Acculturation and young Iranian women: attitudes toward sex roles and intimate relationships

This study examined the nature and extent of acculturation of Iranian women into the American culture of Los Angeles, California, their attitude toward the role of women, and their attitude toward intimate relationships. It was expected that acculturation level would be related negatively to participants' age at migration and positively related to the length of time away from Iran. Data were obtained from a sample of 77 Iranian women aged 17-32 years living in Los Angeles. Acculturation level was measured by a modified version of one designed by Cuellar, Harris, and Jasso (1980). The Sexual and Premarital Attitude Inventory designed by Schofield (1965) was used to gauge attitudes about intimate relationships. The short version of the Attitude Toward Women Scale designed by Spence, Helmreich, and Staff (1973) was used to assess differences in ideology about the role of women in society and the family. Findings indicate that acculturation level was positively associated with premarital sexual attitudes, a sex role attitude, and sex role attitudes specific to Iranians. Greater acculturation was associated with more liberal sex roles. The age at which Iranian women left Iran was negatively correlated with acculturation. Younger age was associated with a higher score. The number of years away from Iran was associated with a higher acculturation score. Educational level was not significantly related to acculturation. The author proposes that conflict between the pressure to assimilate and attachment to cultural identity may be an adaptive solution in itself. One caveat was the higher socioeconomic status of this sample population.     

The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes Toward Gender Roles Among Adolescents in 36 Countries

In the present article, we look at attitudes toward gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying multilevel models to data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a) both young women and young men (in 8th grade; M_age = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b) young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and (d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between maternal employment and young men’s attitudes. Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings also indicate that young women are more responsive to external cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women, is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from being reached.     

Intrapsychic factors influencing career aspirations in college women

A 300-item questionnaire designed to assess the relationship and relative importance of several factors for women's career aspirations was answered by 169 female college juniors and seniors. Regression analyses showed that women with high career aspirations were satisfied with their lives; confident of their career plans; willing to postpone marriage; nontraditional in their values and behaviors; generally external in orientation, believing that discrimination is responsible for many of women's failures and that organized pressure rather than individual action is necessary to combat this discrimination; certain that women's demands for equality are justified and that most men agree with them; likely to have had a working mother who was perceived as being dissatisfied with her own life; and if planning to marry soon, endorsing dual role compatability. When all variables were considered simultaneously, attitudinal factors were found to best predict career aspirations, while socialization variables were relatively unimportant.This study was supported by funds from the University of California, Los Angeles, Personality and Social Psychology Training Grant, USPHS 1 T 1 MH 11, 696. The authors wish to express their thanks to the Women's Studies Program at UCLA for its continued cooperation. Also deserving of recognition for their help with early phases of this study are Cathy Connor, Jomary Hilliard, Paula Johnson, Karen Paige, Andrea Tyree, and Gail Zellman. Portions of this paper were presented at the University of California, Los Angeles, Symposium on Sex Roles and Sex Differences, Los Angeles, 1972.     

Cross-cultural perspective on dating relationships of young Iranian women: A pilot study

This study aimed to determine whether young Iranian women experience a conflict in values between their parents and those of mainstream America. Specifically, the study focused on dating and boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. Through an open-ended interview conducted in Farsi, the results indicated that the subjects experiencing the most pressure were those who had not yet forged an identity for themselves within either culture. Implications for cross-cultural counselling are discussed.     

Background characteristics and women's dual-role attitudes

This study examines the relationship between the attitudes toward the employment of married women held by 583 currently married Los Angeles County women between the ages of 18 and 49 and their personal backgrounds in terms of certain basic demographic characteristics. The findings illustrate that the respondents' attitudes significantly varied as a result of their personal backgrounds (e.g., level of education, ethnicity, marriage duration, income, work status, religion, age, and number of children raised). However, the data do not support the belief of Mason and Bumpass that women's dual-role attitudes are a group phenomenon determined by group norms or collectively held perceptions arising from the women's particular social niches; the demographic characteristics included in the study were able to explain only 27% of the observed variation in dual-role attitudes.     

