Mainstream Cultural Values Research Articles

Who Can Buffer Marginalization Risk? Affect Experience, Affect Valuation, and Social Marginalization in Japan and Brazil.

Previous research has associated social marginalization with the rejection of mainstream cultural values. Since cultural values reflect affect valuation, the present research investigates the relationships between social marginalization and ideal/actual affect in two different non-WEIRD cultures, Brazil and Japan. As a social marginalization index, we used the NEET-Hikikomori Risk Scale (NHR). We predicted that cultural differences would emerge in the valuation of affective states. Affect valuation theory suggests that in East Asia, individuals are encouraged to pursue and value low arousal positive emotions (LAP: e.g., calmness, serenity) over high arousal positive emotions (HAP: e.g., excitement, elation, etc.) as they can harm social relationships in these societies. In contrast, Latin American cultures value HAP over LAP, because social relationships are promoted through vibrant positive emotional expression in these cultures. Hence, we hypothesized that individuals’ ideal affect, actual affect, and the discrepancy between ideal and actual affect would be associated with higher risk of social marginalization. Participants from Japan (N = 54) and Brazil (N = 54) reported their ideal affect and actual affect and completed the NEET-Hikikomori Risk Scale (NHR). Regression analyses showed that actual HAP and the discrepancy between ideal and actual HAP were negatively associated with NHR in Brazil, but no association was found in the Japanese data. The other variables, including ideal affect, were only minorly or not significantly associated with NHR. Though the study has limitations regarding its small sample size, we can explore future perspectives and discuss the relationships between emotion and cultural marginalization. Socioecological factors that promote actual HAP in Brazilians may encourage other mainstream cultural ideals, which buffers against cultural marginalization.

Regular White People Things: The Presence of White Fragility in Interracial Families

ObjectiveTo better understand how biracial/multiracial millennials make meaning of their multiple identities and racial socialization messages within their interracial families.BackgroundA small body of research suggests that the content of parents' race messages to their biracial/multiracial children may have profound social and psychological ramifications. Changing American demographics, including the growth of biracial/multiracial populations, have created a demand for careful examination of this group's racialized experiences.MethodTo examine the racial socialization experiences of biracial/multiracial participants (n = 30), this qualitative substudy used thematic analysis, an intersectional theoretical framework, and a phenomenological approach in analyzing open‐ended responses.ResultsWe found that interracial families employed a number of racial socialization messages, including those that extol mainstream cultural values as well as communications that fuel race‐related stress and identity politics.ConclusionFindings highlight the prevalence of dominant Western cultural values and racial silence in the socialization messages within interracial families and the reality of racism and racial awareness among individuals identifying as biracial/multiracial.ImplicationsThe findings in this study suggest a need to examine racial socialization as a function of parents' salient identities, including gender, race, and immigration status.

Reducing cultural mismatch: Latino students' neuroendocrine and affective stress responses following cultural diversity and inclusion reminder

Cultural mismatch theory suggests that a poor fit between the cultural values endorsed by individuals and the institutions to which they belong results in emotional distress and activation of physiological stress processes, particularly for underrepresented groups. To test a novel paradigm for reducing perceptions of this cultural mismatch, the current experiment evaluated whether reminding first-year Latino university students (N = 84; Mage = 18.56; SD = 0.35; 63.1% female; 85.7% Mexican descent; 65.5% first-generation college students) about institutional support for cultural diversity and inclusion would reduce neuroendocrine and affective responses to psychosocial stress. Prior to completing a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test, participants were randomly assigned to view either a video conveying university commitment to cultural diversity and inclusion (n = 45) or a control video (n = 39) depicting a campus tour. Five saliva samples assayed for cortisol and corresponding negative affect measures were collected to assess stress reactivity and recovery patterns (pre-task baseline, post-task +30 min, +45 min, +60 min, +75 min). Repeated measures data were analyzed using bilinear spline growth models. Viewing the culture video (compared to control) significantly reduced cortisol reactivity to the TSST and post-task negative affect levels, specifically for students endorsing higher Latino cultural values (e.g., familism, respect). Post-task cortisol levels were also reduced for students endorsing higher U.S. mainstream cultural values (e.g., self-reliance, competition). Results provide novel evidence for cultural diversity in stress responsivity and individual variation in approaches to reduce perceived cultural mismatch.

