Psychological disidentification with the academic domain among ethnic minority adolescents in The Netherlands

Background: Among ethnic minority group adolescents, experiences with discrimination and prejudice in school settings are thought to lead to a defensive detachment of the self from the school domain. That is, these adolescents may disengage their self‐feelings from their academic performances causing the academic self to become a less important part of global self‐worth. However, there is limited empirical evidence for this assumption and the existing research is on African American students. Aims: To examine among ethnic minority adolescents in the Netherlands the hypothesis that under conditions of perceived discrimination minority group members tend to psychologically disengage their self‐feelings from educational performance. Samples. Study 1 was conducted among 161 Turkish students between 13 and 16 years of age. The sample in Study 2 consisted of 112 Turkish participants of 11 and 12 years of age. Methods: Two questionnaire studies were conducted and participants responded to questions on perceived academic performance, academic self‐esteem, global self‐worth and perceived discrimination in school. Results: In both studies, academic self‐esteem mediated the relationship between perceived educational performance and feelings of global self‐worth. More importantly, perceived discrimination in school moderated the relationship between academic self‐esteem and global self‐worth. Discrimination did not moderate the relationship between academic performance and academic self‐esteem. Conclusion: The results indicate that for ethnic minorities perceived discrimination in school can lead to psychological disidentification from the academic domain whereby global self‐worth is less based on performances and competencies in the academic domain.     

Latino College Student Adjustment: Does an Increased Presence Offset Minority‐Status and Acculturative Stresses?1

This study examined whether minority‐status stresses and acculturative stresses increase the risk of psychological maladjustment of Latino students at a university where Latinos constitute the largest ethnic group. Participants were 338 Latino (228 Mexican American, 110 Central American) college students who responded to a mailed survey. The results of 2 separate hierarchical regression analyses of psychological distress and well‐being, controlling for demographic (gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity). sociocultural (level of acculturation), college role (generic college stresses), and personal (academic self‐confidence) influences provided partial support for our hypothesis and demonstrated the incremental predictive validity of acculturative stresses, but not of minority‐status stresses. Results are discussed in terms of the variety of stresses that Latino college students are likely to experience.     

Collective AIDS activism and individuals' perceived self‐advocacy in physician‐patient communication

In a study of AIDS activism and communication patterns between people with HIV or AIDS and health care personnel, parallel persuasive processes are described between social or political activism and personal self‐advocacy. The analysis of public and private discourse leads to 3 interrelated conclusions about AIDS activist behaviours at the collective and individual levels: (a) greater patient education about the illness and treatment options is encouraged, (b) a more assertive stance toward health care is promoted, and mindful nonadherence is considered. Activists perceived that their self‐advocacy behaviors, in turn, impact the physician‐patient interaction. In communicative interactions, education allows patients to challenge the expertise of the physician, assertiveness allows them to confront paternalistic or authoritarian interactional styles, and mindful nonadherence allows them to reject treatment recommendations and offer reasons for doing so. Participants reported that physicians had mixed reactions to their self‐advocacy attempts.     

The Big Picture of Advocacy: Counselor,Heal Society and Thyself

This article, motivational in purpose, encourages counselors to be engaged in the growing movement for social justice advocacy in counseling. Analyses of a macrolevel framework of advocacy extend to microlevel operations of recruitment, sociopolitical education, diversity management, and self‐care of counselor‐advocates. Case studies and exemplars illustrate views expressed.     

Your ethnic model speaks to the culturally connected: Differential effects of model ethnicity in advertisements and the role of cultural self‐construal

This paper examines self‐construal and consumer self‐referencing as a mechanism for explaining ethnicity effects in advertising. Data were collected from a 2 (participant ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (model ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (self‐construal: independent versus interdependent) experiment. Results show that (i) individuals with interdependent self‐construal display more positive evaluations towards an in‐group ethnic ad model than do individuals with independent self‐construal; (ii) ethnic minority individuals (Kurdish people) self‐referenced more advertising portrayals of models of a similar ethnicity than models of a different ethnicity, as did ethnic majority individuals (Turkish people); (iii) ethnic minority individuals who experienced high levels of self‐referencing exhibited more favourable attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and a higher purchase intention than ethnic minority individuals who experienced low levels of self‐referencing; and (iv) self‐referencing is found to partially mediate the relationship between culturally constructed self‐concept (self‐construal) and ethnicity on consumer evaluations for interdependent subjects. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When “who we are” and “who I desire to be” appear disconnected: Introducing collective/personal self‐discrepancies and investigating their relations with minority students' psychological health

