Major Cultural Groups Research Articles

Gaps in Primary Care Suicide Screening for Asian American Adults in Honolulu Hawaii

Introduction/background: Asian Americans have experienced worsened mental health outcomes and increased rates of suicidality since the COVID-19 pandemic. Suicide screening in primary care settings need to be re-evaluated to properly screen mental health needs while accounting for barriers related to cultural norms and stigma.
 Who is it for? Asians are a fast growing racial group in the United States, and a majority racial group in the state of Hawaii. Increased cultural awareness and understanding of how suicidality presents in this group would benefit primary care providers (PCPs) to improve screening and treatment. Cultural norms, stigma, attitudes towards mental health and suicidality contribute to barriers to reporting needs to providers, and increased understanding of these barriers will support providers in regions around the world where there is an increasing Asian population assimilating with the majority cultural group.
 Who did you involve? A focus group was created to ensure the study reflects the perspectives of the Asian American community. Three individuals were recruited on the criteria of identifying as Asian, report of past or present suicidality, and having ever experienced barriers to discussing suicidality with their PCPs. The group’s responses support the design of the study in gathering personal experiences with navigating care, personal and cultural stigma of mental health and suicide, and ideas on how suicide screening could be improved to meet their needs considering their culture and values.
 What did you do? This study aims to identify the barriers that Asian Americans in Hawaii face in discussing or reporting suicidality with their PCPs through qualitative interviews with Asian individuals to assess for past or present suicidality. Those who report past or present suicidality will be interviewed further to determine whether they were able to discuss the topic with their PCP and what they feel could have improved their experience of the screening process or encouraged them to share more. Taking a person-centered approach, individual experiences are collected through a qualitative format with results to be presented as testimonials to help the audience better understand the thoughts, expectations, and needs of this community when presenting with suicidality in primary care. 
 What results did you get? It is expected that a percentage of the people interviewed will report some suicidality consistent with the national average for Asian Americans in the United States. Based on the literature review, it is expected that there will be barriers to the comfort level of reporting or discussing suicidality with PCPs and identified barriers related to limitations in language access, stereotypes or cultural stigma, settings of care delivery, and concerns with discrimination. Interviews are in process and results are expected in summer 2023.
 What is the learning for the international audience? Providers in communities where the Asian population is not the majority cultural group need to consider the unique barriers that Asian patients experience in reporting suicidality to provide effective and culturally-sensitive treatment. Identifying these gaps will provide insight for primary care practices to adapt the suicide screening process in a supportive way for Asian patients. 

Culturally appropriate psychotherapy and its retention: An example from Far North Queensland (Australia)

BackgroundCulturally appropriate mental health care is essential in remote Australia. However, while associated with the development of an effective therapeutic alliance, current literature insufficiently reports the retention and psychotherapy outcomes of Indigenous adults. We aimed to describe the characteristics and retention of clients attending the Far North Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (FNS). MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study on clients who received one or more psychotherapy consultations between 1st July 2019 and 31st December 2020. Population, entrance, and treatment characteristics were described, with retention compared between the major cultural groups. Entrance characteristics comprised referral pathway and reason for presentation and were investigated as alternative predictors of client retention. FindingsThere were 186 non-Indigenous (68.3 % female) and 174 Indigenous (62.6 % female) clients, with a median number of 3.0 consultations (IQR 2.0–5.3). Indigenous status did not significantly predict retention. Referral pathway significantly predicted the number of consultations (Wald X2(6) = 17.67, p = .0071) and immediate discontinuation (Wald X2(6) = 12.94, p = .044), with self-referred clients having the highest retention. Initial presentation reason significantly predicted the number of consultations (Wald X2(5) = 13.83, p = .017), with clients with potential health hazards related to socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances having the lowest retention. Significantly more Indigenous clients presented for this reason (20.1 % vs 4.3 %). InterpretationComparable retention of Indigenous clients suggests cultural appropriateness of the psychotherapy being delivered by the FNS. Services might use the described therapeutic approach as a guide for culturally appropriate care.