California's Suicide Decline, 1970–1990

From 1970 to 1990 California experienced a 32% decline in suicide, which was particularly pronounced among women, non-whites, the young, and urban dwellers. Suicide declines of over 50% were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and large decreases occurred in other coastal counties. Additionally, California was the only one of 51 states to show a consistent decline in teenage and young-adult suicide (accompanied by an 88% decrease in teenage drug and other poisoning deaths). Initial investigation of death certification, accident and homicide trends, economic measures, and prevention efforts did not produce an explanation for a suicide decrease of California's magnitude. However, the state does display anomalous trends in certain social measures (reduced divorce, rising non-White population, and rising homicide) that point to multifactorial hypotheses including demographic changes and changed attitudes toward violence. Review of the accuracy of past suicide certification procedures nationally is also indicated.     

Perceived Change of Values and Intention to Return Among Kibbutz People Who Emigrated From Israel

We examined perceived changes of values and intentions to return to Israel among 149 Kibbutz people who had lived for 3 or more years in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In answering standardized attitude questionnaires, participants reported significantly less general agreement today with Kibbutz values, but more support for the idea that Israel should compromise on occupied territories and more support for the idea that people should live where they choose. Political opinions also moved toward more liberal attitudes. Most participants intended to return to Israel without specifying a clear time frame. Values were significantly associated with behavioral intentions, with those endorsing Zionist values the most likely to report that they would return to Israel in times of war or peace. Results suggested acculturation to American society and political opinions.     

Value Relevance and the Value-Attitude Relation: Value Expressiveness Versus Halo Effects

This study examined whether considering the relevance of values to an attitude issue differentiated between two processes potentially underlying the relations between undergraduates' general value priorities and their attitudes toward capital punishment and affirmative action: value expressiveness, whereby attitude express values, and halo effects, whereby attitudes affect perception of values. In line with findings that indicate the attitudes of low self-monitors (SMs) are value expressive, while those of high SMs are not, the impact of value relevance on the value-attitude relation differed for high and low SMs. Low SMs' attitudes were correlated only with those values deemed relevant to an attitude issue, while high SMs' attitudes were related to both relevant and irrelevant values. Regression analyses revealed that controlling for the relation between low SMs' attitudes and irrelevant values slightly increased the relation between their attitudes and relevant values. Controlling for the relation between high SMs' attitudes and irrelevant values, in contrast, decreased the strength of the relation between their attitudes and relevant values. This suggest the magnitude of the relation between attitudes and relevant values, after controlling for the extent to which attitudes are tied to irrelevant values, may reflect the extent to which attitudes are value expressive. The implications of these findings for the methods used to change values and attitudes are also discussed.     

Prenatal and postnatal anxiety in Mexican women giving birth in Los Angeles

Examined psychosocial factors related to prenatal and postnatal anxiety in 291 primiparous Mexican women giving birth in Los Angeles. Characteristics of health care providers preferred by more anxious and less anxious women were also assessed. Higher prenatal anxiety was associated with less desire for an active role during labor, lower assertiveness, higher pain expectation at delivery, lack of support from family members other than the husband, and preferences for health care providers who are female and Latino. All groups of women preferred health care providers who provided good medical explanations and who were knowledgeable, friendly, and sympathetic. Postnatal anxiety was significantly lower than prenatal anxiety. Negative attitudes toward the baby and number of complications during labor and delivery, however, were related to postnatal anxiety adjusted for prenatal anxiety.     

Life satisfaction among Iranian and American graduate students

This study aimed to find out if there were differences in the life satisfaction of Iranian students (who came to the United States after the Iranian revolution in 1979) as compared with American students. It also aimed at identifying students' perceptions of some of the variables, like social network, competence and stress, that affect the quality of their lives. Ninety-four Iranian students who were attending the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and California State University, Long Beach, during the academic year of 1986-87 participated in this study. Multivariate analysis of variance was employed to compare the scores of the two groups, Iranians and Americans, on fifteen life satisfaction subscale scores. The results indicated that for both Iranians and Americans, perceptions of life satisfaction correlated significantly with perception of competence, social network, and hopes for the future. American subjects showed more satisfaction with their competence than Iranians. The Iranians, however, reported greater availability of social network resources than Americans. The results also indicated that both groups are tolerating the stress in their lives relatively well and that both are optimistic about their futures with regard to most aspects of their lives. Implications of these findings for cross-cultural counselling and the usefulness of a multivariate concept of life satisfaction are discussed.     

