Culture change: A training program for recent immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union

The article describes a training program in structural/integrative family therapy for immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union at the Training Center of the Shiluv Institute for Family and Couple Therapy in Jerusalem. The program was instituted to meet the pressing needs of a mass immigration of half a million people that came to Israel between 1990 and 1992. This is a retrospective look at the journey of the initial group of psychiatrists and psychologists who changed country, culture, language, and professional orientation in just two years. The authors state their conclusions as to the most expedient way to organize therapy for families from the former Soviet Union — a population in need of help but lacking an awareness of therapy and suspicious of the outsider.     

家长参与在家庭社会经济地位和高中生学习品质之间的中介作用——师生关系的调节作用

为了考察在中国背景下,家长参与在家庭社会经济地位与高中生学习品质之间的中介作用,以及师生关系对上述中介效应的调节。以东部某省13442名高中二年级学生为被试,采用家长的受教育程度、家长的职业以及家庭拥有物三个指标测量家庭社会经济地位。采用家长参与子女学习和家长参与子女日常生活两个指标测试家长参与度。采用学习兴趣、学习自信心、学习策略、自主学习能力、学习习惯五个分指标测量学生的学习品质。采用师生关系量表测量师生关系。结果表明：（1）家庭社会经济地位可以正向显著预测高中生的学习品质;（2）家长参与在家庭社会经济地位与高中生学习品质之间起完全中介作用;（3）家庭社会经济地位经由家长参与影响高中生学习品质的中介作用受到师生关系的调节;（4）因家庭社会经济地位不同造成的学生学习品质的差异,在一定程度上会受到师生关系的弥补作用。     

“Leave Your Comment Below”: Can Biased Online Comments Influence Our Own Prejudicial Attitudes and Behaviors?

Increased use of online communication in everyday life presents a growing need to understand how people are influenced by others in such settings. In this study, online comments established social norms that directly influenced readers' expressions of prejudice both consciously and unconsciously. Participants read an online article and were then exposed to antiprejudiced or prejudiced comments allegedly posted by other users. Results revealed that exposure to prejudiced (relative to antiprejudiced) comments influenced respondents to post more prejudiced comments themselves. In addition, these effects generalized to participants' unconscious and conscious attitudes toward the target group once offline. These findings suggest that simple exposure to social information can impact our attitudes and behavior, suggesting potential avenues for social change in online environments.     

作弊为什么会传染?社会损失和作弊态度的中介作用

为了解释考试作弊的"传染"现象,研究探讨大学考试情境中他人作弊对观察者将来作弊意向的效应,假设他人作弊通过社会损失和作弊态度的链式中介作用对观察者将来作弊意向产生效应。研究采用他人作弊问卷、社会损失问卷、作弊态度问卷、将来作弊意向问卷,对765名在校大学生进行调查。在控制了性别、年级、第一次作弊的时间和经常作弊的开始时间之后,研究发现：（1）他人作弊正向预测观察者将来作弊意向;（2）社会损失在他人作弊和观察者将来作弊意向之间起中介作用;（3）社会损失与作弊态度在他人作弊与观察者将来作弊意向之间起链式中介作用。研究为理解考试作弊的"传染"现象及其内在机制提供了有价值的视角。     

Relationship between perceptions of ageing and frailty in English older adults

Older adults’ negative beliefs about ageing are related to their health and functioning, but little is known about how perceptions of ageing (POA) relate to frailty status. This study aimed to explore the relationship between POA and frailty. Secondary analysis of data used were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Waves 2 and 5. A POA score was based on participants’ responses to 12 statements using a five-point Likert scale at baseline, and a Frailty Index (FI) score was calculated for each participant for both waves. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to assess the relationship between POA and frailty cross-sectionally and longitudinally in models controlled for age, gender, depression symptoms, and socioeconomic status. Older adults with more negative POA had greater frailty (β = .12, p < .001). Negative POA predicted greater frailty 6 years later (β = .03, p < .05). Future work regarding the mechanisms of this relationship is needed to identify ways of intervening to improve health.     

