Cross-national Comparative Survey Research Articles

Interprofessional collaborative practices for children with speech, language and communication needs in early childhood education and care: comparing Dutch and Norwegian perspectives

ABSTRACT Interprofessional collaboration and practice (IPCP) is considered the cornerstone for effective service delivery for children with speech language and communication needs (SLCN). Following Stutsky and Spence Laschinger’s framework, we investigated IPCP-related differences between Dutch and Norwegian professionals in a cross-national comparative survey study. The personal relational skills of communication, trust and situational factor support structures were related to interprofessional collaboration in both countries. Trust was a stronger predictor for the Dutch sample than the Norwegian sample. A moderated moderation analysis revealed that the relationship between IPCP and perceived team effectiveness is moderated by trust for the Dutch professionals but not for their Norwegian colleagues. Trust may play a vital role for interprofessional teams in the Dutch context because service delivery is mainly characterised by the pull-out intervention of specialised professionals. In the integrated early intervention context of Norway, emphasis on professional communication skills seems a fruitful strategy to enhance the effectiveness of teams. Early intervention service delivery may be strengthened by structural facilitation and building networks to develop trust across professionals and organisations, which supports the development of professional competence relevant to IPCP in early intervention service delivery.

An exploratory study on new market segmentation considering the influence of COVID-19: Cross-national comparative survey of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

An exploratory study on new market segmentation considering the influence of COVID-19: Cross-national comparative survey of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

Sensitive Questions in Cross-National Comparative Surveys

ABSTRACT The article is devoted to the problem of survey items that ask for sensitive information. This factor has a significant impact on the quality and comparability of data from international surveys. We propose a methodology that can be used to comparatively study the level of sensitivity of questions. It is often used in public opinion polls as well as in marketing and academic studies. We were able to use it to identify similarities and differences in what questions are considered sensitive by the different populations of the nine countries of the former Soviet Union as a whole as well as among particular socio-demographic groups. The study analyzes the reasons why certain questions are considered to be sensitive: the violation of various norms, whether legal or political, social or moral, communication etiquette or beliefs about what constitutes private information. We developed a classification of sensitive questions based on the reasons that were identified. The obtained results allow us to better understand the reasons of why certain questions are considered to be sensitive, to develop an approach to how this concept should be defined, and to identify the differences between sensitive questions and those that are perceived to have other qualities, such as those that are “threatening” and questions fraught with social desirability effect. The results of this comparative study can be used to improve the tools and to allow a deeper analysis of cross-national survey data.

A Cross-Comparative Survey of Information Seeking and Scanning About Drug-Related Sources and Topics Among U.S. and Israeli College Students

There is an increasing amount of drug-related information that is easily accessible from media and interpersonal sources. Recent research shows significant positive associations between information acquisition and nonmedical drug use intentions among college students. This study examines information about amphetamines and marijuana that was actively searched (“seeking”) as well as information that was encountered during routine media use (“scanning”). Data are drawn from a cross-national comparative survey of college students in the United States (N = 734) and in Israel (N = 800). U.S. participants reported seeking and scanning information about marijuana across a broader range of sources than Israeli participants. Among U.S. and Israeli participants, the most frequently searched marijuana-related topics included the benefits of marijuana, negative effects of marijuana use, and political reasons why marijuana should be legal. Participants from both countries reported the benefits of amphetamines, and the negative effects of amphetamine use as the most frequently searched topics about amphetamines. Participants in both countries identified the internet and friends as the most popular sources of drug-related information and noted that physicians, friends, and the internet were the most trusted sources. Implications for research on information seeking and health communication are discussed.

Examining People’s Attitudes and Values Relating to International Relations in the Asia-Pacific Region

The purpose of this paper is to grasp stable and reliable understanding about the attitudes of people in Asia-Pacific relating to international relations by analyzing the results of a longitudinal and cross-national comparative survey: Asia-Pacific Values Survey (APVS: 2010–13), Pacific Rim Values Survey (PRVS: 2004–2009), and East Asia Values Survey (EAVS: 2002–2005). In the analyses, this paper focuses on the three sets of question items: attitudes toward foreign countries, law/contract consciousness, and confidence in the United Nations. Regarding people’s attitudes toward foreign countries, changes in the political and social conditions such as the rise of China and the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 11, 2011) are expected to have influenced people’s attitudes toward Japan and China between PRVS and APVS by previous studies. However, our analysis shows that this is not the case. Moreover, multidimensional analyses of both law/contract consciousness and confidence in the United Nations show that there are four clusters of countries/areas in the Asia-Pacific region. These patterns of clustering are reliable as well as interesting results, which previous studies have had difficulty explaining.

Cross-National Trends in Religious Service Attendance.

