European Canadian Research Articles

Seeking help from close, same-sex friends

Seeking help from close friends is beneficial for help seekers but also entails costs. Past research on social support suggested that East Asians were more likely than their North American counterparts to perceive relational costs (e.g., causing trouble for close friends), whereas North Americans tended to selectively perceive personal costs (e.g., admitting incompetence). We first collected European Canadian and Japanese people’s everyday experiences of help-seeking behaviors. We then examined whether norms would mediate the relationship between perceptions of costs and expected closeness in friendship. For European Canadians, we found such meditating relationships only for personal costs; whereas for the Japanese, the relationships were observed for both personal and relational costs. Implications for social cognitive research and clinical research are discussed.

Long-Term Survival With Revascularization in South Asians Admitted With an Acute Coronary Syndrome (from the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease Registry)

People of South Asian (SA) descent are particularly susceptible to acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Yet, little information exists regarding their overall prognosis. The purpose of this study was to compare short- and long-term clinical outcomes of SA and European Canadians admitted with an ACS. Using the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease registry, 63,393 patients with ACS were reviewed (January 1999 to March 2012). After excluding Chinese patients, 1,825 SAs were compared with 60,791 European Canadians. Both groups were propensity matched, and outcomes were compared. Adjustment was performed using a 3:1 propensity matching technique. Adjusted 30-day and 1-year mortality rates were similar between SA and European patients with ACS (2.6% vs 2.7%, p= 0.93; 5.0% vs 4.8%, respectively, p= 0.75). Repeat angiography did not differ (9.9% vs 9.2%, p= 0.35), yet repeat revascularization within 1year was greater in SA patients (9.8% vs 7.6%, p <0.01). Improved long-term survival (median 64months, interquartile range 66months) was noted with SA patients (hazard ratio [HR] 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.71 to 0.95). In particular, long-term survival was observed in SA patients receiving coronary artery bypass grafting (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.52to1.08) and percutaneous coronary intervention (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.96). In conclusion, SA patients treated with revascularization appear to have improved long-term survival after ACS, compared with European Canadians. As such, clinicians should be cognitive of ethnic-based outcomes when determining therapeutic strategies in patient management.

The influence of cultural lay beliefs: Dialecticism and indecisiveness in European Canadians and Hong Kong Chinese

Previous findings in cultural psychology suggest that East Asians are more likely than North Americans to view the world dialectically and that this dialectic view of the world affects their psychological tendencies. Extending these findings, our research examined the relationship between dialecticism and indecisiveness in European Canadians and Hong Kong Chinese. Evidence from three studies demonstrated that: Hong Kong Chinese were more indecisive than European Canadians and that dialecticism mediated this cultural difference (Study 1), dialectically primed individuals were more likely than non-dialectically primed individuals to experience indecisiveness (Study 2), and decisions’ importance affected cultural variations: no cultural difference in indecisiveness was found for important decisions, with Hong Kong Chinese reporting a higher level of indecisiveness for less important decisions compared to European Canadians. Furthermore, the cultural variation for less important decisions was mediated by dialecticism (Study 3). The importance of studying decision making processes across cultures is discussed.

Stroke-related knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours of chinese and European canadians: implications for physical therapists.

To improve cross-cultural health education on risk-reducing behaviour change by examining the stroke-related knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours of Chinese Canadians (CCs). Participants (103 first-generation CCs and 101 European Canadians [ECs] representing the dominant cultural group in Canada) completed a cross-sectional questionnaire about knowledge, health behaviours, and beliefs related to stroke. Compared with ECs, CCs were less aware of risk factors, warning signs, and appropriate responses to stroke in others. Information sources about stroke included mass media, family, and friends. CCs were less likely to smoke and drink alcohol but were also less likely to be physically active or to participate in structured exercise, less likely to have a healthy diet, and more likely to report stress. Theoretical dimensions of culture may explain variations in stroke-related knowledge, behaviours, and beliefs between CCs and ECs. Awareness of cultural differences can help physical therapists evaluate clients and appropriately tailor lifestyle-related health education.