Latino adolescents’ cultural values associated with diurnal cortisol activity

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity has been identified as a mechanism through which daily life stress contributes to health problems and racial/ethnic health disparities. Stress-related changes in neuroendocrine function are evident as early as adolescence, but the ways in which promotive cultural factors may also contribute to variation in diurnal HPA activity have received little empirical attention. Grounded in cultural models of resilience, dual dimensions of Latino adolescents’ cultural values (ethnic heritage and U.S. mainstream) were examined as promotive and protective factors in relation to their diurnal salivary cortisol patterns using ecological momentary assessment (N = 209; Mage = 18.10; 64.4% female). Participants provided 5 daily saliva samples for 3 days while completing corresponding electronic diary reports and using time-sensitive compliance devices (track caps, actigraphs). Results from 3-level growth curve models indicated that higher U.S. mainstream cultural values (e.g., self-reliance, competition, material success) were associated with higher average waking cortisol levels and a more rapid rate of diurnal cortisol decline (i.e., “steeper” slope). Regarding situational deviations from the diurnal rhythm (within-person differences), cortisol levels were higher in relation to diary-reported ongoing stress (vs. completed). Accounting for these situational differences in stress timing, a cross-level interaction (i.e., between-person difference in within-person process) indicated that higher perceived stress than usual was associated with lower cortisol levels for adolescents with stronger alignment to Latino ethnic heritage values (e.g., familism, respect, religiosity), compared to relatively higher cortisol levels for those with less alignment to these values. Results were consistent adjusting for participants’ sex, immigrant generation, parents’ education level, depressive symptoms, medication use, sleep duration, and other self-reported health behaviors. These findings join the growing science of cultural neurobiology by demonstrating the promotive and potentially regulating influence of cultural values in the daily HPA functioning of Latino adolescents.

An Analysis of Street Artist Banksy

그라피티와 거리예술은 자본주의와 도시 체제를 비판한다. 상당수 그라피티 라이터와 거리예술가가 종종 경험하는 모순은 대중적 인기와 지지를 획득한 후 자신들이 비판하던 자본과 도시 체계에 편입하면서 발생한다. 거리예술가 뱅크시는 독특하게 지배 구조와 타협하면서 자신이 대중문화에서 소비되는 방식을 결정하는데, 본 연구는 이 타협의 방식을 뱅크시의 “퍼포먼스 화법”으로 정의한다. 2013년 뱅크시는 그라피티, 거리예술, 설치예술, 사회관계망서비스를 혼합한 뉴욕 퍼포먼스를 펼친다. 그는 이 퍼포먼스에서 거리예술의 실행 방식을 집약해 도시 곳곳을 점유한 자본의 산물을 공격하고, 주류의 정치와 경제논리를 비판한다. 본 연구는 뱅크시가 문화 수행자로서 가지는 다면성을 탐구하고, 그가 주류 문화를 상대로 수행하는 비판과 타협을 살핌으로써 거리예술과 자본, 시민과 도시, 대중과 (반)예술의 관계를 고찰하고자 한다.Graffiti and street art have been critical of capitalism and city systems. The fate of many graffiti writers and street artists is ironic in that they often merge into the very system they have criticized once they gain popularity and support from the masses. Banksy, the street artist, is unique in his negotiations with ruling authorities around the consumption of his art, which this analysis defines as his “performance narrative”. Banksy’s New York performance in 2013, with its mixture of street art, graffiti, installation art, and social network service, adopted an intensive method of street art practice with focal points on capital in the city and on the political as well as the economic logic of the mainstream. This analysis investigates the cultural meanings of Banksy’s multi-layered performances and considers the relationships between street art and capital, individual citizens and the city, and the masses and (counter-)art through artist’s critique and negotiation of mainstream cultural values.

