its Associations with Psychological Well‐Being

Ethnic identity as a social dimension of identity is argued to be developmentally important for psychological well‐being. However, the relationships between these constructs are mainly examined in Western contexts, amongst dominant–non‐dominant groups. We investigate ethnic identity across the mainstream group of a prototypical Western society (the USA) and several multi‐ethnic sub‐Saharan African countries (Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia), as well as how it relates to psychological well‐being. A total of 1255 university students (61.8% females, M_age = 20.94 years, SD = 2.97) completed a questionnaire with ethnic identity and psychological well‐being measures. Results indicated that ethnic identity was most salient in two different South African ethnocultural samples and least salient in a mainstream US sample. These results suggest that groups that are more exposed to ethnic strain in multicultural societies tend to have more salient ethnic identities. Furthermore, the underlying structure in the ethnic identity psychological well‐being relationship was similar across groups. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as Ethnic Behavior: Part 1. Construction of the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory

This article reports the construction of a new survey—specifically, the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI)—designed to measure ethnic speech and ethnic action as separate, yet related, aspects of individuals’ ethnic behavior. Using Tajfel’s social identity theory as a conceptual frame of reference, this study sought an answer to the research question of how many factors actually are measured by the BEBI, and tested the hypothesis that a two-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as two correlated factors) would provide significantly better goodness of fit to the correlational data than would a one-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Behavior as one undifferentiated factor). Across one pilot sample (n = 101) and two main samples (n = 120 for Sample 1, n = 148 for Sample 2), the study found that not only did the BEBI measure two factors at most (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action) but, consistent with the hypothesis, the two-factor model yielded better goodness of fit than did the one-factor model. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of Verkuyten’s “ways of ethnicity” are discussed.     

Coming Out Among Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexual Individuals in Hong Kong: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Moderating Role of Attitudinal Ambivalence

The present study applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify factors associated with disclosure intention among lesbians (n?=?236), gay men (n?=?183), bisexual women (n?=?156), and bisexual men (n?=?46) (LGBs) in Hong Kong. Past disclosure behavior and the moderating role of attitudinal ambivalence were also examined. Findings showed that perceived behavioral control predicted intention significantly in all four groups. Attitude predicted intention significantly in lesbians, gay men, and bisexual women. Subjective norm predicted intention significantly in lesbians and gay men. The moderating effect of attitudinal ambivalence was supported in lesbians. Past disclosure behavior was not significant in predicting disclosure intention. The present study showed differential utility of the TPB on LGBs’ disclosure intention in Hong Kong.     

The unit size effect of indulgent food: How eating smaller sized items signals impulsivity and makes consumers eat less

In deciding how much to eat, people are influenced by environmental cues. The unit size of food (i.e. the number of units in which a given amount of food is divided) provides such a cue. Previous research showed that given equal caloric and volumetric content, smaller units of food tend to reduce food consumption. We propose that the unit size of food impacts intake as it influences perceptions of impulsiveness and appropriateness. Our analysis is based on three experimental studies, all employing between subject designs. When consuming similar amounts of chocolates in studies 1 (n?=?118) and 2 (n?=?124), both studies show that consumption of five small units of chocolates is considered to be more impulsive, excessive and less appropriate than consuming one large unit of chocolate. Results of a third study (n?=?165) indicate that about 23% less chocolate is eaten when it is presented in small unit size vs. a large unit size and this effect is mediated by perceptions of impulsivity. All three studies suggest that perceptions of impulsivity and excess eating while eating several smaller units of food compared to one large unit might be a key factor explaining consumption effects in earlier studies on this bias.     

Cost-effectiveness of online positive psychology: Randomized controlled trial

As yet, no evidence is available about the cost-effectiveness of positive psychological interventions. When offered via the Internet, these interventions may be particularly cost-effective, because they are highly scalable and do not rely on scant resources such as therapists’ time. Alongside a randomized controlled trial of an online positive psychological intervention, a health-economic evaluation was conducted. Mild to moderately depressed adults seeking self-help and recruited in the general population were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n?=?143) and a waitlisted usual care group (n?=?141). Improved clinical outcomes were achieved in the intervention group (at least for depression) at higher costs. When outliers (the top 2.5%, n?=?5 in intervention group, n?=?2 in control group) were removed, cost-effectiveness was increased considerably. For positive psychology, economic evaluations may be a means to nudge policy decision-makers towards placing positive psychological interventions on the health agenda.     