When Is Perception Top‐Down and When Is It Not? Culture, Narrative, and Attention

Previous findings in cultural psychology indicated that East Asians are more likely than North Americans to be attentive to contextual information (e.g., Nisbett & Masuda, ). However, to what extent and in which conditions culture influences patterns of attention has not been fully examined. As a result, universal patterns of attention may be obscured, and culturally unique patterns may be wrongly assumed to be constant across situations. By carrying out two cross-cultural studies, we demonstrated that (a) both European Canadians and Japanese attended to moving objects similarly when the task was to simply observe the visual information; however, (b) there were cultural variations in patterns of attention when participants actively engaged in the task by constructing narratives of their observation (narrative construction). These findings suggest that cultural effects are most pronounced in narrative construction conditions, where the need to act in accordance with a culturally shared meaning system is elicited.

Intergenerational conflict in ethnically diverse ageing families

This article explores perceptions of intergenerational conflict (IC) in ethnically diverse Canadian ageing families using mixed methods. Building on a lifecourse theoretical framework and an intergenerational stake hypothesis, we examine a number of family-related dimensions. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with 490 parents (mean age of 58) with at least one young adult child aged 18 to 35 living in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia belonging to one of four ethnic groups: British, Chinese, South Asian or Southern European Canadians. Results reveal that most parents do not report problematic levels of IC and that they often share similar issues of conflict. Congruence in parent–child value orientations is also more typical than dissimilarity. Yet, there is also diversity in experiences that are shaped by societal norms and expectations, ethnocultural heritage, financial circumstances and generationally based value systems. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for professionals interested in IC and ethnic families.

Multiple Time-Scales in Adès's Rings

MULTIPLE TIME-SCALES IN ADÈS’S RINGS DANIEL FOX INTRODUCTION HOMAS ADÈS OFTEN SPEAKS about his music in scientific or physical terms, be it “the magnetic forces of notes” or the importance of “responding to temperature.”1 He claims that “Berlioz has brought us into the Modern world of relativity and uncertainty.”2 Adès’s music often conveys the sense of a natural process unfolding. Simple, identical processes unfolding at varying rates create expansions and contractions of harmonies in pitch space. Despite a sometimes overwhelming level of detail, one feels the physical causality behind the movement of notes. The aim of this paper is to argue that a scientific understanding of an extended physical metaphor unifies the processes at work in Rings, the first movement of Adès’s violin concerto Concentric Paths (2005).3 The metaphor of celestial motion is offered to us on the cover of the score and in the composer’s program notes. T Multiple Time-Scales in Adès’s Rings 29 COLOR, INSTRUMENT, AND PROCESS Adès has spoken of Kurtag and Ligeti as “inventors of colour and instruments—not in the sense of actual musical instruments, but an ‘instrument’ being a complex of timbre and interval and harmony and rhythm, which could be an implement that you could use. . . .”4 Dominic Wells points us to the “relationship between the opening of Arcadiana (Adès’s first string quartet, 1994) and that of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, which also begins with open fifths. . . .”5 Adès’s violin concerto also opens with an ostinato of open fifths (see Examples 1A and 1B). However, Ligeti’s piano Etude No. 6 Automne à Varsovie offers a more extensive model for the musical processes in Rings. Example 2 shows the opening bars (re-notated for analytical purposes) of Automne à Varsovie. The octave Ebs form a perfect crystal. The Fb in m. 2 introduces an impurity into the crystal, and the rest of the piece details the reaction of the crystal to this impurity: the disturbance propagates through the crystal, deforming it into a quasi-crystal.6 The final bars of Automne à Varsovie present the final collapse of the crystal structure. All that is left is the chromatic descent that was initiated by the impurity. We will find in Rings an elaboration on this process. Rings opens with energetically alternating D6s and G4s in the solo violin, supported thinly in the orchestra (see Example 3).7 In the second measure, when Flute 2 tries to leap down a perfect fifth from D6 to G5, instead of a perfect twelfth to G4, there is too much energy in the system, and it overshoots slightly to F#5. Flute 1 leaps from D6 EXAMPLE 1A: THE OPENING MEASURES OF LIGETI’S VIOLIN CONCERTO LIGETI KONZERT FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA COPYRIGHT © 1990, 1992 BY SCHOTT MUSIC GMBH & CO. KG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION OF EUROPEAN AMERICAN MUSIC DISTRIBUTORS COMPANY, SOLE U.S. AND CANADIAN AGENT FOR SCHOTT MUSIC GMBH & CO. KG. EXAMPLE 1B: THE OPENING MEASURES OF RINGS 30 Perspectives of New Music to B4 and thus the tetrachord [67E2] 4-20(0158) is introduced. At m. 3 the soloist begins a rapid arpeggiation of this [67E2] chord within the span of G4 to D6 (see Example 4).8 This pitch set, a GMaj7 chord, remains stable for mm. 4 and 5. Similar to the introduction of the Fb in m. 2 of Ligeti’s Automne à Varsovie, when Flute 2 introduces the F#5 in m. 2 of Rings, it creates instability in the pitch-class G; G develops a tendency to decay to F#. In m. 6 the instability in G–F# spreads: the D6 in the solo part slips to C#6 (this is reinforced in the orchestra). None of the pitches in [67E2] EXAMPLE 2: THE OPENING MEASURES OF LIGETI’S AUTOMNE À VARSOVIE LIGETI ETUDES POUR PIANO, BOOK 1 COPYRIGHT © 1985 BY SCHOTT MUSIC GMBH & CO. KG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION OF EUROPEAN AMERICAN MUSIC DISTRIBUTORS COMPANY, SOLE U.S. AND CANADIAN AGENT FOR SCHOTT MUSIC GMBH & CO. KG. EXAMPLE 3: THE OPENING MEASURES OF RINGS INTRODUCE THE TETRACHORD [67E2] Multiple Time-Scales in Adès...