According to Self‐Discrepancy Theory research, perceiving mismatches between personal aspects of the self‐concept is associated with negative psychological consequences, including depression and anxiety. However, the impact of perceiving mismatches between collective and personal self‐aspects is still unknown. In a first step to address this gap, we introduce collective/personal self‐discrepancies—perceived mismatches between a desired self‐aspect and a collective identity. For cultural minority group members (n = 147), collective/personal self‐discrepancies were associated with more severe anxiety and depression symptoms. Bootstrapping analyses suggest that these relations are mediated by self‐discrepancies experienced at the personal level, but only for group members presenting average or high levels of ethnic identification. This study reaffirms the importance of collective identities, especially as potential antecedents of personal aspects of the self‐concept. The findings are further discussed in terms of their significance for cultural minority group members, who often highly identify with their minority groups.     

Attitudes to cosmetic surgery among ethnic minority groups in Britain: Cultural mistrust,adherence to traditional cultural values,and ethnic identity salience as protective factors

Previous work has suggested that ethnic minority women have more negative attitudes to cosmetic surgery than British Whites, but reasons for this are not fully understood. To overcome this dearth in the literature, the present study asked 250 British Asian and 250 African Caribbean university students to complete measures of attitudes to cosmetic surgery, cultural mistrust, adherence to traditional cultural values, ethnic identity salience, self‐esteem, and demographics. Preliminary analyses showed that there were significant between‐group differences only on cultural mistrust and self‐esteem, although effect sizes were small (d values = .21–.37). Further analyses showed that more negative attitudes to cosmetic surgery were associated with greater cultural mistrust, stronger adherence to traditional values, and stronger ethnic identity salience, although these relationships were weaker for African Caribbean women than for British Asians. These results are discussed in relation to perceptions of cosmetic surgery among ethnic minority women.     

Constructing a minority group identity out of shared rejection: the case of international students

With a sample of international students, we investigated how perceptions of rejection by the host community are related to a sense of identification with other international students. Based on the rejection‐identification model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999 ) we predicted that perceiving prejudice from the host university would be negatively related to psychological well‐being. We expected that group identification with international students would mediate a positive effect of perceived discrimination on self‐esteem, thus suppressing the negative effect of perceiving prejudice on self‐esteem. Consistent with predictions, results supported a model in which identification with international students increased in response to perceiving prejudice and suppressed the costs of perceiving oneself as excluded from the host community. Interestingly, identification with participants' home country was not predicted by perceptions of discrimination. Results are discussed in terms of how minority group members construct group identities in response to the intergroup context. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developing Cross‐Racial Self‐Efficacy: A Longitudinal Examination of the Role of Cross‐Racial Mastery Experiences

A social‐cognitive model for the development of cross‐racial self‐efficacy was developed and tested in a longitudinal study involving a racially and culturally diverse sample of undergraduate students (N = 879). Multiple group analyses indicated that the model fit equally well for men and women and for White students and ethnic minority students. En un estudio longitudinal que involucró a un grupo de estudiantes racial y culturalmente diverso (N = 879), se desarrolló y probó un modelo socio‐cognitivo para el desarrollo de la autoeficacia interracial. Múltiples análisis del grupo indicaron que el modelo se adapta igualmente bien a hombres y mujeres, así como a estudiantes Blancos y de minorías étnicas.     

Counterattitudinal Advocacy on a Matter of Prejudice: Effects of Distraction,Commitment, and Personal Importance1

White students were asked to advocate a tuition policy beneficial to Blacks at either high or low personal cost. Advocates wrote an essay while undistracted or distracted, or only committed to writing it. More attitude change occurred when the policy was personally costly (important) and advocates were undistracted. Distraction may disrupt the dominant covert cognitive response, which is normally favorable to a freely agreed‐to advocacy. This makes anti‐advocacy thoughts more likely and the advocacy seem weaker, especially when the advocacy involves conflicted racial beliefs whose contemplation under load activates negative stereotypes. Some participants wrote essays that defied their agreement to endorse the policy, and distraction enhanced their attitude change. In this case, distraction presumably disrupted an anti‐advocacy dominant cognitive response. Thought listings supported these interpretations. Finally, commitment alone led to attitude change. Coun‐terattitudinal advocacy fosters attitude change in prejudice‐relevant domains if conditions support advocacy‐favorable thoughts during advocacy.     