The nature of religious change and the future of religion have been central questions of social science since its inception. But empirical research on this question has been quite American-centric, encouraged by the conventional wisdom that the United States is an outlier of religiosity in the developed world, and, more pragmatically, by the availability of survey data. The dramatic growth in the number and reach of cross-national surveys over the past two decades has offered a corrective. These data have allowed research on religious trends in the United States, Canada, and Europe, putting American trends into comparative relief. This research synthesis reviews the past quarter century of cross-national comparative survey research on religious behavior, focusing on religious service attendance as a commonly measured behavior that is arguably more equivalent across societies and cultures than other measures of religiosity. The lack of evidence for religious revival is highlighted, noting instead declining rates of attendance in the United States and Canada, and either declining rates or low "bottomed-out" stability in Western Europe, most of Eastern Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. Finally, countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are discussed to the extent that research allows, before a call for future research-in these places in particular-is made in order to correct for the Western and Christian focus of much of the research on cross-national religious trends.

Trust of Nations: Looking for More Universal Values for Interpersonal and International Relationships

The objective of this study is to review past research on people’s sense of trust as reflected in the data from longitudinal and cross-national comparative surveys by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. First, I explain some history of our survey research. Second, I give a brief review of the studies on sense of trust. Third, I summarize some aspects of the fundamental social values of the Japanese and their sense of interpersonal trust as identified in our Japanese National Character Survey. Fourth, I present a crossnational comparative analysis of interpersonal trust and institutional trust, including the Seven Country Survey (Japan, the USA, and five European countries) (1987–1993), Japanese immigrant surveys, the East Asia Values Survey (2002–2005), the Pacific-Rim Values Survey (2004–2009), and the Asia-Pacific Values Survey (2010–2014). To overcome the limitations of the studies based mostly on the items of the General Social Survey or the World Values Survey, I explore more basic social values on human bonds that may underlie people’s sense of trust beyond differences in countries or time. The final section presents some comments for our future research.

The Asia-Pacific Values Survey 2010–2014: Cultural Manifold Analysis of National Character

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics has been conducting a longitudinal survey on Japanese national character since 1953. From 1971, this survey was extended to include cross-national comparative surveys and people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii, the West Coast of the United States, and Brazil. The cross-national survey primarily focuses on comparing social values, ways of thinking and feeling, and other relevant characteristics of people from various nations. This study investigates conditions under which meaningful cross-national comparability of social survey data is guaranteed, despite differences in languages and statistical sampling methods. Over the past 14 years, focusing on Asian countries, we have carried out the East Asia Values Survey (2002–2005), the Pacific Rim Values Survey (2004–2009), and the Asia-Pacific Values Survey (2010–2014). In this introductory paper to the special issue, we discuss the development of our research paradigm, termed cultural manifold analysis (CULMAN), and provide an overview of our past surveys. We conclude with comments on our future research.

Relating news analysis and public opinion: Applying a communications method as a ‘tool’ to aid interpretation of survey results

This article documents the methodological steps taken to use news analysis as a ‘tool’ for retrieving systematic information on political events to be used in the interpretation of findings from surveys on public opinion. The approach uses the selection function of mass media in producing ‘news’ as a proxy to identify the ‘political climate’ of a specific country at a specific time. This information on ‘political climate’ can be used to control whether ‘exceptional’ political events occurred during the period of fieldwork for surveys on public opinion that may have unduly biased the findings. Such a tool is especially useful for cross-national comparative survey research that is also longitudinal and the project described here was conducted within the framework of the European Social Survey (ESS). The specific news analysis method used to develop the tool draws inspiration from ‘claims-making analysis’.1

Assessing social support networks in cross-national comparative surveys: Measurement issues

In recent years many cross-national comparative surveys, such as Gender and Generation Programme, International Social Survey Programme, European Quality of Life Survey, or General Social Survey, have included assessment of social support networks. Generally, two approaches were used; the name generator approach and the role relation approach. As more cross-country surveys are conducted every year, it may seem reasonable to use such data sets, since they provide high quality comparisons across countries. However, one should pay close attention to the measurement instruments, as these may cause unintentional but systematic variability in the observed data. While the data from each survey can be of high quality “per se”, we claim that results from these surveys are not comparable, owing to their different measurement approaches and survey instruments. In this paper we present data from several experiments which show that scientific findings from these surveys depend significantly on questionnaire design.

Concepts of labour status and their operationalisation in cross-national comparative social surveys

In the social sciences, the occupation variable is used to derive socio-economic status and/or occupational prestige. This article describes occupation as an indicator for social status and labor status as an indicator of the respondent's position in the life-cycle. First, we identify variables necessary to measure occupation, employment and the labour force concept from ILO (International Labour Organisation, Geneva). Second, we introduce strategies for harmonizing the underlying social concepts of the measurements in surveys across countries. Third, we present our own instrument to measure occupation and labour status as social demographic background variables in cross-national comparative surveys. Finally, we summarize the findings from a pilot survey. The test revealed that the instrument enables the data needed for the social science analysis of socio-economic status and occupational prestige to be collected with ease.