Education of the Affective Ideal in Contexts of Cultural Diversity: BIBLIOMETRIC and Thematic Analysis (2006-2021)

Emotional education has grown exponentially in the last decade, although outlining an emotional regulation from parameters of majority cultural groups that leaves aside the socialization of emotion from an affective ideal- or the expected behaviour on the emotional plane that considers cultural differences and education minority group family members. This study is to analyse research about the affective ideal in contexts of cultural diversity to contribute to it understanding in education, through a review of documents published in the Web of Sciences, Scopus, and APA PsycNet databases, in the diachronic period 2006-2021. The need for an emotional education that recognizes the affective ideal of the cultures shared in a territory is discussed. It is concluded that there is an incipient investigation of cultural mediatization on the affective ideal in contexts of sociocultural diversity, and little research in the educational plane. This should be preferred in Latin America, marked by models of monocultural emotional education models, which in culturally diverse educational settings, translates into discrimination and racism.

Increasing Asian Americans’ and Pacific Islanders’ representation in research: Updates from the CARE research recruitment registry

AbstractBackgroundThe underrepresentation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research is a significant concern given that they are the fastest growing racial group in the US. The Collaborative Approach for AAPIs Research and Education (CARE) research recruitment registry is a collaboration among multiple academic and community partners aimed at creating a sustainable research recruitment source.MethodsBetween October 15, 2020 and January 17, 2022, 7,455 AAPIs enrolled in the CARE registry. The enrollment survey and outreach materials are available in 7 languages: English, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), Hindi, Korean, Samoan, and Vietnamese. With input from CARE’s community advisory board, CARE was strategically promoted with a focus on health research across the lifespan, including ADRD. Participants can enroll online, by phone, or in‐person. A protocol for CARE‐supported recruitment requests was developed and was presented at four Brain Trust Meetings to promote CARE to the research community.ResultsThe mean age of participants is 53.4 years, including 2,130 middle‐aged (50‐64 years old) and 2,373 older (≥65 years old) participants who may be targeted groups for ADRD research. Overall, 11% (n = 819) reported having ADRD (mean age = 62.8; SD = 15.2). Among the 810 caregivers (mean age = 51.2; SD = 14.6), 37% were ADRD caregivers. Most participants who had self‐reported ADRD (96.2%) and caregivers (78%) were foreign‐born. Most participants with ADRD were Vietnamese (83.6%), followed by Chinese (12.5%). The major cultural groups among ADRD caregivers were Chinese (47.7%), Vietnamese (29%), Korean (10%), Asian Indian (7.7%), and Japanese (7%). Participants from several AAPI cultural groups were smaller in numbers (e.g., Filipino, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders), however, we anticipate they will grow following targeted outreach efforts. Of the 32 recruitment referral requests, 21 were aging‐related, including 18 ADRD or ADRD‐caregiving studies. 798 CARE participants had been referred to participate in 20 requesting studies.ConclusionsCARE has successfully recruited over 7,400 participants despite limitations to conduct in‐person outreach during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The registry is poised to be a valuable recruitment source and a resource for fostering meaningful engagement of AAPIs in ADRD‐related research.

Gender-based differences in abstention and desistance from drug use among American Indian adolescents

Informed by the social control theoretical perspective, this study intends to identify the factors more likely to differentiate American Indian (AI) adolescents who never used illicit drugs (abstainers) and those who used drugs in the past but did not report recent drug usage (desisters) from their peers who reported lifetime and recent drug usage (persisters). This secondary analysis is based on data from a multi-site study conducted between 2009 and 2013. It is based on a gender-balanced sample (N = 3,380) of AI adolescents (50.50% male; Mean age = 14.75; SD = 1.69) representing the major AI languages and cultural groups in the U.S. Half of the AI adolescents reported lifetime drug use (50.40%), 37.50% never used drugs, and 12.10% stopped using drugs. When controlling for the variables included in the analysis, AI boys were significantly more likely than AI girls to desist from drug use. Both boys and girls who never used drugs tended to be younger, were less likely to have delinquent friends and a lower level of self-control, had stronger bonds to school, but lower levels of family attachment, and reported increased parental supervision. Compared to drug users, desisters associated significantly less with delinquent peers. While school attachment, self-control, and parental monitoring did not differentiate female desisters from female drug users, adolescent boys who desisted from drug use were more likely to report higher levels of school attachment and parental monitoring and their level of self-control was less likely to be low.