Religious Identity and Acculturation of Immigrant Minority Youth

Abstract. This review proposes an integrative contextual and developmental approach to religious identity development and acculturative adaptation among adolescents with an immigrant background. Relevant research with minority adolescents has addressed three main research questions: (1) What is distinctive about religious identity development in (Muslim) minority youth? (2) How does religious identity relate to their acculturative adaptation? and (3) What is the role of interpersonal and intercultural relations in specific acculturation contexts? In line with multiple developmental pathways in specific acculturation contexts, Muslim youth in Europe showed either stability or an increase in religious identification throughout adolescence, yet religious identity development varied greatly across religious communities and receiving societies. In support of the adaptive function of identity development in acculturating youth, (2) the religious identity of Muslim adolescents contributed positively to their psychological adaptation through the commitment to heritage culture values and identities; and it was either unrelated or conflicting with mainstream culture adoption and sociocultural adaptation, depending on specific acculturation contexts. Finally, religious identities reflect the bicultural social world of minority adolescents: strong and stable religious identities were premised on religious transmission in interpersonal relations with immigrant parents and minority peers. Moreover, religious identity conflict or compatibility with mainstream cultural values and identities was contingent on intercultural relations: perceived discrimination and Islamophobia fuel identity conflict in Muslim youth, whereas more harmonious intercultural relations enable compatible and adaptive pathways of religious identity.

Re-emergence of Indigeneity in transformed Layouts in Urban Public Housing in Nigeria

In contrast to the one whole homogenous configuration provided by developers that has often proved ineffective overtime, transformed public housing units are widespread in developing cities. Though transformation is a natural phenomenon of inhabitation, its various levels and degree can have implicit values. In recent times in Nigeria, heterogeneous spatial patterns of transformed houses in public housing estates has given empirical evidence of essentially inevitable reflection of culture sensitivity as hypothesized by previous studies. That hints that the mainstream sustainable values were probably ignored during design process. This study attempted to connect that possible missing link. To achieve that aim, it developed two objectives. First, is to identify core values behind space layouts in the mainstream. Then, to examine how they exist in the transformed layout as reflected at communal origins. It investigated on 42 transformed units in selected urban Public housings neighborhoods via a stratified conditional sampling conducted in five states of Nigeria. Qualitative methods were adopted for data analysis. After identifying the core ethnic groups in the region, their social indicators with regards to space use were determined through ethnographic principles. These indicators were then operationally defined, and used as a tool to examine users’ motivations in the transformation process in urban context. Spatial pattern analysis, by using gamma delineation, revealed the social content in the transformations after comparing initial design and the transformed spatial configurations. The outcome signified the mainstream cultural values in the transformation process hence in Public housing design. The convergence of mainstream values into urban transformed layouts suggested that they cannot be ignored during design process. The outcome of this research might be useful in designing sustainable public housings in culture sensitive environments, better still a guide to Architects and developers in this regard.

The NEET and Hikikomori spectrum: Assessing the risks and consequences of becoming culturally marginalized.

An increasing number of young people are becoming socially and economically marginalized in Japan under economic stagnation and pressures to be more globally competitive in a post-industrial economy. The phenomena of NEET/Hikikomori (occupational/social withdrawal) have attracted global attention in recent years. Though the behavioral symptoms of NEET and Hikikomori can be differentiated, some commonalities in psychological features can be found. Specifically, we believe that both NEET and Hikikomori show psychological tendencies that deviate from those governed by mainstream cultural attitudes, values, and behaviors, with the difference between NEET and Hikikomori being largely a matter of degree. In this study, we developed a NEET-Hikikomori Risk Factors (NHR) scale that treats NEET/Hikikomori not as a set of distinct diagnoses, but as a spectrum of psychological tendencies associated with the risk of being marginalized in society. Based on this idea, we identified three related risk factors in our NHR spectrum scale: (1) Freeter lifestyle preference, which in Japan refers to the tendency to consciously choose to not work despite job availabilities, (2) a lack of self-competence, and (3) having unclear ambitions for the future (Study 1). Study 2 investigated and confirmed the validity of the scale by examining NHR differences between occupational groups. The results suggested that NHR is related to psychological tendencies common in the marginalized segments of society. The relationship between these psychological tendencies and actually becoming marginalized across cultures is discussed.

PARENT TRAINING FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

From a behavioral perspective, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns (Samadi&McConkey, 2011). Considering this definition, ABA in itself has its own culture (Miller, 2006). However, minimal research has been conducted specifically on the role of immigrant families and providing culturally sensitive ABA based parent training. Behavior analytic principles and interventions originated in the United States, and seem more efficiently applied to the mainstream cultural values in the United States (Samadi&McConkey, 2011).

