Measuring Perceptions of Gender Roles: The IAWS for Pakistanis and U.S. Immigrant Populations

A new scale called the Islamic Attitudes Toward Women Scale (IAWS) was developed and administered to a sample of 195 Pakistani adults and to a sample of 140 Muslim immigrants in the United States. In support of the construct validation of the scale, it was found to significantly differentiate between liberal and conservative Muslims in Pakistan, and in both samples, men held more conservative attitudes than women. For both women and men, more liberal scores on the IAWS were correlated with less accepting beliefs about marital violence toward women. In the U.S. immigrant sample, those who had been in the United States longer had less conservative attitudes.     

Contextualizing Acculturation: Gender, Family, and Community Reception Influences on Asian Immigrant Mental Health

This article investigates differences in the mental health among male and female immigrants from an ecological perspective, testing the influences of both individual acculturation domains and social contexts. Data from the first nationally representative psychiatric survey of immigrant Asians in the US is used (N = 1,583). These data demonstrate the importance of understanding acculturation domains (e.g., individual differences in English proficiency, ethnic identity, and time in the US), within the social contexts of family, community, and neighborhood. Results demonstrate that among immigrant Asian women, the association between family conflict and mental health problems is stronger for those with higher ethnic identity; among immigrant Asian men, community reception (e.g., everyday discrimination) was more highly associated with increases in mental health symptoms among those with poor English fluency. Findings suggest that both individual domains of acculturation and social context measures contribute to immigrant mental health, and that it is important to consider these relationships within the context of gender.     

Enculturation and Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence and Gender Roles in an Asian Indian Population: Implications for Community-Based Prevention

This study examined the relationships among enculturation, attitudes supporting intimate partner violence (IPV-supporting attitudes), and gender role attitudes among one of the largest Asian Indian population groups in the US. Data were collected via computer-assisted telephone interviews with a random sample of Gujarati men and women aged 18–64 in Metropolitan Detroit. Using structural equation modeling, we modeled the effects of three components of enculturation (behavior, values, and community participation) on gender role attitudes and IPV-supporting attitudes among married respondents (N = 373). Analyses also accounted for the effects of respondent age, education, religious service attendance, perceived financial difficulty, and lengths of residence in the US. The second-order, overall construct of enculturation was the strongest predictor of IPV-supporting attitudes (standardized B = 0.61), but not gender role attitudes. Patriarchal gender role attitudes were positively associated with IPV-supporting attitudes (B = 0.49). In addition to the overall effect of the enculturation construct, two of the components of enculturation had specific effects. “Enculturation-values” had a specific positive indirect association with IPV-supporting attitudes, through its relationship with patriarchal gender role attitudes. However, “enculturation-community participation” was negatively associated with IPV-supporting attitudes, suggesting the importance of community-based prevention of IPV among this immigrant population group.     

Gender Roles in Immigrant Families: Parenting Views, Practices, and Child Development

Ecological and acculturation frameworks are especially central to understanding the experiences of immigrant populations and to date, current research has yielded new conceptual and methodological tools for documenting the cultural and developmental processes of children and their families. This special issue of 12 articles focuses on immigrant families and the importance of gender along various dimensions: parental roles, parent–child relationships, child outcomes. The collection of articles also represents various innovative methodologies used, including quantitative and qualitative approaches.     

Asian Indian Immigrant and White American Maternal Emotion Socialization and Child Socio-Emotional Functioning

Previous research provides an inadequate account of parental emotion socialization and its relation to child functioning among ethnic minority groups in the United States. This study compared reports of Asian Indian immigrant and White American mothers’ emotion socialization and examined relations between mothers’ emotion socialization and child outcomes in these two groups. Indian immigrant (n = 34) and White American (n = 38) mothers completed measures of child behavior problems and social competence, as well as self-report measures of two types of emotion socialization, responses to children’s negative emotions and emotion expressivity. Children completed a self-report measure of social competence. Results revealed that Indian immigrant mothers were more likely than White American mothers to report responding nonsupportively to their children’s negative emotions. However, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were not related to child outcomes in the Indian immigrant group. In the White American group, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were positively related to child behavior problems. Mothers’ self-reported negative emotion expressivity was positively related to child behavior problems and negatively related to mother-rated child social competence for Indian immigrants, while no significant relation was found between mothers’ negative emotion expressivity and child outcomes for White Americans. Moderation analyses were performed with these variables but were nonsignificant. Results are discussed in the context of cultural influences on emotion socialization and subsequent impact on child functioning.     

The Labor Force Participation and Earnings Gap among African Immigrant Women in the U.S.A.

