Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

This study examined whether students’ sense of belonging at school (SOBAS) differed across attributes of countries, families, schools, teachers, or students. Multilevel analyses of survey and test data from 193,073 15-year-old students in 41 countries yielded four main findings. First, students in more egalitarian cultures often had higher SOBAS than those in more hierarchical cultures. Second, the teacher–student relationship had the strongest link with SOBAS and mediated the link between egalitarianism and SOBAS. Third, collectivism was not significantly linked to SOBAS. Finally, family characteristics (immigrant status, language spoken at home, socio-economic status [SES], books at home, family wealth, and family communication), schoolmates’ characteristics (SES and social communication), teacher characteristics (teacher–student relationship, teacher support and disciplinary climate), and student characteristics (reading achievement, self-efficacy, and self-concept) were also linked to students’ SOBAS and accounted for most of its variance. This ecological model shows how attributes at multiple levels are related to SOBAS.

This study investigated and compared the socialization goals and values of first-generation immigrant mothers in Italy and of their children’s preschool teachers. Seventy-eight mothers of four major migrant groups—Romanian, Moroccan, Nigerian, and Sri Lankan—and 21 Italian teachers were interviewed about the most important things they want their children to learn or achieve in their life. A thematic content analysis of the interviews yielded nine categories of socialization goals that were differentially emphasized by mothers and teachers. All immigrant mothers emphasized the value of goals associated with hierarchical relatedness, particularly Respect for Adults, Religious Practice, and Sense of Family and Original Culture. However, correspondence analysis showed that the mothers’ views tended to conglomerate in clusters with those of mothers of the same cultural background, indicating some differences between the four groups that might shed light on different acculturation processes. The Italian teachers focused on goals pertaining to individual psychological autonomy (Autonomy Identity), Social Integration, and Respect for Social Rules, showing a considerable distance from the immigrant mothers’ main goals. These findings provide empirical evidence that children of first-generation immigrant families experience caregivers at home and in preschool with divergent goals for their development. This has important practical implications, suggesting the need for action to increase the mutual understanding of caregivers with different cultural backgrounds.

Clark and Watson’s tripartite model of comorbidity between anxiety and depression has been well-supported by empirical evidence among European descent samples in North America. Its applicability to Chinese biculturals remains to be challenged due to two Chinese-specific symptom reporting style in somatization and under-endorsement of positive affect. The current study began with an evaluation of a revised Clark and Watson’s tripartite model of comorbidity by adopting a comprehensive assessment of anxiety- and depression-specific component, and by incorporating cognitive aspects of symptomatology. The revised model’s applicability to a Chinese Canadian university sample was then empirically tested, followed by an investigation of the potential impact of cultural experiences on symptomatology. Item response theory (IRT)–informed statistical analyses were applied to each of the 14 anxiety and depression symptom measures that 251 European Canadian and 206 Chinese Canadian university student participants completed to remove items that functioned differentially across samples. Sample-specific exploratory factor analyses identified a two-factor structure (Affective-Somatic and Cognitive) among the Chinese Canadian sample, and a three-factor structure (Mixed, Cognitive, and Autonomic Hyperarousal) among the European Canadian sample. Worry and Autonomic Hyperarousal scales reflected the most between-group structural differences. These results indicated that different cultural groups responded differently to clinical assessment items commonly used in North America, and that applicability of the tripartite model of comorbidity across cultural groups was limited. Symptom factors were found related to specific (i.e., negative acculturative experiences and collective self-esteem) but not to generic indicators of acculturation (i.e., Chinese or Canadian Orientation).

Tendencies to believe in justice are multidimensional, and some justice beliefs enhance personal well-being. These features suggest a considerable but largely overlooked potential for similarities and differences in the structure, endorsement, and wellness-promoting functions of justice beliefs across cultures. In the current research, we evaluate a recently available four-factor conceptualization of justice beliefs in samples of university students from the United States, Canada, India, and China (total N = 922). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the proposed four-factor model was structurally invariant, suggesting that individuals from all four cultures could be characterized according to their beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for both self and others. Cross-cultural comparisons revealed no mean differences in beliefs about distributive justice for self, whereas beliefs about procedural justice for self were higher in Canada and China than in the United States or India. In parallel, beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for others were higher in Eastern than in Western cultures. In all four cultures, a belief in distributive justice for self was associated with greater life satisfaction, whereas a belief in procedural justice for self was additionally associated in Canada and China only. No associations between beliefs about justice for others and life satisfaction were observed in any culture. The current research provides initial support for the cross-cultural viability of a four-factor approach to measuring dispositional tendencies to believe in justice. We discuss implications and opportunities for the continued study of justice in cross-cultural research.