An analysis with Bion: an interview with James Gooch. Interview by JoAnn Culbert-Koehn

In 1968 Wilfred Bion moved to Los Angeles, escaping the perils of fame in London. He lived in Los Angeles until a few months before his death in Oxford in 1979. He made a deep impact on psychoanalysis in Los Angeles through those he analysed and what he wrote. James Gooch, psychiatrist and founding president of the Psychoanalytic Center of California describes in detail the transformative experience of his analysis with Bion in an interview with JoAnn Culbert-Koehn, Jungian analyst. Dr. Gooch describes important differences between his analysis with Bion and his classical Freudian analysis during his analytic training.     

Attitudes to women in society: the role of social dominance orientation and social values

his research assessed the extent to which attitudes to women in society are predicted by the personality trait social dominance orientation (SDO) as well as the values international harmony and equality (INT) and national strength and order (NAT). Respondents were a community sample of adult non‐students (N = 158). Sex differences were observed on INT and attitudes to women. Multiple regression analyses showed sex differences in the extent to which SDO predicts attitudes to women, while no support was found for the view that social attitudes are underpinned by both security and harmony values. The results are discussed with reference to social dominance theory and the nature of the security value domain. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A test of reciprocal risk between undesirable economic and noneconomic life events

The proposition that undesirable life experiences are risk factors for each other was explored by testing several hypotheses concerning the temporal relationships between economic and noneconomic life events. The tests were conducted using data describing the incidence of stressful experiences among approximately 3,500 Anglo and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County. Findings suggested that Anglo men who have undesirable economic life experiences are at increased risk of subsequent undesirable noneconomic experiences. Anglo women, however, exhibited the opposite pattern in that those with undesirable noneconomic experiences were at greater risk of subsequent undesirable economic experiences. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

Training Young Adult Peers in a Mobile Motivational Interviewing‐Based Mentoring Approach to Upstream HIV Prevention

Mentoring relationships are characterized by a sustained, high quality, and skill‐building relationship between a protégé and mentor (Handbook of Youth Mentoring, Los Angeles, SAGE, 2014). Within prevention science, youth mentoring programs emphasize creating a specific context that benefits a young person. Program‐sponsored relationships between youth and adults allow for creating a mentor–mentee partnership, but do not require the establishment of a strong bond in order to deliver prevention‐focused activities and experiences (Handbook of Youth Mentoring, Los Angeles, SAGE, 2014). Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a counseling style used widely to promote health behavior change and in prevention interventions. As part of an upstream approach to HIV prevention, we combined mentoring and MI by training peer mentors to use MI skills in their interactions as part of a large RCT of a mobile life skills intervention for adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM). Our training model developed for training peer mentors in MI skills resulted in peers reaching and exceeding established MI fidelity thresholds (e.g., mean percentage of complex reflections = 80%, mean reflection to question ratio = 2.2:1). We offer reflections on lessons learned and future directions for those researchers and practitioners who may benefit from adapting this blended approach for mentoring AMSM.     

New heads for Freud's hydra: psychoanalysis in Los Angeles

This paper describes the transplantation of psychoanalysis from Europe to Los Angeles and the similarities and differences in followers, cultural attitudes, institutional organization, and patient symptoms. Psychoanalysis in both places attracted psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, artists, writers, and movie people, all committed to "modernism" and cultural change. But special American conditions created greater institutional rigidity, medicalization, and a more diffuse patient symptomatology centered on the maternal relationship. Such conditions also fostered bitter disputes over modifications of psychoanalytic theory and practice which have only recently become less acute as the status of psychoanalysis has declined in America.     