Trajectories of Mexican American and Mainstream Cultural Values Among Mexican American Adolescents

Mexican Americans are one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, yet we have limited knowledge regarding changes (i.e., developmental trajectories) in cultural orientation based upon their exposure to the Mexican American and mainstream cultures. We examined the parallel trajectories of Mexican American and mainstream cultural values in a sample of 749 Mexican American adolescents (49% female) across assessments during the fifth grade (approximately 11years of age), the seventh grade (approximately 13years of age) and the tenth grade (approximately 16years of age). We expected that these values would change over this developmental period and this longitudinal approach is more appropriate than the often used median split classification to identify distinct types of acculturation. We found four distinct acculturation trajectory groups: two trajectory groups that were increasing slightly with age in the endorsement of mainstream cultural values, one of which was relatively stable in Mexican American cultural values while the other was declining in their endorsement of these values; and two trajectory groups that were declining substantially with age in their endorsement of mainstream cultural values, one of which was also declining in Mexican American cultural values and the other which was stable in these values. These four trajectory groups differed in expected ways on a number of theoretically related cultural variables, but were not highly consistent with the median split classifications. The findings highlight the need to utilize longitudinal data to examine the developmental changes of Mexican American individual's adaptation to the ethnic and mainstream culture in order to understand more fully the processes of acculturation and enculturation.

Psychotherapy with South Asian Women: Dilemmas of the Immigrant and First Generations

Immigration imposes changes in gender role expectations and sexual expression that can contribute to acculturative stress and intergenerational conflicts. This article focuses on how immigrant and first-generation South Asian women in the United States negotiate losses incurred in immigration and navigate multiple cultural contexts. Immigrant women, having been raised in the country of origin and migrating to the United States as adults, face unique acculturative stressors, such as language/communication barriers, separation from close friends and family, and adapting to new cultural norms. First-generation women face challenges related to navigating across South Asian and mainstream cultural values that may significantly vary between their parental homes and their lives outside of the home. Despite these challenges and related psychological distress, the mental health needs of South Asian women across generations tend to be overlooked. This paper addresses the unique ways in which South Asian women cope with psychological distress, and how psychotherapy that integrates feminist, multicultural and psychodynamic perspectives can provide a meaningful opportunity for healing. Case vignettes are presented to illustrate the similarities and differences in cultural adjustment and the negotiation of cultural identity for immigrant and first-generation South Asian women.

The Anxiety-Buffering Properties of Cultural and Subcultural Worldviews: Terror Management Processes among Juvenile Delinquents

The Anxiety-Buffering Properties of Cultural and Subcultural Worldviews: Terror Management Processes among Juvenile Delinquents Terror management research indicates that people reminded of mortality strongly affirm values and standards consistent with their cultural worldview and distance themselves from values and standards inconsistent with it. However, limited research has addressed how individuals holding beliefs inconsistent with the dominant worldview cope with death-related anxiety. The present article aims to determine which worldview subcultural groups rely on when reminded of mortality: mainstream or subcultural? Juvenile delinquents living in residential reformatories in Poland were invited to participate in a terror management study examining the anxiety-buffering strategies of individuals belonging to a group largely outside mainstream culture. Following reminders of mortality, juvenile delinquents increased support for values consistent with the mainstream cultural worldview and decreased support for values consistent with the subcultural worldview, as compared to control conditions. The present results suggest that when faced with existential threat, the subcultural worldview does not provide an adequate anxiety buffer, leading members of this subcultural group to display increased identification with mainstream cultural values. Additionally, participants' state anxiety following death reminders was mediated by mainstream cultural worldview defense.

More Than Just Race: A Rejoinder

identical on paper and trained to self-present similarly are simply not received similarly by employers. Her (in)famous finding that employers preferred to call back white men whom they believed had been convicted of crimes more often than black men who had no criminal records indicts the culture of employers, not poor inner-city black men. In both studies, Pager's and my own, black men who embodied desirable mainstream cultural values and played by the rules lost out, and were sometimes rejected in favor of white men who did not play by the rules. Given the rejection outcomes experienced by the nonpoor and well-behaved black men Pager and I studied, I would like Wilson to explain precisely what cultural improvements poor inner-city blacks can make that will assure improved life chances?

