The continuance of gender culture amid change in Mexican–American immigrant Catholic contexts

The acceptance and implementation of Roman Catholic teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the family vary both at the individual and at the parish level. While overall, there is a dialectical relationship between gender and religion in the way they inform and mold each other, the majority of research has focused on how religion has shaped gender in communities. We use qualitative data from a Latino immigrant Catholic context in the United States to show the opposite movement: how a Mexican–American gender culture of machismo and marianismo shapes the religious culture in the arenas of marriage and religious authority. The process of incorporating immigrant Mexicans into the dominant culture of the United States takes place in part in these religious centers through the interaction and mixture of Latino gender norms with the therapeutic egalitarianism of the white middle class, through the mediation of priests. Through this, we suggest that there are contexts, times, and places where the gender culture of a community shapes the reception and practice of religion.     

Personal values and immigrant group appraisal as predictors of voluntary contact with immigrants among majority students in Israel

What predicts whether young people will establish contacts with immigrants? Students are at a pivotal point in which the campus environment can enable substantial contact with immigrants, and where world views and behavioural patterns are formed which can follow through their adult lives. Through a value‐attitude‐behavior paradigm we examine a conceptual model in which appraisal of an immigrant group as a threat and/or benefit to the host society mediates the relationship between personal values and contact. Findings among 252 students in Israel showed that (1) threat/benefit appraisal of immigrants predicted voluntary contact; (2) personal values of self‐direction and hedonism directly predicted voluntary contact; and (3) Threat/benefit appraisal mediated the relationship between self‐direction and power and contact. Results suggest that increasing awareness of benefits of immigrants can promote positive inter‐group relations.     

Narratives of effort among Chinese,Hungarian and Chinese immigrant students in Hungary

The present study aimed to reveal the effect of migration processes on the conceptualisation of effort involving two cultures with different approaches towards effort: China with an effort‐promoting mindset and Hungary with an effort‐repressing mindset. In the study, narrative approach was used in cross‐sectional design involving Chinese, Hungarian and Chinese immigrant students living in Hungary. Altogether 139 students—49 Hungarian, 47 Chinese, 43 Chinese immigrants—aged 13–15 years provided narratives on past personal effort. Content analyses were done on 222 narratives. The results showed that the Chinese narratives of effort were characterised by learning and achievement orientation with elaborated effort process. In contrast, the Hungarian narratives were characterised by relationship orientation and emotional coping with a non‐elaborated effort process. The narratives of the Chinese immigrants showed great similarity to those of the Chinese students reflecting academic effort, achievement goals and elaborated process. The findings suggest that the traditional Chinese approach towards effort persists in cultural transition, and academic effort tends to be a primary resource for educational success for the Chinese immigrant students in Hungary.     

African Immigrant Women and Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review

The purpose of this article is to systematically review and synthesize the available empirical research related to intimate partner violence (IPV) in the lives of African immigrant women. A comprehensive literature search for articles that were published between the years 2005 and 2015 was performed using the following databases: Academic Search Complete, Criminal Justice Abstracts, CINAHL Plus, Family Studies Abstract, JSOR, MEDline, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Social Services Abstract. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The literature on prevalence rates and types of violence, risk factors for IPV, mental health problems and coping strategies, and help-seeking behavior are discussed. Suggestions for future research are included.     

Organizational Cultural Competency: Shifting Programs for Latino Immigrants from a Client-Centered to a Community-Based Orientation

This paper discusses how the organizational cultural competency of social service agencies may be improved by shifting the philosophy of service delivery from a client-centered to a community-based orientation. This analysis is based on two years of fieldwork and interviews that were conducted as part of an action research project initially developed to increase the number of certified Spanish speaking Latino family childcare providers and knowledge about Latino immigrant families in the Midwest. In developing a culturally-specific certification program in Spanish, both the Latino participants and the bilingual program director challenged the agency to consider how the social context and social location of its participants required a more holistic community approach.     

跨文化心理学中的文化适应研究

文化适应（acculturation）的研究已经成为跨文化心理学研究的一个重要组成部分。近年来这方面的研究急剧增加,新的理论模型不断出现,其研究对西方国家移民政策产生了重要影响。文章从文化适应的定义出发,回顾了文化适应的理论发展和主要的研究范式,同时也指出了当前文化适应研究中存在的问题,最后对文化适应研究今后的发展趋势做出了展望。这一研究领域对我国流动人口的适应问题和民族融合等方面的研究也有重大的理论意义     

Body image and size perceptions of Mexican American women

Purpose was to examine in Mexican American women the influences of age, weight, socioeconomic status and acculturation level on body image, perceptions of attractive and acceptable female shapes, and tolerance for overweight and obesity. Participants were 276 Mexican American women. Age, body mass index, socioeconomic status, and acculturation level were measured. The Figure Rating Scale was used to assess body image, preferences for body size, and perceptions of underweight to obese and acceptable body sizes. Significant effects for acculturation level and current weight were found. Women who were more Anglo oriented showed greater preference for thinner figures. As compared to normal weight women, obese women chose larger figures as ideal, realistic, attractive, and thinnest acceptable. Findings point to the impact of acculturation and obesity on body image and size perceptions. Health professionals working with Mexican Americans should consider each individual's current weight and level of acculturation.     

Mediating and moderating processes in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants in emerging adults

Few studies examine intercultural relations in emerging adulthood. Framed from the perspective of the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) project, the current paper examined the mediating role of tolerance and perceived consequences of immigration in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants. Additionally, the moderating role of context was analysed. A two‐group structural equation modelling was performed on data collected from 305 Italian emerging adults living both in northern and in southern Italy with different socio‐political climates towards immigrants. In both groups, tolerance and perceived consequences of immigration mediated the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants. Also, this indirect relationship was significantly higher for the northern than southern Italians. These findings provide provisional evidence of mediating and moderating processes in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants and suggest important implications for practitioners interested in promoting intercultural relations among emerging adults.     

Culture and Social Distance: A Case Study of Methodological Cautions

Abstract

The authors presented, as a case study of methodological challenges in cross-cultural research, E. S. Bogardus's (1925) Social Distance Scale, which requires respondents to indicate the social distance between themselves and others. The meaningfulness of the scale depends on the assumption that respondents believe that the magnitude of social distance increases as one moves through the social categories of family member, friend, neighbor, coworker, and citizen. The authors tested this assumption for English Canadian, French Canadian, Jewish, Indian, Algerian, and Greek participants, all 1st-generation immigrants in Montreal. The participants rated their willingness to associate with members of each of the other ethnic groups in 5 social categories. The percentage of respondents in each sample whose data conformed to the prediction ranged from 63.7% to 98.0%, with English Canadian, French Canadian, and Jewish respondents providing responses most consistent with the predicted pattern. The Indian and Algerian respondents' data were the least consistent with the predicted pattern, especially when rating members of their own ethnic groups.     

Political Rhetoric,Immigration Attitudes,and Contemporary Prejudice: A Mexican American Dilemma

Abstract

The authors examined political candidates' social stereotypes of Mexican immigrants in mainstream media accounts. From those popular themes, they formed semantic differential scales, which they administered to participants (N = 201) with 1 of 4 scenarios describing an illegal immigrant: of Mexican vs. English Canadian descent and with vs. without several parking tickets. Consistent with contemporary theories of prejudice (J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner, 1996), the participants indicated the greatest agreement with the pejorative themes when the immigrant described was of Mexican descent and had accumulated parking tickets. Psychologically, the parking tickets served as a nonethnic rationale for discriminating against that ethnic group. The authors discuss the social and public policy implications of Mexican immigration as a political phenomenon.