This article presents findings based on the outcomes of research conducted with 8,883 participants from 33 countries. It employs mixture modeling (latent profile analysis) to classify countries into latent classes. The country-level analyses are based on three social attitudes factor scores of Nastiness, Religiosity, and Morality. The results indicate that the main sources of cross-cultural differences are with respect to a broadly defined Conservatism/Liberalism. Three groups of societies—that is, “psychological continents”—appear to exist in the world today. They are as follows: (a) liberal European countries plus Canada and Australia; (b) conservative countries from South and South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America; and (c) all other countries, including the United States, Russia, and China, that are in between liberal and conservative groups. In addition, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, cognitive test performance, and governance indicators were found to be low in the most conservative group and high in the most liberal group.

Previous research suggests that individuals of East Asian (vs. European) cultural backgrounds are more indecisive, and this cultural difference is related to naïve dialecticism, a lay belief system that tolerates contradictory information. The present research extends this line of work by examining a proximal mediating mechanism underlying the relationship between naïve dialecticism and indecisiveness as well as a negative consequence of chronic indecisiveness induced by naïve dialecticism. Results indicated that East Asian (vs. European) Canadian participants were more indecisive in a real educational decision (Study 1) and exhibited lower life satisfaction, which was mediated serially by naïve dialecticism through chronic indecisiveness (Study 2). In Study 3, European Canadian participants who were primed with a dialectical mind-set were more indecisive in a consumer choice task, relative to those not primed, and this effect was mediated by evaluative ambivalence toward the chosen alternative.

Work centrality has been defined as individual beliefs regarding the importance of work in one’s life (Kostek, 2012). In previous research, however, the importance of work has rarely been contrasted with the importance of other life domains and never across sufficient cultural groups to enable cultural moderation of processes around work centrality to be unpackaged. Accordingly, the present study explores the relative centrality of work (RCW) in the lives of employed men and women around the world, examining its predictors by personal attitudes toward work and independence in the individual’s work context. Given that national cultures socialize their members differently regarding the goals of life, we explore the moderating influence of national Self-directedness versus Other-directedness and Civility versus Practicality (Bond & Lun, 2014) along with gender on these individual-level processes. Using 29,080 respondents to the World Values Survey from representative samples of employees in 45 countries, we found that RCW is predicted pan-nationally by the attitude complex, “work as good” (WAG). A nation’s Self-directedness and its Civility, however, amplify WAG effects. Independence at work only associates with RCW for males and for persons in nations socializing its members for Self-directedness and for Civility. These results show how gender and national cultures moderate the predictors of RCW for individual lives around the world, making many of these findings culture-bound.

Previous research has investigated the relationship between cultural values and leadership. This research expands on this tradition and examines how the strength of social norms—or tightness–looseness—influences perceptions of effective leadership. Data from Gelfand, Raver, et al. were integrated with GLOBE’s leadership research to examine the attributes of leaders seen as leading to effectiveness in tight and loose cultures. Analyses of data across 29 samples show that cultural tightness is positively related to the endorsement of autonomous leadership and negatively related to the endorsement of charismatic and team leadership, even controlling for in-group collectivism, power distance, and future orientation at the societal and organizational level of analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

By investigating the use of first-person pronouns in nine languages using the Google Ngram Database, we examined the degree to which different cultural values skewed toward individualism or collectivism over a span of 59 years. We found that in eight of nine languages (British English being the exception), first-person singular pronouns (vs. first-person plural pronouns) have become increasingly prevalent, which in turn points to a rising sense of individualism. British English showed a U-shaped curve trend in the use of first-person singular pronouns (vs. first-person plural pronouns). Although they initially decreased, British English’s first-person singular pronouns (vs. first-person plural pronouns) use was higher than most other languages throughout the whole period. Chinese displayed a fluctuating pattern wherein the use of first-person singular pronouns (vs. first-person plural pronouns) increased in recent periods. The dynamics of cultural change and culture diversity were discussed.