Examining cultural socialization within African American and European American households.

This preliminary study explored the cultural socialization processes of 227 African American and European American parents of elementary schoolchildren. The Cultural Value Socialization Scales (K. M. Tyler, A. W. Boykin, C. M. Boelter, & M. L. Dillihunt, 2005) were used to garner parents' reports of their cultural value socialization activities at home. The scales contained written vignettes depicting persons involved in activity that reflected a specific cultural value. Ethnocultural values examined were communalism, verve, movement, and affect, and mainstream cultural values included individualism, competition, bureaucracy, and materialism. Regression analyses reveal that being an African American parent was predictive of competition and materialism scores. Race was not a significant predictor of the remaining cultural value socialization scores. Limitations to the study are discussed.

Chinese Immigrant Women Workers' Mediated Negotiations With Constraints On Their Cultural Identities

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the cultural identities of Chinese immigrant women workers in American society, that is, how the women negotiate with white supremacist cultural values that seek to interpellate them through their everyday use of media. I argue that through certain Chinese ethnic newspapers' cultural discourses, white supremacist cultural values penetrate the women's private lives and regulate their daily matters as minute as the color of their socks. Yet, the women's responses to these mediated discourses reveal that mainstream cultural values are only part of a more complex cultural quandary, which results from a number of constraints facing the women everyday: material difficulty, racial-cultural marginalization, and ethnic patriarchal control. In our group and individual interviews, my participants critically interpreted and negotiated with this cultural quandary. Their negotiation has great value, since it attests to their heightened cultural consciousness. From another perspective, however, their heightened consciousness has yet to develop into a strategic bicultural or multicultural identity, the “mestiza identity” in Anzaldua's words, as a result of the financial, racial, patriarchal, cultural, and psychological constraints in their lives. This situation leads us to reflect more on how we can help to lift these constraints, so that these women can strategically incorporate both Chinese and American cultural practices to improve their quality of life.

Different Transitions into Working Motherhood: Discourses of Asian, Hispanic, and African American Women

Little is known about how diverse women perceive, talk about, and enact their transitions into working motherhood in ways that reflect (and are shaped by) their social identities. While we do not mean to imply that these 16 Asian, Hispanic, and African American women are representative of the variety of women who self-categorize themselves in these particular identity groups, we do want to display the ways in which their discourses about their transitions are suggestive of different constructions within and across their ethnic categories. As such, their discourse conveys their struggles over and the interplay among mainstream United States and diverse cultural values in work and family considerations as well as their family structures of support.

Guide for Religious Professionals Addressing Immigrant Culture Conflict Adjustment Situations

With international immigration on the rise, the United States is becoming increasingly diverse as it admits more immigrants every year. However, in contrast to past inflows of immigrants to the U.S., many now entering the U.S. come from non-European nations, whose cultural values may significantly differ with U.S. mainstream cultural values. As a result, some immigrant cultural values are clashing with U.S. mainstream cultural values as found in U.S. social institutions. Thus religious professions and congregations who attempt to help immigrants adjust to U.S. society may need to address and cope with the dilemma that results when cultures clash. With this in mind, one important question can be raised: Is there a limit to the toleration of immigrant cultural practices? In the context of this question and after examining the problem of immigrant culture clash adjustment situations, this paper reviews and evaluates the arguments in the literature associated with two possible approaches that may begin to help guide or address culture clashes: cultural relativism or cultural universalism.

Encounters with the dominant culture: Voices of indigenous students in mainstream higher education

Students from minority and nondominant backgrounds often have negative experiences when dealing with higher education systems. In this study we explored Indigenous student's experiences in mainstream higher education. Interviews were conducted with 34 participants, systematically selected from a listing of 110 past and present students, about their experiences in mainstream higher education. Participants included people who had successfully completed programs at Curtin University of Technology, those who did not complete courses, and those who were participating in bridging courses at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies (CAS). The qualitative data were analysed for unique and recurring themes using content analyses. The data showed that subtle and overt forms of racism impact on students' experiences in mainstream education. Participants mentioned issues associated with conflicts between Indigenous and mainstream cultural values that are reflected in course content and levels of support across schools. CAS was highlighted as a context for the strengthening of cultural identities, providing emotional and tangible support, and providing a link between the community and the university. Efforts aimed at strengthening of cultural identities need to be supported, and the diversity of Aboriginal people must be acknowledged. Research and interventions challenging mainstream norms and structures that maintain social inequality are required. The challenges to affirmative action need to be located in their proper historical context.

