Coping responses of Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina New York City residents following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States

This study examined mechanisms for coping with adversity in a sample of 24 Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina residents of New York City following the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks. Using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), the authors identified 7 broad coping domains used by the participants: (a) sought additional information about the WTC tragedy, (b) expressed a range of emotions, (c) sought or gave support, (d) engaged in religious or spiritual activities, (e) avoidance, (f) forbearance, and (g) used indigenous healing techniques. Although there were similarities across racial or cultural groups and genders with regard to the coping responses used, there also were unique coping strategies by racial or cultural background and gender.     

Widowhood and illness: a comparison of social network characteristics in France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

This study examined social network characteristics of adults aged 70 to 90 years in relation to widowhood and illness in France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Participants were drawn from representative samples from each of the 4 countries (total N = 1,331). Resource deficit profiles based on whether respondents were widowed, ill, both, or neither were directly related to social network characteristics for German and Japanese adults, were differentially related by gender and age for French adults, and were not related to social networks of Americans. Country, gender, and age differences in total network size, proportion of close network members, and frequency of contact with network members are reported. Similarities and differences found in the associations between normative late-life deficits and social network characteristics in the 4 countries point to the importance of investigating sociocultural factors that mediate the impact of resource loss and afford life quality in very old age.     

Beliefs about power and its relation to emotional experience: a comparison of Japan, France, Germany, and the United States

This research examined the concept of power in Japan, France, Germany, and the United States, as well as beliefs about the emotions persons in power tend to elicit in others and about powerful people's regulation (specifically, inhibition) of certain emotions. Definitions of power were assessed by examining the importance of two main components: control over self versus other and freedom of action vis-à-vis social norms. Beliefs about both positive (pride, admiration) and negative (jealousy, contempt) emotions were measured. Analyses revealed that the concept of power differed across countries and that the definitions of power as well as country of origin significantly predicted beliefs about the emotions that are elicited in others by powerful people and also the regulation of expression of emotion by powerful people.     

The Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison Between Canada,Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States

This paper investigates the effect of unemployment on life satisfaction from a comparative perspective. It also tests whether the link between unemployment and life satisfaction is moderated or reinforced by contextual unemployment across regions within a country—either through a negative spillover or a positive social-norm effect, or both. The results suggest that noticeable non-pecuniary costs are associated with unemployment in the four countries studied. Cross-national differences also emerged in the impact of the moderating factors. Regional unemployment is a strong moderating factor of own unemployment in Canada and to a lesser extent in the United States; the effect is ambiguous in the United Kingdom and exacerbating in Germany. The results also support a negative spillover effect of regional unemployment on the employed in the United States and Germany, no spillover effect in the United Kingdom and, surprisingly, a positive overall spillover effect in Canada. Sensitivity testing further revealed that this Canadian anomaly was a phenomenon mainly in Atlantic Canada, not across the whole country.

     

Income inequality and risk of suicide in New York City neighborhoods: a multilevel case-control study

Evidence on the relationship between income inequality and suicide is inconsistent. Data from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for all fatal injuries was collected to conduct a multilevel case-control study. In multilevel models, suicide decedents (n=374) were more likely than accident controls (n=453) to reside in neighborhoods with greater income inequality even after controlling for individual characteristics; this relation was modified by age with an effect overall and among decedents aged 15-34 but not among decedents 35-64. These data suggest that income inequality may contribute to the risk of suicide in younger adults.     

Ancestry, genes, and suicide: a test of the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis in the United States

There is now convergent evidence from classic quantitative genetics (family, twin, and adoption studies) and molecular genetic studies for specific genetic risk factors for suicidal behavior. This emerging research field has recently been supplemented by geographical studies concerned with the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis (FUSH), which states that population differences in genetic risk factors may partially account for conspicuous geographical patterns seen in suicide prevalence. In particular, the European high-suicide-rate nations constitute a contiguous, J-shaped belt, spanning from Finland to Austria. This area maps onto the second principal component identified for European gene distribution, most likely reflecting a major migration event of the past (i.e., the ancestral adaptation to cold climates and the Uralic language dispersion) still detectable in modern European populations. The present research tested the hypothesis in the United States. Consistent with the hypothesis, available historical (1913-1924 and 1928-1932) U.S. state suicide rates were uniformly positively associated with available state proportions of reported American ancestries from European high-suicide-rate countries (Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and the Ukraine). However, contrary to the hypothesis, available contemporary (1990-1994) suicide rates were uniformly negatively associated with these ancestry proportions. The findings of this first test outside Europe are therefore conflicting. A proposal based on the geographical study approach is offered to further the progress of investigations into the genetics of suicide.     

Orthodox (Eastern Christian) Churches in the United States at the Beginning of a New Millennium: Questions of Nature, Identity, and Mission

This article presents selected results of the study on 22 major Orthodox (Eastern Christian) Churches in the United States. This research was sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies as a part of the nationwide "Religious Congregations Membership Study: 2000." The data were obtained directly from the headquarters of different Orthodox Churches in North America through personal visits and by interviewing the church's leaders—the bishops or the chancellors.     