Alternative Measures of American National Identity: Implications for the Civic‐Ethnic Distinction

Studies of national identity distinguish between ethnic and civic nations and have sought to identify these alternative conceptions of national identity in public opinion. The standard measurement technique is to assess the normative content of American national identity by asking survey respondents to rate the importance of particular traits for making someone a “true” American. We argue that such measures are problematic, chiefly because of the impact of nonrandom measurement error. We explore the influence of using ranking measures instead of ratings, using a survey experiment conducted on a nationally representative sample of Americans in 2008. The ranking method is superior for distinguishing between ethnic and civic conceptions of nationhood and, therefore, for predicting preferences on issues such as immigration policy. We develop a new statistical method that effectively “converts” ratings into scores that approximate rankings, resulting in the creation of more valid measures of both ethnic and civic national identities.     

The Ethnic Adornment Survey (EAS): Measuring Individuals’ Use of Clothing to Express Ethnic Identity

The present paper introduces the Ethnic Adornment Survey as a measure of the relative frequency with which individuals use clothing to express their ethnic identity. Results of exploratory factor analyses in a pilot study (n = 174) and confirmatory factor analyses in a main study (n = 217) revealed that the Ethnic Adornment Survey measures two positively correlated, yet distinct, ethnic adornment factors (i.e., socially desirable and undesirable aspects). Moreover, results of regression analyses indicated that (1) self-esteem was positively predicted by socially desirable aspects of ethnic adornment (p’s < .05 in both studies); whereas (2) self-esteem was negatively predicted by socially undesirable aspects of ethnic adornment (p’s < .05 in the pilot study and < .10 in the main study). Implications for research on ethnic identity are discussed.     

Religious and national group identification in adolescence: A study among three religious groups in Mauritius

Religious group identification is an important but understudied social identity. The present study investigates religious group identification among adolescents of different faiths (Hindu, Muslim, Christian) living in multicultural Mauritius. It further explores how religious and national group identities come together among religious majority and minority adolescents. For three age groups (11 to 19 years, N = 2152) we examined the strength of adolescents’ religious and national group identification, the associations between these two identities, and the relationships to global self‐esteem. Across age and religious group, participants reported stronger identification with their religious group than with the nation. Identification with both categories declined with age, with the exception of Muslims, whose strong religious identification was found across adolescence. The association between religious and national identification was positive, albeit stronger for the majority group of Hindus and for early adolescents. We examined the manner in which religious and national identities come together using a direct self‐identification measure and by combining the separate continuous measures of identification. Four distinct clusters of identification (predominant religious identifiers, dual identifiers, neutrals, and separate individuals) that were differently associated with global self‐esteem were found. Dual identifiers reported the highest level of global self‐esteem. The clusters of identification did not fully correspond to the findings for the direct self‐identification measure. The results are discussed in terms of the meaning of dual identity and the positive manner in which adolescents can manage their multiple identities while taking into account the ideological framework in which those identities are played out.     

National (dis)identification and ethnic and religious identity: a study among Turkish-Dutch muslims

National (dis)identification is examined in three studies among Turkish-Dutch Muslim participants. In explaining national (dis)identification, the first study focuses on ethnic identity, the second on ethnic and religious identity, and the third on three dimensions of religious identity. Many participants show low commitment to the nation, and many indicate national disidentification. In addition, there is very strong ethnic and religious identification. Ethnic and Muslim identifications relate negatively to Dutch identification and, in Study 3, to stronger Dutch disidentification. Furthermore, perceived group rejection is associated with increased ethnic minority and religious identification but also with decreased national Dutch identification. In addition, in Studies 1 and 2 the effect of perceived rejection on Dutch identification is (partly) mediated by minority group identification. The findings are discussed in relation to social psychological thinking about group identification, dual identities, and the importance of religion for intergroup relations.     