In This Issue

In This Issue

Agency and Facial Emotion Judgment in Context

Past research showed that East Asians' belief in holism was expressed as their tendencies to include background facial emotions into the evaluation of target faces more than North Americans. However, this pattern can be interpreted as North Americans' tendency to downplay background facial emotions due to their conceptualization of facial emotion as volitional expression of internal states. Examining this alternative explanation, we investigated whether different types of contextual information produce varying degrees of effect on one's face evaluation across cultures. In three studies, European Canadians and East Asians rated the intensity of target facial emotions surrounded with either affectively salient landscape sceneries or background facial emotions. The results showed that, although affectively salient landscapes influenced the judgment of both cultural groups, only European Canadians downplayed the background facial emotions. The role of agency as differently conceptualized across cultures and multilayered systems of cultural meanings are discussed.

Victim and Perpetrator Groups' Responses to the Canadian Government's Apology for the Head Tax on Chinese Immigrants and the Moderating Influence of Collective Guilt

European and Chinese Canadians' perceptions and expectations of the Canadian government's apology for the head tax placed on Chinese immigrants during the early twentieth century were examined, along with Chinese Canadians' willingness to forgive the transgression. Among both European and Chinese Canadians, beliefs about the importance attributed to the event and perception of the apology as deserved and sincere heightened expectations of improved intergroup relations. Collective guilt acceptance among European Canadians heightened the relation between perceived sincerity and positive expectations, whereas collective guilt assignment by Chinese Canadians heightened the relation between sincerity and forgiveness. A one‐year follow‐up of whether Chinese Canadians were equally satisfied with the apology indicated that their willingness to grant forgiveness had waned, and although on the whole expectations of improved relations were met, those who assigned more collective guilt were less convinced. Intergroup apologies and their effectiveness at facilitating intergroup relations are discussed.

Visualizing the Good Life: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

How can we visualize similarity and difference across cultural conceptions of a good or worthy life? To examine the internal structure of such conceptions, we asked 584 university students from mainland China and Canada to indicate the relative importance of 30 elements or criteria commonly used in defining a good life. Statistical comparison and multidimensional scaling were used to reveal the form and extent of group commonalities and differences on the criteria and their meaning in relation to underlying dimensions of individual and cultural variation. The results suggested that South Asian Canadians were more oriented towards moral, spiritual, and beneficent concerns in envisioning a good life than were the mainland Chinese and Western European Canadians. The Chinese, for their part, tended to emphasize practical, prudential, and socially defined goods. This contrasted with the Western European Canadians, who showed more preference for personally defined, internal goods. East Asian Canadians fell between Chinese and Western European Canadians in overall orientation, reflecting their biculturality. All groups placed heavy emphasis on close and enduring relationships.

Developmental changes in parent–child communication throughout adolescence.