Research on the socioeconomic attainment of immigrants has increased in recent decades. But there is a lot to be discovered in this area, especially the labor force participation and earnings of African immigrant women in the U.S.A. In this article, we use the 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) to examine changes in size and composition of the female African immigrant population in the U.S.A. and differences in the labor force participation and earnings between black and white African immigrant women during the period of 1980?C2008. The results show that the female African immigrant population increased by an annual average growth rate of 23% between 1980 and 2008, with a much higher growth among black female Africans (81%) than whites (5%). The racial composition shifted from a white majority (68%) in 1980 to a black majority (72%) in 2008. Multivariate analysis of the labor force participation and personal earnings showed that the white advantage echoed in previous research had disappeared in 2008 when black African women became more likely to be in the labor force participation and to earn higher income than their white counterparts, net of the effects of socio-demographic variables. Such results challenge the labor queue theory, which assumes that white people have an absolute advantage in American job market.     

Gender role identity among adolescent Muslim girls living in the U.S.

Gender role identity is acquired through exposure to societal expectations and beliefs about behaviors and characteristics appropriate for males and females. This study examined influences on gender identity among ninety-six Muslim adolescent girls living in the U.S. and attending an Islamic high school. Over three-quarters of the sample characterized themselves as Middle-Eastern or Arab-American. Participants completed a survey in English or Arabic containing background questions, the Bern Sex Role Inventory (Bern, 1974), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992), and a religiosity scale. These young women had comparable femininity scores, but higher masculinity scores than Bern's normative female samples. Results also indicated that those girls who had lived in the U.S. for longer periods reported more masculine attributes. Greater sense of belonging to one's ethnic group and greater religiosity were associated with greater femininity. Thus, identification with one's own culture, adherence to religious practices, and exposure to foreign cultural values were related to gender role identity.     

Gender role identity among adolescent Muslim girls living in the U.S.

Gender role identity is acquired through exposure to societal expectations and beliefs about behaviors and characteristics appropriate for males and females. This study examined influences on gender identity among ninety-six Muslim adolescent girls living in the U.S. and attending an Islamic high school. Over three-quarters of the sample characterized themselves as Middle-Eastern or Arab-American. Participants completed a survey in English or Arabic containing background questions, the Bern Sex Role Inventory (Bern, 1974), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992), and a religiosity scale. These young women had comparable femininity scores, but higher masculinity scores than Bern's normative female samples. Results also indicated that those girls who had lived in the U.S. for longer periods reported more masculine attributes. Greater sense of belonging to one's ethnic group and greater religiosity were associated with greater femininity. Thus, identification with one's own culture, adherence to religious practices, and exposure to foreign cultural values were related to gender role identity.     

Predicting Pay Grade in the U.S. Military by Gender and Ethnic Minority Status1

This study examined predictors of pay grade for ethnic minorities and women in the U.S. military using hierarchical regression analyses. In the analysis including all personnel, being a woman and ethnic minority status were negative predictors of pay grade after controlling for education and years of service. In the analysis using enlisted personnel, the interaction between years of service and minority status showed that more years of service was associated with higher pay grade among ethnic majority enlisted personnel after controlling for education and years of service. In the model using officers, being a woman was a negative predictor of pay grade after controlling for education and years of service. Future studies, implications, limitations, and strengths are discussed.     

Gender Role Beliefs and Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Chile and the U.S.

We compared the relationship between gender role beliefs and antigay prejudice in Chile and the United States. Participants were Chilean and American university students. In Study 1, Chileans were more prejudiced than Americans, and men were more prejudiced than women. In Study 2, gender role beliefs mediated cultural and sex differences in prejudice. Chileans held more traditional gender role beliefs and were more antigay than Americans. Men were more prejudiced than women, particularly in their attitudes toward gay men. Further, sex differences in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were completely mediated by gender role beliefs. Nationality differences in attitudes toward lesbians were completely mediated, and nationality differences in attitudes toward gay men were partially mediated, by gender role beliefs.     

Community Mobilization and Community-Based Participatory Research to Prevent Youth Violence Among Asian and Immigrant Populations

Many community mobilization activities for youth violence prevention involve the researchers assisting communities in identifying, adapting, and/or tailoring evidence-based programs to fit the community needs, population, and cultural and social contexts. This article describes a slightly different framework in which the collaborative research/evaluation project emerged from the community mobilization activities. As will be discussed, this collaborative, sustained partnership was possible in the context of the Center on Culture, Immigration and Youth Violence Prevention's (UC Berkeley ACE) community mobilization activities that brought the issue of youth violence, particularly among immigrant and minority populations, to the forefront of many of the community partners' agendas. The East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) was one of the partners that came to the table, which facilitated the community-based engagement/mobilization. UC Berkeley ACE collaborated with EBAYC to evaluate an after-school program and an alternative probation program serving a diverse youth and immigrant population, including African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. This article describes UC Berkeley ACE's community mobilization activity and the collaborative partnership with EBAYC, discusses how the evaluations incorporated community-based principles in design and practice, and presents some findings from the evaluations.     