Language as an Identity Marker in Sumnima: A Socio-Linguistic Perspective

BP Koirala’s novel Sumnima has a special use of language made as an identity marker between the characters of two major cultural groups: Brahmins and Kirats. The researchers have studied Sumnima from different other perspectives like Freudian psychoanalysis, humanism, nationalism and existentialism among others. However, the power of language used in it and the sociolinguistic influence created on human communities through the characters has been almost ignored. The main objective of studying the novel for this article is to find what effect has been created through language by the novelist in socio-cultural phenomenon and how language generates power and social status. The critical insights of socio-linguistics have been used to analyze the primary text. The researcher has found that the main function of language is not only as a means of communicating one’s ideas and feelings in day-to-day life but it has social, cultural and even psychological functions to perform. It is a very strong socio-cultural element that does not only guide the human society but also provides its users the whole array of knowledge and perception that function as one’s identity marker in the society. It has its effect on all human identity, knowledge and other aspects of life including human unconscious, culture, practices, social status, personal attainment and exercise of power. The way it creates and exercises power can be used as a teaching pedagogy as well.

Maternal insomnia and depressive symptoms and early childhood sleep among Arab and Jewish families in Israel

ObjectivesThe present study explored the links between maternal insomnia symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, and young children’s sleep quality among two major cultural groups in Israel: Arab and Jewish. We also assessed the prevalence of maternal insomnia and depressive symptoms, in both cultural groups. MethodsMothers of 497 healthy, typically developing infants and toddlers, ranging in age from 3-36 months, participated in the study: 253 of the mothers were Arab and 244 were Jewish. Mothers completed the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. ResultsFor both cultural groups, there were significant positive associations between maternal ISI and EPDS, as well as between maternal ISI and child sleep variables (nighttime wakefulness and perceived child’s sleep problems), after controlling for child age. Significant correlations were also found between maternal EPDS and child sleep, after controlling for child age, but these correlations were not significant once controlling for ISI. Cross-cultural differences in prevalence of insomnia and depressive symptoms were found based on the clinical cutoffs of the ISI and EPDS: Arab mothers, compared to Jewish mothers, reported higher levels of insomnia and depressive symptoms, and were more likely to have scores higher than the clinical cutoff on both measures. ConclusionMaternal insomnia, depressive symptoms, and child sleep quality are significantly intertwined in both Arab and Jewish families in Israel. The findings highlight the importance of taking these three domains into consideration in research and in clinical assessments of families with young children.

Maternal sleep related cognitions and child sleep quality: a cross-cultural comparison between the Arab and Jewish societies in Israel

ObjectivesTo examine differences in maternal sleep-related cognitions and to explore the associations between those cognitions and reported child sleep quality in a sample of mothers of young children, from two major cultural groups in Israel: Arab and Jewish. MethodMothers of 497 healthy, typically developing infants and toddler ranging in age from 3-36 months, participated in the study: 253 of the mothers were Arab and 244 were Jewish. Mothers completed the Maternal Cognitions about Infant Sleep Questionnaire, and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. ResultsCross-cultural differences in maternal sleep-related cognitions were found between Arab and Jewish mothers. Arab mothers were more likely to hold sleep-related cognitions reflecting their difficulty in limiting their nighttime intervention in response to their child’s awakenings, compared to Jewish mothers who were more likely to report feelings of anger and higher levels of doubts in their parental competence in response to their child`s nocturnal awakenings. Moderation analyses demonstrated that, only for Arab mothers but not for Jewish mothers, cognitions reflecting difficulty in limiting nighttime intervention, and feelings of anger and doubts were positively associated with poorer perceived child sleep quality. ConclusionThe results suggest that the links between maternal cognitions and child sleep are culturally-specific. Moreover, the discrepancies between Arab and Jewish mothers in sleep related cognitions may reflect differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures. Maternal sleep-related cognitions seem to be an important parental aspect to consider in clinical sleep interventions of infants in the Arab society.