Mozambican immigrants to South Africa: Their xenophobia and discrimination experiences

We explored Mozambican immigrants’ lived experiences of xenophobia and discrimination in South Africa. Informants were 15 Mozambican immigrants (female = 7, male = 8) living in an informal settlement in Zandspruit, Gauteng Province. They completed open-ended written narratives on xenophobic and discriminatory experiences. Following thematic analysis, we identified three themes to characterise the Mozambican immigrants’ experiences of xenophobia and discrimination: (i) abusive attitudes, (ii) ethnic discrimination, and (iii) scapegoating. The Mozambican immigrants’ experiences of xenophobia and discrimination are consistent with findings from the extant international literature on ingroup/outgroup social strife with real or perceived scarcity of resources.     

National disidentification and minority identity: A study among Muslims in Western Europe

Host national disidentification in which immigrants explicitly distance themselves from society is problematic for a cohesive national community and is likely to hamper immigrants’ successful host society integration. Among Sunni Muslim immigrants of Turkish origin living in Germany and the Netherlands we tested whether (a) an empirical distinction between national disidentification and identification can be made, (b) whether higher perceived group discrimination of Muslims (“reactive religiosity path”) and (c) stronger Muslim self-centrality (“intrinsic religiosity path”) are associated with stronger host national disidentification, to the extent that they are associated with a stronger commitment to religious identity content. Disidentification was found to be a separate construct and both the reactive religiosity path and the intrinsic religiosity path were found to be related to higher levels of disidentification, mediated by religious identity.     

What Front-Line CBO Staff Can Tell Us About Culturally Anchored Theories of Behavior Change in HIV Prevention for Asian/Pacific Islanders

Few rigorously tested primary prevention programs have been developed to prevent HIV infection among immigrant communities in the United States. This is in part because of the lack of culturally specific behavioral theories that can inform HIV prevention for immigrant communities in the United States. This article aims to develop such theories for a population—Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PIs) immigrant communities—who have been overlooked in theory development and program evaluation. Frontline community-based organization (CBO) peer educators, an underutilized source of expertise regarding cultural factors specific to HIV infection among A/PI communities, are the sample of study Asian/Pacific Islander peer educators working at an urban AIDS service organization devoted to health promotion for this population; (N=35). They were interviewed to examine (1) detailed narratives describing instances of behavior change and (2) culturally anchored theories of behavior change which the narratives imply. Theories of the influence of positive cultural symbols on the taboo of HIV/AIDS, moderators of the effectiveness of social network influences on behavior change, and setting- and community-level processes predicting HIV risk behavior were implicit in the peer educators' narratives. Implications for future research, methodology and prevention practice are discussed.     

Reproductive Genetic Counseling to Asian-Pacific and Latin American Immigrants

Latin and Asian-Pacific immigrants are the fastest growing new-comer groups in the U.S. contributing to 85% of immigration totals. New immigrants experience multiple barriers to accessing genetic counseling resulting from cultural, linguistic, financial, and educational factors as well as having unique perceptions on health, illness, reproduction, and life as a whole. In addition, new immigrants lack familiarity with Western medical practices as well as genetic risk and available interventions. We provided perinatal genetic services to 2430 clients, mostly new immigrants of Latin and Asian-Pacific descent over a period of 6 years. Counseling aides sharing the clients' cultural backgrounds were employed. A study assessing the efficacy of cross-cultural education regarding advanced maternal age risk and amniocentesis was implemented and linked to a database containing demographic and clinical information. Practical observations relating to cultural beliefs in the two groups relevant to perinatal genetic counseling were made.     

Identity,community, and prejudice

A new and urgent developmental task of adulthood is to learn to live with those who differ from oneself along dimensions of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, social class, and nationality. In order to promote discussion aimed toward achieving a better understanding of issues of multiculturalism and diversity, a conceptual framework is proposed. The conceptual framework is based on distinctions in how we define ourselves and our relationship to others and on contrasting perspectives on our intentions with respect to others. The conceptual framework is then used as a tool for setting forth a number of issues of multiculturalism and diversity. The article concludes with a discussion of the dynamics within the conceptual framework, including intraindividual and interindividual variation in adulthood.