Concept of ethnicity and its operationalisation in cross-national social surveys

This article describes the development of an instrument for the measurement of ethnicity in cross-national comparative survey research. First, we identify the data that must to be collected on ethnicity as a core variable . We then examine the way in which the national statistics offices of the European states and the major social science surveys handle this theme. And finally we present our own instrument for the measurement of ethnicity as a background variable.

Subjective Health and Social Factors: Multidimensional Data Analyses of Cross-National Survey

It is well known that health and social factors are closely related. The aim of this study is to examine subjective health through the analysis of cross-national comparative surveys to clarify cultural characteristics of subjective health (self-rated health). I examined countries/areas using the results of our past surveys (Table 1. Yoshino, Nikaido & Fujita, 2009, Behaviormetrica, 36, 2, 89–113). In this analysis, I examined self-rated health symptoms, health satisfaction, life satisfaction, and sense of anxiety as well as other social factors. Multidimensional data analyses of all items on subjective health and on social factors showed a similar pattern between countries/areas. Furthermore, multidimensional scaling for Japanese emigrants and their offsprings and their related countries showed meaningful cultural links of comparison but not so large generational difference between 2-SEI and 3-SEI with respect to health and life satisfactions.

Cultural Manifold Analysis (Culman) of National Character: Paradigm of Cross-National Survey

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics has been performing a longitudinal survey on Japanese national character since 1953. Beginning in 1971, this survey was expanded to include cross-national comparative surveys as well as surveys on people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii, the U.S. West Coast and Brazil. The main focus of the cross-national survey is the comparison of social values, ways of thinking and feeling, and other relevant aspects of people from various nations. Another important purpose of our study is to investigate the conditions under which meaningful cross-national comparability of social survey data is guaranteed.

特集 東アジア価値観国際比較調査」その1 東アジア価値観国際比較調査

The main objective of this special issue is to show some data analyses of the East Asia Value Survey conducted by the cross-national survey team centered in the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM) during 2002-2004. This survey is closely linked with the longitudinal survey on the Japanese National Character in the past half-century and the cross-national comparative survey in the past three decades by ISM. Our past data analyses have shown that some stability and some changes of peoples' attitudes and social values. The data analyses on the present survey with those past surveys will be useful for the understandings of the countries and regions under development of international cooperation or unification as the “East Asia Community.”This is an introductory paper. I will explain about the survey on “Japanese National Character (JNC)” as well as its historical background in Section 1, and explain about the East Asia Value Survey in the relationships with the cross-national comparative survey as an extension of JNC survey in Section 2. Finally, in Section 3, I will briefly explain the significance of development of a Behaviormetric study on civilization as “Data Science”, which is based on the rigorous statistical theory of sampling methods. Also I will explain about our paradigm of survey study, what is called Cultural Manifold Analysis (CULMAN).Some detailed data analyses on several topics by the other members of the survey and myself will follow this introductory paper.

富国信頼の時代へ

The objective of this paper is to discuss the sense of trust of the East Asian countries (Japan, China [Beijing, Shanghai, & Hong Kong], Taiwan, South Korea, & Singapore) as it is reflected in the response data of our East Asia Value Survey conducted during 2002-2005. I will present some data analyses on the variability of people's trust systems in order to explore what aspects of their sense of trust are stable over many decades and what aspects are variable under the longitudinal changes of economic and political conditions. Firstly, I will explain briefly the background of this study. Secondly, I will explain the history of our longitudinal and a series of cross-national surveys on national character. Thirdly, I will summarize some aspects of people's sense of trust in our longitudinal survey of Japanese national character as well as cross-national comparative surveys. I focus my analysis on the data of the East Asia Survey, but I integrate also data of other surveys such as our seven-nation survey conducted during 1987-1993, General Social Survey and World Value Survey. Finally, I will provide some comments for the future research.

「信の崩壊」

This paper is dedicated to the late Professor Kinji Mizuno in memory of his great contribution to Behaviormetrics and the Behaviormetric Society of Japan. In reviewing several recent issues on survey research in which Professor Mizuno was also very much involved, I consider possible future developments in this area. The issues cover the fields of public opinion survey, election forecast, Japanese national character survey and cross-national comparative survey by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, as well as their methodologies. Finally, the idea of “the Advanced Institute of Human and Social Sciences”, an idea conceived by Professor Mizuno and his associates, is also briefly mentioned. I hope that this will remind our readers of the original concept of Behaviormetrics as it appeared in the 1970s and will lead us to the further development of our research.

国民性の国際比較調査の為の質問文の作成

The main objective of this paper is to explain the process of construction and translation of the questionnaire used in our prolect of cross-national comparative social surveys by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. In the cross-national comparative surveys, it is necessary to choose or construct a set of useful question items for the comparison, and it is also important to adequately translate those items into several languages of the survey countries. There are several problems involved in the translation, and“back translation”is a technique which gives us a cue to consider those problerns. In this paper, we show the practical procedure of construction and back translation of the questionnaire in our recent survey prolect of seven nations:Japan, USA, Britain, FRG, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.