Unhealthy Communication: Health Care Communication Between Majority and Minority Cultural Groups

Effective communication is important in almost every aspect of life. Within the medical setting, effective communication is paramount because the consequences of miscommunication can be deadly. In health care contexts interpersonal communication is not only affected by the nature of the interaction but also the power differentials between the people participating. The purpose of this paper is to examine how health care communication is affected by power dynamics. Specifically, it will look at the communication between majority-culture doctors and minority patients in order to advance the following argument: the asymmetrical power relationship between doctors and patients is exacerbated when doctors are from majority cultural backgrounds and patients are from minority cultural backgrounds, this is problematic because communication within a medical context is important for patient satisfaction, recall of information, and outcomes. Following the introduction, the literature review explores some of the trends in medical communication literature; these trends include discussions in the literature about the variables and behaviours that affect doctor-patient communication and the critical approach of research done on intercultural medical communication. The section after the literature review establishes that power gaps exist between doctors and patients as well as majority and minority cultural groups. The following paragraphs discuss the negative effects these power differentials have on the intercultural communication between patients and doctors when it comes to patient satisfaction, information recall, and outcomes, before coming to the conclusion that without clear expressions of their communicative differences the communication between these two groups will be compromised.

Defining cultural functional groups based on perceived traits assigned to birds

The sustainable delivery of ecosystem services relies on the functional traits that underpin ecosystem service production. Organisms that share functional traits can be grouped together, simplifying questions of management and providing insights into the external drivers that impact ecosystem service provision. Linkages between the functional traits of organisms and provisioning and regulating ecosystem services are well established, but the traits that underpin the benefits derived from cultural ecosystem services are not. To this end we interviewed 401 socio–economically diverse local ecosystem users in South Africa, selected using a mixture of convenience and purposive sampling, to elucidate peoples’ perceptions of the traits associated with bird species. Subsequently, we used cluster analysis to examine whether these traits could provide a consistent typology of cultural functional groups. We identified six major cultural functional groups based on scores assigned to bird species: Visual Traits; Negative Visual and Behavioural Traits; Movement and Ecological Traits; Place Association and Abundance Indicators; Common Traits; and Behavioural Traits. Significantly higher scores were assigned to birds with interesting movement and ecology, whereas bird species with perceived negative visual or behavioural traits scored poorly. We additionally show that there are potential synergies between positively perceived cultural functions and ecological functions. Grounding cultural functional traits in a broader typology of functional groups makes components of ecological complexity more interpretable and may be used to predict how the loss of functional traits within a system will impact cultural benefits experienced by local ecosystem users.

Populist multiculturalism: Are there majority cultural rights?

Theories of multiculturalism explore whether minority cultural groups have rights and claims that limit the nation-building aims of the modern state and that protect a space in which minorities can express, enjoy and preserve their own distinctive cultures. What are the implications of these theories for majority cultures? The concepts, terminology, and arguments made by multicultural theorists in favour of minority rights often seem relevant and applicable to the situations of national majorities. The major arguments associated with multiculturalism do not directly hinge on whether a particular group is in the minority or the majority and thus all seem potentially applicable to the situations of majority cultural groups. The possibility that liberal multicultural arguments for minority rights offer a language for justifying the rights of majority cultures has not gone unnoticed by theorists on the populist right, including those on the far right. The appropriation of liberal theories of multiculturalism by thinkers concerned to defend the prerogatives of traditional White, Christian cultures in Europe and America is a well-documented phenomenon. It is tempting to dismiss these ‘majority rights’ arguments as distortions of the nuanced, subtle views of liberal multiculturalists. In this article, I pursue a different strategy. I try to take seriously the idea that there are majority cultural rights and to explore their basis. This allows us to say more clearly what the limits of those rights are. I shall argue that majorities do have certain rights and permissions with respect to the expression and defence of their culture. But these rights and permissions are grounded in very specific social circumstances and normative considerations and thus face very significant limits.

Contemporary Psychotherapy and Cultural Adaptations

As our understanding of the human mind, idioms of human distress and mental health has improved, it has become apparent that culture has an impact on all aspects of our lives, including mental illness. Systems of care across the globe need to adapt and adjust delivery of care in order to accommodate the impact of globalisation and therefore be able to deliver person-centred care. A key aspect of delivering personalised care is the development and delivery of culturally adapted interventions that benefit cultural minority groups in developed countries and the majority cultural groups in developing countries. The journey of acknowledging the need for culturally relevant services has begun but we are a long way from delivering the personalised care that people deserve. This paper makes a case for action in this important area.