Specific job search self‐efficacy beliefs and behaviors of unemployed ethnic minority women

This two‐wave field study draws from social cognitive theory to investigate the specific job search self‐efficacy beliefs and behaviors of unemployed ethnic minority women in the Netherlands. We go beyond prior job search research that predominantly used white samples and conceptualized job search self‐efficacy and behavior as global, unidimensional constructs. We found that networking self‐efficacy and Internet self‐efficacy were the main predictors of ethnic minority women’s job search behaviors. Moreover, the more time they spent on contacting employment agencies and looking at job ads the more job offers they received. Finally, time spent on job ads was more positively related to job offers when job ad self‐efficacy was high and time spent on networking only predicted job offers when networking self‐efficacy was high.     

Disproportionate Representation in Special Education: A Synthesis and Recommendations

Disproportionate representation of minority students in special education remains a very controversial, unresolved issue. This synthesis summarizes historical perspectives and current knowledge about disproportionate representation with respect to: (a) definitions of disproportionate representation and related issues of interpretation; (b) national and state-level estimates of disproportionality for four ethnic groups; (c) legal, policy, research and teacher education responses to disproportionality; and (d) hypothesized causes and predictors of disproportionality. Authors stress the need for: coherent and well-articulated conceptual frameworks, responsible use and representation of data, research dialog that is informed by appreciation of the complex sociopolitical history and current context, and the need for effective advocacy to improve the educational success of minority students.     

Cultural differences in attitude toward and effects of self‐doubt

It has been argued that the high achievement of Confucian Asian students is at the cost of their psychological well‐being, since high self‐doubt consistently accompanies their high achievement. However, other researchers cautioned that the attitude toward self‐doubt could be different in Asian versus Western cultures. This study examined the debate with a survey of both American and Chinese college students that measured level of self‐doubt, attitude toward self‐doubt, beliefs about ability, and psychological well‐being outcomes. As hypothesized, Chinese students showed a more positive attitude toward self‐doubt than American students, despite having higher level of self‐doubt. Furthermore, self‐doubt engendered less negative consequences on Chinese students' psychological well‐being, relative to American students. Implications for theories and research on cultural differences in the effects of self‐constructs are discussed.     

Learning from Instructor‐managed and Self‐managed Split‐attention Materials

Instructor‐managed physical integration of mutually dependent, but spatially separated materials, is an effective way to overcome negative effects of split‐attention on learning. This study examined whether teaching students to self‐manage split‐attention materials would be effective for learning. Seventy‐eight primary‐school students learned about the water cycle, either by studying split‐attention examples, integrated examples or self‐managed split‐attention examples. It was hypothesised that students who study instructor‐integrated materials and students who study self‐integrated materials would outperform students who study split‐attention materials. The results showed that students learned more from instructor‐integrated materials than from split‐attention materials, thereby confirming the split‐attention effect. The implications for future research on self‐management are discussed.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一项关于大学生自我概念的研究

研究一使用《田纳西自我概念量表》对261名维吾尔、汉族大学生的自我概念进行测查,研究二用“20问”法对120名维吾尔、汉族大学生自我概念的特点进行研究。结果表明：(1)田氏自我概念量表可适用于少数民族地区自我概念的跨文化研究。(2)总体上,维吾尔、汉族大学生的自我概念存在显著差异。(3)维吾尔、汉族男大学生的自我概念基本上无显著差异;维吾尔、汉族女大学生的自我概念有差异。(4)汉族大学生的自我概念总体有性别差异,维吾尔族大学生的自我概念基本无性别差异。     

A test of positive and negative extended intergroup contact in a Chinese minority with perceived group norms and intergroup anxiety as mediators

This article is aimed to examine the effect of Uyghur's (minority group) positive and negative extended contact with Han (majority group) within the background of China. One affective (intergroup anxiety) and two cognitive (perceived in‐group and out‐group norms) variables were tested as potential mediators. A sample of 875 Uyghur minority college students ranging in age from 17 to 25 years completed self‐reported measures of direct contact, positive and negative extended contact, intergroup anxiety, perceptions of in‐group and out‐group norms, out‐group attitudes, and contact intentions. Results revealed that both positive and negative extended contact were associated with out‐group attitudes and contact intentions, over and above the effect of direct contact. The effects of both forms of extended contact were mediated by intergroup anxiety, perceived in‐group, and out‐group norms. Notably, positive extended contact exerted larger effects than negative extended contact. This research highlights the significance of considering both positive and negative extended contact and the potential of extended contact as a means to ameliorate intergroup relations from the perspective of minority groups.     