This study examined how parent-child communication regarding adolescent unsupervised activities develops over the course of adolescence. We used questionnaire data from 390 adolescents (58% girls; 90% European Canadian) who were followed from age 12 to 19. Latent growth curve modeling revealed curvilinear developmental changes that differed for boys and girls. From age 14 to 19 (but not from age 12 to 14) a linear decrease in parental control was found for both genders. For girls, parent-child communication decreased in early adolescence, as indicated by decreasing parental solicitation, decreasing adolescent disclosure, and increasing secrecy. Girls' communication with parents intensified in middle adolescence, as indicated by increasing parental solicitation, increasing adolescent disclosure, and decreasing adolescent secrecy. For boys, disclosure declined in early adolescence, but secrecy and solicitation were stable throughout adolescence. Parental knowledge decreased from age 12 to 19 for both genders but was temporarily stable for middle adolescent girls. The meaning of these developmental changes, their timing, and gender differences are discussed.

Examining the role of acculturation in the physical activity experiences and behaviours of South Asians living in Canada

South Asian Indians are recognised as being at high risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, as well as being less likely to engage in preventative health measures, such as physical activity (PA), compared to European Canadians or other western born individuals.

429 Clinical Outcomes in South Asians With Acute Coronary Syndromes Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Results from Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease Registry

People of South Asian (SA) descent are particularly susceptible to coronary artery disease (CAD) and tend to have adverse outcomes in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become a common revascularization strategy in ACS yet the implications on this high-risk population are unknown. Accordingly, we compared clinical outcomes of SA and European Canadians with ACS undergoing PCI. From the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) registry, 27 367 PCI-treated patients with ACS were reviewed (January 1999 - March 2010). Ethnicity was determined using validated surname selection software. Differences in one-year and long-term survival were compared between SA (n=787) and European (n=26 580) Canadian patients. As seen in the Table, South Asians are younger in age and are more likely diabetic compared to European Canadians. A strong trend towards improved survival is seen at one year with clear benefit long-term in the South Asian cohort. After propensity-matched adjustment, the relative risk of death favored South Asians compared to Europeans at one-year (HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.27-0.91, p<0.02) and long-term (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.44-0.83, p=0.002). Differences in one-year mortality were seen in SA with bare metal stents (BMS) versus drug eluting stents (DES) (2.1% versus 0.7%), as well as in Europeans with BMS versus DES (3.8% versus 2.8%) (p=0.06). Similar results were seen with one-year repeat revascularization in SA with BMS versus DES (14.2% versus 9.9%) as well as Europeans with BMS versus DES (14.6% versus 8.5%) (p=0.001).Tabled 1 Despite prior work demonstrating lower quality of life in SA patients with coronary disease, our results showed an improvement in survival amongst SA receiving PCI following an ACS event. Additionally, DES offers benefit in both ethnic groups. Further research is required to understand the apparent disconnect between survival and quality of life in SA patients.

Coping Strategies in Female Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse from Two Canadian and Two New Zealand Cultural Groups

Individuals from some minority cultures are at greater risk of experiencing childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and are also at heightened risk of negative outcomes from abuse. Coping strategies, which may mediate the relationship between CSA and outcomes, are also impacted by culture. This study examined the use of coping strategies in female survivors of CSA across 4 cultural groupings from 2 countries—86 European Canadians, 40 Native Canadians, 129 European New Zealanders, and 35 Māori New Zealanders—who all completed the Coping Responses Inventory. The 4 groups differed significantly on 7 of the 8 Coping Responses Inventory scales (Logical Analysis, Positive Reappraisal, Problem Solving, Cognitive Avoidance, Acceptance or Resignation, Seeking Alternative Rewards, Emotional Discharge). Whereas New Zealanders differed significantly from Canadians (p < .001), Europeans did not differ significantly from indigenous cultural groups, nor did nationality and culture grouping interact (p > .05). The profile of coping in New Zealand Europeans was relatively flat, with average scores across coping types close to the mean of the t-score distribution. Māori New Zealanders produced a similar profile, with only slight increases on 2 scales of avoidant coping. The findings raise questions about the extent to which generalizations can be made about there being either a “Western/European” culture or a particular “indigenous” culture. This in turn also raises the issue of whether cross-validation and replication of findings are needed if the findings are to be applied outside of the country in which the data were gathered.