The More You Have, the More You Do: The Relationship Between Wife's Employment, Sex-Role Attitudes, and Household Behavior

This study explores the relationship between wife's employment, sex-role traditionalism, and the reported division of household tasks and decisions. Data were collected from three samples of currently married women between the ages of 18 and 49 in Los Angeles County. Sex-role traditionalism was positively related to wives' relative performance of feminine tasks, but generally unrelated to masculine task performance and decision-making between spouses. Employed or professional women took primary responsibility for relatively fewer feminine tasks than did nonemployed or nonprofessional women. The findings suggest that despite differences among women in sex-role traditionalism and employment status, most women say that they and their spouses divide tasks in a traditional sex-role fashion.     

Changes in Attitudes Toward Religion Among Those with Mental Illness

Despite the increased attention given to the religious experiences of those with mental illness, the specific nature of the changes in religious attitudes that occur within this population remain yet unknown. In this study, 406 individuals with persistent mental illness who attended one of 13 Los Angeles County Mental Health facilities completed a demographic questionnaire, an adapted version of the Religious Coping Index, and the Symptom Checklist 90-R. Over 54% of the participants reported a change in their religious beliefs such that their faith became stronger or weaker as a result, and 66% perceived these changes to be positive in nature. Qualitative codings suggest that a constructive or destructive use of religion and the quality of one's self-image and relationship with God are the primary themes underlying these changes. Those changes that were predominantly positive were associated with less severe symptomatology and more religious coping when compared to predominantly negative changes. These findings suggest that religious attitudes may be an ongoing and dynamic part of the experience of mental illness that should be considered in the treatment and research afforded by mental health professionals.     

Sex-role attitudes of working-class women in Bogota,Colombia 1977

This study examines the sex-role attitudes of 204 working-class women in Bogota, Colombia, and compares their attitudes to recent findings for women in the United States. Historical evidence from Europe and the United States, as well as contemporary evidence from Latin America, provides insight into the ways in which women's work and family commitments can be fully integrated. On the basis of these examples, it is hypothesized that working-class Colombian women will have seemingly inconsistent sex-role attitudes, more inconsistent than those of North American women. The Colombian women studied had highly egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's labor market rights and less egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's family roles. It is further hypothesized that education and wage level will be important factors influencing the sex-role attitudes of working-class Colombian women. A multiple regression analysis confirmed that these factors are successful predictors of sex-role attitudes involving women's family roles. It is proposed that education and wage level reflect an emphasis on individualistic values rather than traditional family values, and thus support more egalitarian attitudes about family roles.The data collection and initial analysis of results for this study were funded by a Rockefeller-Ford Population Policy Grant in 1976–1977. These stages were completed at the Corporacion Centro Regional de Poblacion in Bogota, Colombia, with the assistance of Elsa Gomez and Elena Prada. Further analysis was supported by a State University of New York, University Awards Committee Grant to the author in the summer of 1978. Michael Goode, Norman Goodman, Eugene Weinstein, and an anonymous reviewer all contributed to the final version of this article.     

Are the times changing? An analysis of sex-role prejudice

Sex bias was studied through evaluation of articles, in a technique modeled upon Goldberg's. Goldberg (1968) indicated that college women evaluated an article more positively when it was ascribed to a male rather than to a female author. The primary purpose of the present research was to examine a diverse sample, including subjects of both sexes and varying ages, and to determine whether sex-role attitudes have changed over time. Therefore, 64 students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 64 students from San Jose State University, and 96 nonstudents from the San Francisco—Monterey Bay areas each evaluated six articles on several dimensions. Packets were counterbalanced for ascribed sex of author and sex of topic (male, female, or neutral). An analysis of variance yielded significant main effects for sex of subject and sex of topic. Further analyses yielded complex interactions which appeared to be primarily due to the responses of young nonstudents. The absence of an overall sex of author effect and the general pattern of data are interpreted in terms of the generalizability of research findings.Some of the results reported in this paper were presented in a symposium on sex-role research methodology at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, April 1976.     

Work Attitudes and Values of College Women

Despite woman's fast emergence into the working world, few studies have focused on individual changing attitudes and values that become initially responsible for setting future employment trends in our society. Following a historical perspective, a survey is presented that samples the inner feelings of young college women and their personal stand on the world of work. The results indicate a general rejection of much of the traditional work ethic. Although the attitudes expressed in this survey are simply contemporary, their hidden strength hints to the shape of a future American society that will potentially change the life-style of every individual.