A longitudinal study of students' academic self‐concept in a streamed setting: The Singapore context

Background. Although several studies support the existence of a negative stream effect on lower‐ability stream students' academic self‐concept, there is not enough longitudinal research evidence to preclude the possibility that the stream effect may only be temporary. In addition, not much is known about the effect of streaming on changes in students' academic self‐concept over time. Aims. The main aims of the study were to examine the effect of streaming on (a) the students' academic self‐concept immediately after the streaming process, and at yearly intervals for 3 consecutive years, and (b) the changes in students' academic self‐concept over a 3 year period. Sample. The sample comprised 495 Secondary 1 students (approximate age 13) from three government coeducational schools in Singapore. Method. A longitudinal survey using a self‐reported questionnaire. Results. Results showed that the lower‐ability stream students had a more negative academic self‐concept than the higher‐ability stream students immediately after streaming, but they had a more positive academic self‐concept 3 years after being streamed. In addition, it was established that the students' academic self‐concept declined from Secondary 1 to Secondary 3. Nonetheless, the decline was more pronounced for the higher‐ability stream students than the lower‐ability stream students. Conclusions. Streaming may have a short‐term negative impact on lower‐ability stream students' academic self‐concept. However, in the long run, being in the lower‐ability stream may not be detrimental to their academic self‐concept.     

Humour styles,gelotophobia and self‐esteem among Chinese and Indian university students

This study examined the relationship between humour styles, gelotophobia and self‐esteem among 102 Indian and 101 Hong Kong university students. The Humour Styles Questionnaire, the GELOPH‐15 Scale and the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale were used. Indian students rated the importance of humour significantly higher than Hong Kong Chinese students and considered themselves as being significantly more humorous as well. Both Indian and Hong Kong Chinese students engaged in significantly more affiliative and self‐enhancing humour. Indian students engaged in significantly more affiliative and self‐enhancing humour and reported less gelotophobia than Hong Kong students. Gelotophobia was negatively correlated with self‐esteem and affiliative humour in both samples and was positively correlated with self‐defeating humour in the Indian sample only. Affiliate humour mediated the relationship between self‐esteem and gelotophobia in both samples whereas self‐defeating humour mediated the relationship in the Indian sample only. Taken together, both Indian students and Hong Kong students valued adaptive humour, but Indian students valued humour more than Hong Kong students. This study is a pioneering study of its kind conducted in a Chinese‐Indian sample.     

Volunteer Mentoring Relationships With Minority Youth: An Analysis of Same‐ Versus Cross‐Race Matches1

Despite the growth of youth mentoring programs in recent years, key questions remain regarding the relative importance of making matches on the basis of shared racial background. Both sides of the argument regarding racial matching are presented, followed by a comparison of the effects of same‐ vs. cross‐race matches involving minority youth (N= 476). Minority adolescents were less likely to report initiating alcohol when placed in cross‐race matches. In addition, minority boys in same‐race matches reported smaller decrements in scholastic competence and self‐worth than did minority boys in cross‐race matches. Minority girls in same‐race matches reported smaller decrements in school value and self‐worth than did minority girls in cross‐race matches. Youth, parent, and caseworker impressions of the 2 relationship types largely converged, but the few impressions that differed tended to favor cross‐race matches. The methodological limitations and implications of this study are discussed.     

Parasocial relationships and self‐discrepancies: Faux relationships have benefits for low self‐esteem individuals

The current research proposes that low self‐esteem people can use parasocial relationships to experience movement toward the ideal self, a benefit they may miss in real relationships. In Study 1, low self‐esteem undergraduate psychology students at a public university in the United States felt closest to celebrities who were similar to their ideal self. In Study 2, low self‐esteem college students primed with their favorite celebrity became more similar to their ideal selves. In Study 3, low self‐esteem college students primed with their favorite celebrity, but not a close relationship partner, became more similar to their ideal selves. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for parasocial relationships, self‐esteem, and the flexibility of the need to belong.