Cross-cultural Relevance Research Articles

Advancing cross-cultural soundscape research: updates from the Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP)

The Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) addresses linguistic barriers in soundscape research, translating ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 descriptors into various languages for global use. This paper presents recent updates from national working groups, including translations in Turkish, French, Indonesian, Albanian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Dutch, and Spanish. A preliminary validation of all the current 18 SATP translations assesses cross-cultural robustness. SATP employs diverse methods for translation, fostering international collaboration. The preliminary validation evaluates the reliability and validity of translated descriptors across languages. Most languages maintain the quasi-circumplex structure of the original soundscape model. English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Dutch, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish achieve a "High" confidence level. French, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, and Vietnamese show varying confidence levels, emphasizing the need for rigorous validation criteria. SATP advances global soundscape research, with updates from national working groups contributing to cross-cultural relevance. Preliminary validation results affirm the quasi-circumplex structure's maintenance in most languages, emphasizing the project's commitment to comprehensive and globally applicable soundscape research instruments.

Examining the Influence of Gratitude on Sleep Quality Among Young Adult Population: A Scientific Exploration

The study investigates the intricate relationship between gratitude and sleep quality within the young adult population, delving into the realms of positive psychology, diverse cultural perspectives, and the physiological underpinnings of these phenomena. The study also uncovers the cross-cultural relevance of gratitude in influencing sleep quality among young adults. The methodology employed encompasses a mixed-methods approach, incorporating quantitative surveys to measure gratitude levels and sleep quality. The sample comprises a diverse group of young adults, ensuring the study's applicability across various demographic backgrounds. The results demonstrate the cross-cultural significance of gratitude in promoting well-being by showing a strong positive connection between gratitude and sleep quality. These results underscore the importance of fostering gratitude as a means to enhance sleep quality among young adults, irrespective of cultural backgrounds.

GENDER-BASED ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON DENTAL STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR DENTAL COLLEGES OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN.

Objective: The objective of this study is to discover out how male and female students at public and private dental colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, assess the impact of faculty members' personality qualities on their educational experiences.
 Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to November 2023, surveying undergraduate dental students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province about their perceptions of faculty personalities and teaching methods. A customised questionnaire was specially designed to gather data; 124 respondents completed self-administered questionnaires in accordance with ethical requirements. Statistical tests were not conducted in this phase, as the study primarily reports findings in terms of percentages.
 Results: The study shows that teacher personality has significant effects on students' learning and engagement. Both male and female students agree about the positive impact of teachers, indicating specific traits that enhance their learning curves. Gender disparities show up, with male students preferring friendliness and female students appreciating empathy more. While males tend to choose interactive and discussion-based teaching approaches slightly more than females do, both genders prefer hands-on, practical training. Interactions between teachers and students are facilitated by positive faculty attributes including approachability, empathy, and openness to student participation. The well-being and self-esteem of students are also influenced by the personalities of the faculty.
 Conclusion: In conclusion, educational institutions may improve the learning experiences of both male and female students by identifying and meeting the diverse requirements and preferences of students about the personality qualities of their staff. The study offers insightful information for developing curricula, training faculty, and developing educational policies. Further research should examine the findings' cross-cultural relevance, integrate longitudinal studies, and encourage faculty development to accommodate students' unique needs while concurrently bolstering their mental and overall wellbeing.

A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Role of (De-)Motivating Teaching Styles in Predicting Students’ Basic Psychological Needs in Physical Education: A Circumplex Approach

Purpose: Guided by self-determination theory, this research examined cross-cultural differences in associations of students’ perceptions of teachers’ (de-)motivating approaches on Estonian and Spanish students’ need satisfaction from a circumplex model. Method: The participants were 601 Estonian (56% girls) and 669 Spanish (52% girls) secondary students. Results: Multigroup single-indicator structural equation modeling analysis revealed that participative, attuning, guiding, clarifying, and demanding predicted the satisfaction of each basic psychological need, according to the Estonian and Spanish students’ perspective. Domineering approach negatively predicted autonomy satisfaction in the eyes of Estonian students, while abandoning approach predicted the satisfaction of each basic psychological need negatively as perceived by Estonian and Spanish students. Conclusions: Results underscore the cross-cultural relevance in explaining the role of teachers’ (de-)motivating approaches in the eyes of students, supporting/undermining students’ need satisfaction in physical education. Therefore, these findings set the scene for development of effective guidance for teaching training adapted to culture, aimed at providing teachers with the strategies they need to apply the most optimal motivating teaching styles in their physical education lessons.