Stop the clock because I can’t stop: time pressure,but not monitoring pressure,impairs response inhibition performance

ABSTRACT

Psychological pressure can exert detrimental effects on cognitive tasks that depend on attentional control. However, the effect of psychological pressure on inhibitory cognitive processes has been relatively overlooked. The study purpose was to examine the effect of psychological pressure on response inhibition. In Experiment 1, participants (N?=?125) were assigned to a combined time and performance-based incentive pressure condition or control condition. In Experiment 2, participants (N?=?124) were allocated to a time pressure only or control condition. Participants (N?=?149) in Experiment 3 were assigned to either an explicit monitoring pressure condition in which their performance was video-recorded or control condition. Participants in all experiments completed a Go/NoGo Task to assess response inhibition performance. Pressure impaired performance in Experiments 1 and 2 but not Experiment 3. The results demonstrate that time pressure, but not explicit monitoring pressure, significantly impairs inhibition accuracy. These findings are consistent with the distraction theory of performance pressure.     

The importance of emotional display rules for employee well-being: A multi-group comparison

‘Serving with a smile’ has generally been associated with negative effects for employee well-being. The present study investigated whether emotional display rules also relate to positive outcomes by distinguishing demands to suppress negative emotional response (negative display rules) from demands to express positive emotions (positive display rules). In line with the job demands-resources model, outcomes involved emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Participants were employees in three occupational groups in the human service profession: sales (N?=?480), healthcare (N?=?399), and education (N?=?220). The outcomes of a multi-group analysis in LISREL revealed for all three occupational groups that negative display rules were related to emotional exhaustion while positive display rules were associated with work engagement. Together, these findings suggest that ‘serving with a smile’ can enhance employee well-being, when the emphasis is on showing positive affects instead of suppressing negative affects.     

Ethnodoxy: How Popular Ideologies Fuse Religious and Ethnic Identities

Popular beliefs conflating ethnic identities with particular faiths can lead to marginalization of religiously and ethnically “other” and fuel ethnoreligious conflict even in secularized societies. Despite their importance to ethnoreligious conflict and coexistence, ideological conflations of faith and ethnos have previously received little scholarly attention. We fill the gap by introducing the concept of ethnodoxy: a collectively held belief system that rigidly links a group's ethnic identity to its dominant faith. We theorize this phenomenon at three levels: macro (the interplay between religion and ethnonational identities), micro (construction of ethnoreligious identities and imagined communities viewed from a social identity theory perspective), and meso (the nature and functions of popular ideologies and religiosities). Subsequently, ethnodoxy is conceptualized as an ideal‐typical syndrome of six component beliefs. We further operationalize and verify the concept using representative national survey data from Russia. Findings show ethnodoxy's extent, coherence, dimensionality, and associations with religious and ethnic intolerance.     

Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as Ethnic Behavior: Part 2. Validation of the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory

This study sought to validate the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI) as a measure of two aspects of “doing” (i.e., ethnic speech and ethnic action) among the “ways of ethnicity” identified by Verkuyten. It also evaluates the construct validity of the BEBI alongside the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised (MEIM-R) and evaluates the BEBI and the MEIM-R (the latter of which measures exploration as “thinking” and commitment as “feeling” among ways of ethnicity) regarding criterion-related validity. Across two samples (n = 120 for Sample 1 and n = 148 for Sample 2), the BEBI and the MEIM-R performed suitably with regard to construct validity. However, the BEBI arguably performed better with regard to criterion-related validity (i.e., in predicting scores on life satisfaction, flourishing, positive and negative moods, and positive and negative emotions). Implications for validation studies on ways of ethnicity are discussed.     

Understanding the pathways to purpose: Examining personality and well-being correlates across adulthood

Although finding a purpose is almost universally accepted as a developmental achievement, relatively little research has sought to understand the potential means by which individuals do so. Using a newly developed measure, the current studies examined the personality and well-being profiles of individuals who reported following any of three different pathways to purpose: (1) proactive engagement, (2) reaction to significant life events, or (3) social learning. Across both emerging adult (n?=?179) and adult (n?=?307) samples, we demonstrated that individuals along these three pathways differ in theoretically meaningful ways. For instance, proactively engaged individuals report greater agency and openness to experience, while individuals who found a purpose primarily through reactive means are less likely to be exploring their life aims. Engagement with any pathway though coincided with greater well-being, due to the fact that following these paths may lead to a sense of purpose in life.