Young Adults’ Attitudes and Reasoning About Gender Roles in the Family Context

Although the roles of men and women in society and the workplace have undergone dramatic change, there has been comparatively less change in the family roles of men and women. This study investigated young adults’ endorsements of and reasoning about gender roles in the context of the family. Participants ( N = 224) indicated their level of agreement with six different family roles and provided open-ended reasons to support their views. Social cognitive domain theory was used as a framework to interpret their open-ended reasoning. Results showed that participants applied reasoning based on ideas of morality (fairness and well-being), social conventions, and personal choice in ways that varied by participants’ gender, ethnic background (Asian or European Canadian), and the particular gender role to which they were responding. When supporting egalitarian role divisions, women were more likely to base their reasoning on morality, whereas men were more likely to rely on social conventions. In contrast, stereotypes and issues of well-being (regarding women’s roles), and social conventions (regarding men’s traditional roles) were used to support the maintenance of traditional role divisions. The results have implications for educators and policy makers and are discussed with a focus on how attitudes about family roles may be changed most effectively to increase egalitarian attitudes. Implications for the measurement of gender-role attitudes are also discussed.

Culture, Temporal Focus, and Values of the Past and the Future

This article examines cultural differences in how people value future and past events. Throughout four studies, the authors found that European Canadians attached more monetary value to an event in the future than to an identical event in the past, whereas Chinese and Chinese Canadians placed more monetary value to a past event than to an identical future event. The authors also showed that temporal focus-thinking about the past or future-explained cultural influences on the temporal value asymmetry effect. Specifically, when induced to think about and focus on the future, Chinese valued the future more than the past, just like Euro-Canadians; when induced to think about and focus on the past, Euro-Canadians valued the past more than the future, just like Chinese.

The 2 × 2 model of perfectionism: A comparison across Asian Canadians and European Canadians.

The 2 × 2 model of perfectionism posits that the 4 within-person combinations of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., pure SOP, mixed perfectionism, pure SPP, and nonperfectionism) can be distinctively associated with psychological adjustment. This study examined whether the relationship between the 4 subtypes of perfectionism proposed in the 2 × 2 model (Gaudreau & Thompson, 2010) and academic outcomes (i.e., academic satisfaction and grade-point average [GPA]) differed across 2 sociocultural groups: Asian Canadians and European Canadians. A sample of 697 undergraduate students (23% Asian Canadians) completed self-report measures of dispositional perfectionism, academic satisfaction, and GPA. Results replicated most of the 2 × 2 model's hypotheses on ratings of GPA, thus supporting that nonperfectionism was associated with lower GPA than pure SOP (Hypothesis 1a) but with higher GPA than pure SPP (Hypothesis 2). Results also showed that mixed perfectionism was related to higher GPA than pure SPP (Hypothesis 3) but to similar levels as pure SOP, thus disproving Hypothesis 4. Furthermore, results provided evidence for cross-cultural differences in academic satisfaction. While all 4 hypotheses were supported among European Canadians, only Hypotheses 1a and 3 were supported among Asian Canadians. Future lines of research are discussed in light of the importance of acknowledging the role of culture when studying the influence of dispositional perfectionism on academic outcomes.

Cultural differences in self- and other-evaluations and well-being: A study of European and Asian Canadians.

Anusic, Schimmack, Pinkus, and Lockwood (2009) developed the halo-alpha-beta (HAB) model to separate halo variance from variance due to valid personality traits and other sources of measurement error in self-ratings of personality. The authors used a twin-HAB model of self-ratings and ratings of a partner (friend or dating partner) to test several hypotheses about culture, evaluative biases in self- and other-perceptions, and well-being. Participants were friends or dating partners who reported on their own and their partner's personality and well-being (N = 906 students). European Canadians had higher general evaluative biases (GEB) than Asian Canadians. There were no cultural differences in self-enhancement or other-enhancement. GEB significantly predicted self-ratings of life satisfaction, but not informant ratings of well-being. GEB fully mediated the effect of culture on self-ratings of life satisfaction. The results suggest that North American culture encourages positive biases in self- and other-perceptions. These biases also influence self-ratings of life satisfaction but have a much weaker effect on informant ratings of life satisfaction. The implications of these findings for cultural differences in well-being are discussed.

Supplemental Material for The 2 × 2 Model of Perfectionism: A Comparison Across Asian Canadians and European Canadians

Supplemental Material for The 2 × 2 Model of Perfectionism: A Comparison Across Asian Canadians and European Canadians