Noising Creole Abroad: Chatting about Voice; Some Thoughts on Belinda Edmondson’s Creole Noise

This essay reviews Belinda Edmondson’s literary yet cross-disciplinary study Creole Noise: Early Caribbean Dialect Literature and Performance (2022), which questions the Blackness of orality versus the Whiteness of narrative in the growth of Caribbean literature. Caribbean language history and discourse analysis have much to contribute to the exploration of ventriloquist beginnings of the regional narrative as well as to the nuancing of interpretation, and the review calls for such exchange across the relevant disciplines. The review also welcomes comparisons between literary developments of Black American and Caribbean literature that highlight the cross-cultural relevance of Edmondson’s analysis. Creole Noise is timely and useful in contributing positively to such matters as border disputes on Caribbeanness, with regard to regional and diasporic writing, and to challenges that face writers who are native speakers of Caribbean Creole as they convey local voices to foreign readers.

Epigenome-wide analysis identifies methylome profiles linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, disease severity, and treatment response.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a prevalent mental disorder affecting ~2-3% of the population. This disorder involves genetic and, possibly, epigenetic risk factors. The dynamic nature of epigenetics also presents a promising avenue for identifying biomarkers associated with symptom severity, clinical progression, and treatment response in OCD. We, therefore, conducted a comprehensive case-control investigation using Illumina MethylationEPIC BeadChip, encompassing 185 OCD patients and 199 controls recruited from two distinct sites in Germany. Rigorous clinical assessments were performed by trained raters employing the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). We performed a robust two-step epigenome-wide association study that led to the identification of 305 differentially methylated CpG positions. Next, we validated these findings by pinpointing the optimal set of CpGs that could effectively classify individuals into their respective groups. This approach identified a subset comprising 12 CpGs that overlapped with the 305 CpGs identified in our EWAS. These 12 CpGs are close to or in genes associated with the sweet-compulsive brain hypothesis which proposes that aberrant dopaminergic transmission in the striatum may impair insulin signaling sensitivity among OCD patients. We replicated three of the 12 CpGs signals from a recent independent study conducted on the Han Chinese population, underscoring also the cross-cultural relevance of our findings. In conclusion, our study further supports the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of OCD. By elucidating the underlying molecular alterations associated with OCD, our study contributes to advancing our understanding of this complex disorder and may ultimately improve clinical outcomes for affected individuals.

Patient-centered care and geriatric knowledge translation among healthcare providers in Vietnam: translation and validation of the patient-centered care measure

BackgroundPeople are living longer, and the majority of aging people reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, inappropriate healthcare contributes to health disparities between populations of aging people and leads to care dependency and social isolation. Tools to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of quality improvement interventions for geriatric care in LMICs are limited. The aim of this study was to provide a validated and culturally relevant instrument to assess patient-centered care in Vietnam, where the population of aging people is growing rapidly.MethodsThe Patient-Centered Care (PCC) measure was translated from English to Vietnamese using forward-backward method. The PCC measure grouped activities into sub-domains of holistic, collaborative, and responsive care. A bilingual expert panel rated the cross-cultural relevance and translation equivalence of the instrument. We calculated Content Validity Indexing (CVI) scores at both the item (I-CVI) and scale (S-CVI/Ave) levels to evaluate the relevance of the Vietnamese PCC (VPCC) measure to geriatric care in the Vietnamese context. We piloted the translated instrument VPCC measure with 112 healthcare providers in Hanoi, Vietnam. Multiple logistic regression models were specified to test the a priori null hypothesis that geriatric knowledge is not different among healthcare providers with perception of high implementation compared with low implementation of PCC measures.ResultsOn the item level, all 20 questions had excellent validity ratings. The VPCC had excellent content validity (S-CVI/Ave of 0.96) and translation equivalence (TS- CVI/Ave of 0.94). In the pilot study, the highest-rated PCC elements were the holistic provision of information and collaborative care, while the lowest-rated elements were the holistic attendance to patients’ needs and responsive care. Attention to the psychosocial needs of aging people and poor coordination of care within and beyond the health system were the lowest-rated PCC activities. After controlling for healthcare provider characteristics, the odds of the perception of high implementation of collaborative care were increased by 21% for each increase in geriatric knowledge score. We fail to reject the null hypotheses for holistic care, responsive care and PCC.ConclusionThe VPCC is a validated instrument that may be utilized to systemically evaluate the practice of patient-centered geriatric care in Vietnam.