Black High School Students' Participation in School-Sponsored Sports Activities: Effects on School Engagement and Achievement

Myths abound about the role of sports in schooling, particularly for Black student athletes. The literature affords little guidance on the specific relationship between participation in schoolsponsored sports and various outcomes for Black adolescents. Using a nationally representative sample, this study examines: (a) the effects of sports participation on various school engagement and student self evaluative variables, controlling for important background characteristics such as SES and gender; (b) the potential differential effects of sports participation for Black students; and (c) the degree to which sports participation affects Black students' academic achievement. Sports participation was found to improve the school engagement and academic self confidence of alI student athletes. Moreover, a positive intervening relationship was found between sports participation and academic achievement. INTRODUCTION As a key part of the social and cultural fabric of human life, sports permeate social realities at many levels, both globally and individually (Snyder & Spreitzer,1989). Few institutions in U.S. society are unaffected by sports (Edwards, 1973). Values reflected in athletic competition-striving for excellence, fair play, sportsmanship, hard work, and commitment to a goal-are inextricably linked to our nation's mainstream cultural values. Although much has been writter_ about the role of sports in society in a broad sense (Blanchard,1995; Lapchick,1986; Rees & Miracle,1986), the social function of professional and collegiate sports has often been the primary focus of this inquiry. The research literature affords little guidance on the specific relationship between participation in high school athletics and school-related outcomes for adolescents. Even less is known about specific benefits for African American students. To complicate matters, it is not uncommon for research on high school athletics to be combined with examination of other extracurricular activities in attempts to investigate their effects upon schooling (Crain,1981; Holland & Andre,1987; Otto,1982). The assumption that most extracurricular activities affect students similarly lacks empirical evidence. Although past research on sports and schooling has found small, positive effects for participation in athletics on various student outcome measures such as grade point averages, methodological problems have marred the results of many of these studies (Trent & Braddock, 1992). Much of the recent scholarly attention paid to the topic of sports and schooling has been theoretical and philosophical in its focus (Arnold,1997; Sadovskii & Sadovskii,1993). These studies have attempted to portray sports as valued human practices that have many analogues in other areas of social life. Further, they often examine the heuristic and moral qualities of sport, and focus on the degree to which sports reaffirm and break down social norms. Arnold contends, for example, that, like most social conventions, sport is valueneutral-that is, it can be viewed as either good or bad. On the one hand, sports teach perseverance and encourage respect for rules, fair play and teamwork. Indeed, Sadovskii and Sadovskii, in their study of the connections between sports and mathematics, assert that athletics can have a beneficial effect on students' intellectual growth, states of mind, and will power. However, these authors contend that sports can also breed rugged individualism, vanity, intense rivalries, intolerance, and a win-at-all-costs attitude. Purpose of the Study In light of the dearth of empirical research exploring the effects of participation in high school sports upon educational outcome measures for adolescents, the present study sets out to address three aspects of this topic. The first stage of the analysis explores the effects of participation in high school sports on various school engagement and student self-evaluative factors while holding constant important background characteristics such as socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. …

Reinvigorating ethnic cultural identity through mother‐tongue teaching materials in Taiwan

This research explores to what extent a mother‐tongue educational programme can reinvigorate Taiwan's ethnic cultural identity. Content of mother‐tongue teaching materials used in Taipei county for Taiwanese, Hakka and Ataylic students is analysed, on the basis of the categories established by Bos (1987). Interviews with members from each ethnic group are also conducted as a supplement. Results show that it is mainstream cultural values rather than ethnic cultural elements that predominate in the mother‐tongue textbooks. This indicates that people in Taiwan are enculturated to a mainstream Chinese culture and consequently become unaware of traditional values held by the other ethnic groups. In order to help members of ethnic groups embrace their original cultural values, future mother‐tongue teaching materials should strive to specifically emphasise the uniqueness of the cultural values held by each group