Contextualizing Gender and Acculturative Influences on Sexual Initiation of Asian Indian Emerging Adults

Although Asian Indians represent one the fastest growing demographics in the United States, no studies exist on the sexual behavior of Asian Indian youth or its association with acculturation. Previous research has demonstrated a link between earlier sexual initiation and subsequent sexual risk and the role of acculturation and sexual initiation in other Asian groups. The present exploratory study examined gender and acculturation with regard to sexual initiation in Asian Indians (n = 37). Results reveal no significant gender differences in sexual initiation and total acculturation scores. Gender differences did emerge for the association among sexual behaviors and the influence of specific areas of acculturation on sexual initiation. Findings suggest that gender and acculturation may be important variables in understanding sexual behavior but that current acculturation measures may be insufficient to adequately assess acculturation levels of Asian Indian youth. Future research should focus on Asian Indians as an understudied minority group.     

A Multicultural‐Ecological Assessment Tool: Conceptualization and Practice With an Asian Indian Immigrant Woman

A multicultural‐ecological (M‐Eco) method assesses multiple levels of a client's presentation, such as individual, micro‐, meso‐, exo‐, macro‐, and chronosystems. An M‐Eco method is a culturally sensitive practice of Bronfenbrenner's (1995) ecological perspective that focuses on behavior's contextual and interactional nature and an individual's interactions within his or her cultural group as well as meaning making of contexts. A través de una ecología multicultural (M‐Eco), se consideran múltiples niveles de la presentación de un cliente (individual, micro‐, meso‐, exo‐, macro‐y cronosistemas). M‐Eco es una práctica culturalmente sensible de la perspectiva ecológica de Bronfenbrenner (1995) que se centra en la naturaleza contextual e interaccional del comportamiento y en las interacciones de un individuo dentro de su propio grupo cultural, además de cómo se obtiene significado a partir de contextos.     

Cultural models of education in American Indian,Asian American and European American contexts

Three studies examined models of education among American Indian (AI), Asian American (AA), and European American (EA) students. Cultural models of education are patterns of ideas and practices relevant to schools, teachers, and self that mediate and regulate behavior in the academic domain. In study 1, mainstream university students (N = 148) and AI University students (N = 187) viewed education as a tool for success. AI, however, generated more mentions of education as a tool for community success and more negative associations to education. Study 2 (N = 166) showed that AI, in contrast to EA and AA, placed family and community concerns ahead of academic concerns. In Study 3 (N = 118), AI and AA endorsed independent and interdependent representations of self, while EA endorsed only independent representations. For AI and AA, but not for EA, interdependent representations were positively related to trust for teacher.     

Cultural Involvement and Preference in Immigrant Acculturation

Measures of cultural involvement (CI) and cultural preference (CP) incorporate Berry’s integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization outcomes, locating them at the ends of two axes suggested by Szapocznik et al. (International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 4 (3–4), 353–365, 1980) in a bidimensional space formed by origin culture and destination culture scales. Each measure combines information from both origin culture and destination culture scales, retains the continuous properties of these scales, connects two of the four-category acculturation outcomes, and has theoretical significance and potential comparability across studies of different immigrant populations. Together they offer a quantitative measure of variations in the structural relation between an immigrant group and its new destination culture, and should reveal new insights into the acculturation process.     

Cultural transmission through infant signs: Objects and actions in U.S. and Taiwan

Infant signs are intentionally taught/learned symbolic gestures which can be used to represent objects, actions, requests, and mental state. Through infant signs, parents and infants begin to communicate specific concepts earlier than children’s first spoken language. This study examines whether cultural differences in language are reflected in children’s and parents’ use of infant signs. Parents speaking East Asian languages with their children utilize verbs more often than do English-speaking mothers; and compared to their English-learning peers, Chinese children are more likely to learn verbs as they first acquire spoken words. By comparing parents’ and infants’ use of infant signs in the U.S. and Taiwan, we investigate cultural differences of noun/object versus verb/action bias before children’s first language. Parents reported their own and their children's use of first infant signs retrospectively. Results show that cultural differences in parents’ and children’s infant sign use were consistent with research on early words, reflecting cultural differences in communication functions (referential versus regulatory) and child-rearing goals (independent versus interdependent). The current study provides evidence that intergenerational transmission of culture through symbols begins prior to oral language.