Adapting the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile for different countries and languages: A multi-language translation and content validation study

BackgroundHospitalization can be hazardous for older people, but most hospitals in Europe are not prepared to meet the unique needs of older adult inpatients. Adaptations of the physical environment, care processes, and staff knowledge and skills in geriatric care are essential to improve the quality of care for older people. An assessment of baseline organizational approaches to older adult care is an important first step toward recognizing the challenges organizations face when delivering acute care services to older adults and attempting to improve them. The Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile could be a promising tool for this endeavor. ObjectivesTo describe a systematic process implemented across seven countries and languages that sought to develop valid and culturally-appropriate translations of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile. DesignCross-cultural instrument translation and content validation study. Setting and participantsExpert review panels comprised of 68 practicing nurses from seven European or EU associated countries (Austria (German), Belgium (Dutch), Denmark (Danish), Israel (Hebrew), Poland (Polish), Switzerland (German, French), and Turkey (Turkish)) evaluated cross-cultural relevance, including translation, of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile. MethodA systematic approach to translating and validating a cross-cultural survey instrument, including back-to-back translation, adaptation, and evaluation of content validity using content validity indexing (CVI) techniques for each country and language, assessing translation and relevance content validity separately. The item, subscale and domain content validity index scores were calculated and adjusted for chance agreement among raters for all parts of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile: the four subscales of geriatric care environment, the general knowledge about older adults subscale, and the clinical geriatric knowledge subscale. Consensus discussions among the raters then finalized translations. ResultsCVI scores for relevance and translation were all in the “good” to “excellent” range. The geriatric care environment scale's CVI scores were 0.84 to 0.94 for relevance and 0.82 to 0.98 for translation. The clinical geriatric knowledge subscale's CVI scores were 0.83 to 0.97 for relevance and 0.94 to 0.98 for translation. The general knowledge about older adults subscale received high translation agreement (0.93 to 0.99) but slightly lower scores for relevance, ranging from 0.46 to 0.94. ConclusionStudy results provided preliminary evidence of the applicability and validity of a multi-factor measure of age-friendly care in diverse health care systems, in German, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew, Polish, French, and Turkish languages.

Establishing a core outcome measure for life participation in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis: A Standardised Outcomes in Nephrology-Peritoneal Dialysis consensus workshop report.

Life participation is an outcome of critical importance to patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). However, there is no widely accepted or validated tool for measuring life participation in patients receiving PD. Online consensus workshop to identify the essential characteristics of life participation as a core outcome, with the goal of establishing a patient-reported outcome measure for use in all trials in patients receiving PD. Thematic analysis of transcripts was performed. Fifty-six participants, including 17 patients and caregivers, from 15 countries convened via online videoconference. Four themes were identified: reconfiguring expectations of daily living (accepting day-to-day fluctuation as the norm, shifting thresholds of acceptability, preserving gains in flexibility and freedom), ensuring broad applicability and interpretability (establishing cross-cultural relevance, incorporating valued activities, distinguishing unmodifiable barriers to life participation), capturing transitions between modalities and how they affect life participation (responsive to trajectory towards stable, reflecting changes with dialysis transitions) and maximising feasibility of implementation (reducing completion burden, administrable with ease and flexibility). There is a need for a validated, generalisable outcome measure for life participation in patients receiving PD. Feasibility, including length of time to complete and flexible mode of delivery, are important to allow implementation in all trials that include patients receiving PD.

Paradoxes of universal knowledge in public administration: exploring the contexts of Africa and Asia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to explore the paradoxes of ‘universal knowledge’ in public administration that claims cross-cultural relevance and validity, while remains highly parochial (non-universal) in terms of representing mostly the Western administrative traditions imposed and imitated worldwide. It re-examines African and Asian public administration knowledge to explain how the borrowed Western knowledge de-indigenized local administrative traditions, and how it continued to remain exclusive in terms of severe underrepresentation of African and Asian scholars and institutions in the processes of knowledge production, utilization and ownership. The article critically reviews existing literature to evaluate publications (books, articles and reports) on the origins, theories and practical models of public administration in Africa and Asia. It concludes that what is often presented as universal knowledge in the field is actually based on its inherent Eurocentric parochialism.

Henry Moore’s Narayana and Bhataryan : theatre of sacrifice

Henry Moore’s unpublished play Narayana and Bhataryan (c. 1919) was first performed in 1920 at Castleford Secondary School. Moore wrote, performed in and designed the programme for this play. Despite timely theatrical returns to Moore’s only surviving literary creation, this play has not yet been the subject of in-depth critical study. Using archival research, this article engages with the play’s early indication of Moore’s sculptural tendencies. It traces the play’s parallels with another play produced in the early twentieth century: Rabindranath Tagore’s Sacrifice. Doing so highlights the cross-cultural echoes that exist in Narayana and Bhataryan, its relationship to early twentieth-century global modernist movements, the thematic presence of posture, architecture, ritual and trauma, and the emergence of Moore’s lifelong concerns with the mother and child and the human body. This article places Moore’s play in critical relationship to his sculpture and introduces his lone contribution to the fabric of modern drama as having cross-cultural relevance in the 1980s when an exhibition of his work toured India.

Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Psychometric Validation of the Chinese/Mandarin Cardiac Rehabilitation Barriers Scale (CRBS-C/M).

Objective Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity in China and around the world. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) effectively mitigates this burden; however, utilization is low. CR barriers in China have not been well characterized; this study sought to translate, cross-culturally adapt, and psychometrically validate the CR Barriers Scale in Chinese/Mandarin (CRBS-C/M). Methods Independent translations of the 21-item CRBS were conducted by two bilingual health professionals, followed by back-translation. A Delphi process was undertaken with five experts to consider the semantics and cross-cultural relevance of the items. Following finalization, 380 cardiac patients from 11 hospitals in Shanghai were administered a validation survey including the translated CRBS. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency was assessed. Validity was tested through assessing the association of the CRBS-C/M with the CR Information Awareness Questionnaire. Results Items were refined and finalized. Factor analysis of CRBS-C/M (Kaiser Meyer Olkin = 0.867, Bartlett's test p < 0.001) revealed five factors: perceived CR need, external logistical factors, time conflicts, program and health system-level factors, and comorbidities/lack of vitality; Cronbach's alpha (α) of the subscales ranged from 0.67 to 0.82. The mean total CRBS score was significantly lower in patients who participated in CR compared with those who did not, demonstrating criterion validity (2.35 ± 0.71 vs. 3.08 ± 0.55; p < 0.001). Construct validity was supported by the significant associations between total CRBS scores and CR awareness, sex, living situation, city size, income, diagnosis/procedure, disease severity, and several risk factors (all p < 0.05). Conclusions CRBS-C/M is reliable and valid, so barriers can be identified and mitigated in Mandarin-speaking patients.

The Ubiquity of Meeting Lateness! A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Small to Moderate Effects of Workplace Meeting Lateness

Meeting lateness—that is, meetings starting past the pre-scheduled time—can be viewed as a disruption to the temporal pacing of work. Previous research in the United States indicates that late meetings produce less optimal outcomes, but empirical insights concerning the extent to which experiences of meeting lateness are similar or different across different cultures remain sparse. While prior work suggests differences in how individuals from different cultures experience time-related phenomena, globalization trends suggest increasing similarities in employees’ work experiences, and potentially similar experiences of meeting lateness across different cultural settings. We explore this idea in a cross-cultural study of meeting lateness in China, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. We empirically establish the cross-cultural relevance of meeting lateness and their generally negative outcome. We show how meeting lateness relates to perceptions of impaired meeting processes, meeting outcomes, and group-related attitudes across cultures. We discuss these findings in light of extending meeting science to different cultures as well as contributions to the debate between cross-cultural differences versus globalization tendencies.

Exploring the Impact of a Character Strengths Intervention on Well-Being in Indian Classrooms

The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of Strengths Gym (Proctor & Fox Eades, in Strengths gym: Year 8, Positive Psychology Research Centre, Pennsylvania, 2009; Proctor et al., in J Posit Psychol, 6:377–388, 2011)—an intervention based on the Values in Action (VIA; Peterson & Seligman in Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004) classification of character strengths among Indian students. Participants in this classroom-based intervention were 121 students from grades 7 and 8 (Age = 11–13 years, M = 11.22 years, SD = 1.61, 53% male) from two schools in the National Capital Region of India. Using quasi-experimental design, participating classrooms in each school were randomized into intervention or control conditions. Intervention group engaged in 24 sessions—one corresponding to each character strength, spread over 12 weeks. All participants completed a questionnaire comprising measures of well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, affect, and self-esteem at pre- and post-test. Participants reported significant gains in happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect at post-test. Findings suggest promising evidence for character strength interventions among Indian students, while also contributing to research evidence about cross-cultural relevance and validity of an existing intervention. Fostering character strengths and well-being among Indian students emerges as an area of tremendous importance in the face of the stressors and challenges faced by this demographic group in the present times.

Coping with Stress Among Israeli-Palestinian High School Students: The Role of Self-Control, Religiosity, and Attachment Pattern.