Religiosity, values, and horizontal and vertical individualism-collectivism: a study of Turkey, the United States, and the Philippines

The authors examined the links between two dimensions that have been useful in understanding cross-cultural differences and similarities, namely, individualism-collectivism (I-C) and value orientations. The authors examined the relations and parallels between the two variables by directly relating them and examining the patterns of relations that both have with a third variable, religiosity. Participants were 475 college students from the Philippines, the United States, and Turkey who responded to measures of horizontal and vertical I-C, value orientations, and religiosity. The authors found partial support for the parallels between I-C and value types, particularly for collectivism and conservative values. Moreover, religiosity was associated positively with conservative values and collectivism, across all three cultures. The authors found individualism to also relate to openness-to-change values, though the patterns were not as consistent as those that they found between collectivism and conservation. Differences and similarities emerged in links of I-C-values to religiosity across the three samples.     

Age and Cultural Gender Equality as Moderators of the Gender Difference in the Importance of Religion and Spirituality: Comparing the United Kingdom,France, and Germany

A range of research studies has found that women report greater importance of religion and spirituality in their lives than men do. This study extends the literature on this phenomenon, and the theories that aim to explain it, by looking at whether gender differences in the three European countries (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) differ by adult age group (young adults 18–39, midlifers 40–59, and older adults 60+), and by the cultural gender equality of the countries in question. Participants provided data on the importance of religiosity and spirituality to their life. Significant gender differences were found within all three countries, for each of the three age groups. In line with predictions based on Global Gender Gap Report 2016, Germany showed the smallest difference, followed by France and the United Kingdom. Gender differences were smaller in the young adult samples than for midlife adults or older adults.     

Couple Adjustment and Differentiation of Self in the United States,Italy, and Spain: A Cross-Cultural Study

This study comprises a first attempt to explore a cross-cultural application of Bowen family systems theory and examines the relationship between differentiation of self and couple adjustment using measurement invariance. A sample of 2,141 individuals (n = 915 from the United States; n = 635 from Italy; n = 591 from Spain) completed measures of differentiation of self (DSI-R; Skowron & Schmitt, J Marital Fam Ther, 29, 2003, 209) and couple adjustment (DAS; Spanier, J Marriage Fam, 38, 1976, 15). Results showed evidence of partial measurement equivalence for the DSI-R across the three samples. Additionally, results from latent regression showed that less emotional cutoff predicted greater couple adjustment in the United States, Spain, and Italy, whereas greater emotional reactivity predicted poorer couple adjustment only in the more collectivistic cultures, Spain and Italy. Our findings are consistent with prior empirical studies, which suggest that emotional cutoff is a strong predictor of relationship adjustment. The use of measurement invariance provides a foundation for future studies to continue employing rigorous statistical methods when examining constructs across different cultures. The findings highlight culture-specific similarities and differences in differentiation that may benefit practitioners by informing psychotherapy with individuals, couples, or families from diverse populations.     

Relationships among individualism--collectivism, gender, and ingroup/outgroup status, and responses to conflict: a study in China and the United States

Responses to conflict were studied in samples of college students from a highly collectivistic society (China, n = 207) and a highly individualistic society (United States n = 209). As predicted, the collectivistic society reported more conflict-reducing behaviors and less verbal or physical aggression. However, the effect of individualism/collectivism was moderated by both the ingroup/outgroup status of the target and gender of the participant. Chinese and US women did not differ on any measure. However, of the four groups, Chinese men reported the most conflict-reducing behaviors and the least physical aggression, whereas US men reported the fewest conflict-reducing behaviors and the greatest physical aggression. As predicted, conflict-reducing behaviors were more common in the ingroup condition and both verbal and physical aggression was more common in the outgroup condition. However, the latter were moderated by gender of the participant. US men reported greater physical aggression than any other group. Neither gender nor society had any effect on the level of indirect aggression. There were no gender or individualism/collectivism effects on indirect aggression. Observed gender effects were attributed to differences in how collectivistic and individualistic societies conceptualize masculinity. The effect sizes associated with the ingroup/outgroup condition were consistently and substantially larger than effect sizes associated with individualism/collectivism or gender.     

Neighborhood poverty and public policy: a 5-year follow-up of children's educational outcomes in the New York City moving to opportunity demonstration

Data from the Moving to Opportunity Program, a randomized mobility experiment in which a subset of low-income minority families living in public housing in high-poverty neighborhoods were given vouchers to move to low-poverty neighborhoods, were used to evaluate 1 policy approach for improving children's educational outcomes. Four hundred twenty-five New York City children were seen 2 1/2 and 5 years following relocation (mean age=14.64 years, SD=3.21 years). Analyses examining program effects on 5-year educational outcomes, accounting for 2 1/2-year outcomes, revealed that program effects on adolescent boys' achievement found at 2 1/2 years were not sustained at 5 years. Rather, male and female youths 14-20 years of age in low-poverty neighborhoods reported lower school grades and engagement relative to youths in high-poverty neighborhoods. From a policy standpoint, the complexity of enhancing low-income minority children's educational outcomes is underscored by the multiple dynamics involved--family, neighborhood, housing, and school.     

"God must have been sleeping": faith as an obstacle and a resource for Rwandan genocide survivors in the United States

In 1994, 1 million Rwandans were violently killed in only 100 days. Devastating for some Rwandan survivors was the significant role that some Catholic parishes and leaders took in ignoring, facilitating, and even perpetuating the genocide. This article seeks to understand how Rwandan genocide survivors draw on religion as they negotiate their postgenocide identities in the United States and comprehend their current faiths, beliefs, and practices. Based on qualitative interviews with Rwandan survivors now located within the United States, I argue that the experiences of religiosity postgenocide serve as both an obstacle and a resource in postgenocide life, creating significant individual and local ramifications for community engagement, reconciliation, and trauma recovery.