Israeli-Palestinian adolescents living in Israel may have a unique set of stressors, given the societal tension between Israeli and Palestinian practices that may influence youths' identities (e.g., modernization, gender roles). However, little research has examined risk factors that may undermine one's ability to cope with stress effectively within this population. Thus, the current study examined the role of religiosity, self-control skills and emotional attachment style as risk factors for less effective (more passive, fewer active strategies) coping with stressful situations. Participants (n = 487) were recruited from seven junior high schools located in the Northern Triangle region of Israel. Consistent with hypotheses, poorer self-control skills, and anxious and avoidant emotional attachment style were each associated with a greater likelihood to engage in passive coping skills. In addition to positive correlation between religiosity and active coping skills in response to stressful situations, these findings parallel prior studies that have examined broader demographic samples, suggesting the cross-cultural relevance of these risk factors for effective coping with stress.

The Cross-Cultural Relevance of Indigenous Measures: The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI), Family Orientation, and Well-Being in New Zealand

Indigenous personality research often remains limited to its cultural context of origin. Previous cross-cultural examinations of indigenous models have typically focused on East–West comparisons and have paid scant attention to the predictive validity of indigenous models in new contexts. The present study addresses the replicability of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) and its predictive validity for family orientation and well-being in New Zealand European ( n = 428) and Māori students ( n = 226). The structure of the SAPI in New Zealand was equivalent to the structure identified in South Africa and had metric invariance between the two New Zealand groups. The SAPI social-relational scales explained additional variance above neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness in family orientation, but not in well-being. Mediation path analyses suggested that personality played a similar role for family orientation and well-being in the two groups when assessed by the SAPI, although group differences were suggested when using the Big Five Inventory. Our findings indicate that indigenously derived models, developed with the aim to represent culturally salient concepts, can be relevant well beyond their culture of origin and offer an enriched understanding of personality’s role for important outcomes across cultures.

The evolution-similarity matrix: an evolutionary psychology perspective on cross-cultural advertising

Corrections to the article made on November 24, 2020 The standardization/adaptation debate in cross-cultural advertising is a topic on which little consensus prevails and which remains heavily discussed. Using evolutionary psychology, this paper presents a typology of advertising cues and explains their cross-cultural relevance and transportability. The paper highlights three distinct categories – human universals (evolved similarities), local adaptations (evolved differences), and local socialization (differences not due to evolution). The paper contributes to advertising theory by providing a meta-framework for the study of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the processing of advertising cues. It further assists advertising practice by delivering a framework aiding in cross-cultural advertising copy decisions. By raising the questions that the paper poses to develop the proposed typology categories, advertisers can identify which advertising cues are malleable by advertising and which are based on innate human preferences and are relatively stable. With that knowledge in hand, advertisers can decide when and to what extent to use a standardization approach versus an adaptation approach.

The Differentiation of Self Inventory – Revised: A Validation Study in the Greek Cultural Context

This study assessed the cross-cultural relevance of Bowen Family Systems Theory by adapting and validating the Differentiation of Self Inventory - Revised in a sample of Greek Cypriots (N = 717). Results indicated high internal consistency (α = .90). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed an adequate fit of data to the original four-factor structure. Construct validity was demonstrated by a significant association between the Greek Differentiation of Self Inventory and trait-anxiety. Findings suggest the Greek Differentiation of Self Inventory - Revised is a valid and culturally sensitive instrument. Implications for counseling and therapy are discussed.

Person-centered conceptualization of multiculturalism and social justice in counseling

ABSTRACTPerson-centered therapy’s cross-cultural relevance and nondirective stance have been doubted and challenged in counseling and social justice literature. In order to incorporate multiculturalism and social justice advocacy into effective and ethical practice, it is critical for person-centered counselors to be able to conceptualize, understand, and serve social justice issues through a person-centered lens. First, we present a brief overview of the person-centered dialogue related to multiculturalism and social justice advocacy in counseling. Then, we offer a conceptualization of several social justice-related issues impacting clients using person-centered terminology and philosophy in an effort to increase understanding. Lastly, we share perspectives on how person-centered counselors serve as social justice advocates within and outside of the direct counseling relationship. We incorporate multicultural, ethical, and legal considerations throughout the discussion.

Logo Selection and Modification Guidelines: an empirical international validation in Chile

Logo selection and modification is a common marketing practice; brand managers and other marketing executives will normally face these kinds of decisions. However, logo design and modification have been largely neglected in the marketing literature. Few studies have empirically tested the effects of logo design characteristics on consumer responses (see Henderson and Cote 1998). In this paper, we set out to extend this research and guidelines to an international setting. This is thought to be particularly important, because in today’s environment, brand strategy decisions often need to take into consideration the potential of expanding and competing globally, and brand elements can be perceived quite differently. In particular, our study replicates the cited work in a developing Latin-American country (i.e., Chile), to test the cross-cultural relevance and stability of US-based logo guidelines in the context of a developing Latin-&#x0D; American nation with a vibrant marketplace.