Sexismo hostil y benevolente en adolescentes. Una aproximación étnico-cultural

En la sociedad actual, y a pesar de los avances realizados en materia de género, el sexismo es una realidad que se repite cada día. Sin embargo, no todas las formas de sexismo son iguales, por lo que muchas veces pueden pasar desapercibidas. Así, el objetivo de esta investigación es conocer el grado de sexismo hostil (S.H.) y benevolente (S.B.) que presentan los adolescentes con diversidad étnico-cultural, teniendo en cuenta las variables de sexo, curso y grupo cultural. Participaron un total de 1027 estudiantes de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (549 chicos y 478 chicas) con edades comprendidas entre los 12 y 19 años. Para ello, se utilizó el Inventario de sexismo ambivalente (ISA). Los resultados obtenidos por sexos demuestran significatividad en cuanto al S.B.; por cursos las diferencias son evidentes entre los dos primeros cursos y 4º de la ESO; en grupos culturales es axiomático para ambos sexismos, siendo la población gitana la que refleja una diferencia explicita frente al grupo cultural mayoritario (payo) y al inmigrante.

Effects of Culture on Service Encounters & Customers’ Satisfaction

This paper refers to an important discussion of effects of culture on customer satisfaction keeping in view the service encounters. For many researchers and marketers, customer satisfaction has become a critical success factor and carries an important aspect of business process. Culture is believed to be an important social influence which has significant impact on consumers and the way they behave. Authors assert that culture is a prominent part of social interactions while customers’ involvement with others in business. Customers shape up their perception on service quality primarily during the service encounters because of embedded features of services as intangible and inseparable. Using the content analysis technique and view of literature, Geert Hofstede’s Model for cultural differences offers a practical roadmap. However, for a firm operation in cross cultural environment, a deep down further analysis of other local cultural dimensions are helpful for better customer interaction. Today’s service firms should be aware of the importance of adapting services to the new culture, while maintaining the core service quality standard. Especially for high intangible and high contact services, good employee-customer interactions are key, and a better understanding of how to adapt service delivery behavior to the values of major cultural groups are highly beneficial to service firms.

Caste Politics and State Integration: a Case Study of Mysore State

Abstract The subject of unification is as vibrant as national movement even after 58 years of a fractured verdict. More than to achieve a physical conjugation it was an attempt for cultural fusion. The aspiration for linguistic unification was a part of the national discourse. The movement, which began with mystic originations, later on turned out to become communal. Political changes during 1799 A.D. and 1857 A.D. changed the fortunes of Mysore state and ultimately led to its disintegration and became the reason for this movement. The concept of unification is akin to the spirit of nationalism, against the background of colonial regime assigning parts of land to different administrative units without taking into consideration the historical or cultural aspects of that place. Kannadigas marooned in multi lingual states experient an orphaned situation got aroused with the turn of nineteenth century. The problem precipitated by the company was diluted by British when they introduced English education. Though the positive aspect like emergence of middle class is pragmatic, rise of communalism on the other hand is not idealistic. This research paper is designed to examine the polarization of castes during unification movement of Mysore State (Presently called as State of Karnataka, since 1973, which was termed Mysore when integrated) which came into being in 1956 A.D. Most of the previous studies concentrate on two aspects viz ideological discourse and organizational strategies adopted to gain Unification. The course of the unifi cation movement and role of Congress party dominates such studies while some of them concentrate on the leaders of the movement. Other studies are ethnographical in nature. ‘Community Dominance and Political Modernisation: The Lingayats’ written by Shankaragouda Hanamantagouda Patil is a classic example. Mention may be made here of an recent attempt by Harish Ramaswamy in his ‘Karnataka Government and Politics’ which has covered almost all aspects of emergence of Karnataka as a state but communal politics during unification movement has found no place. ‘Rethinking State Politics in India: Regions within Regions’ is an edited book by Ashutosh Kumar which has articles on ‘Castes and Politics of Marginality’ where a reference is made to caste associations and identity politics of Lingayats, but the area of study is neighboring Maharashtra and not Karnataka. Though it contains two articles on Karnataka its subject matter doesn’t pertain to this topic. One more important effort is by ‘Imagining Unimaginable Communities: Political and Social Discourse in Modern Karnataka’ where the author Raghavendra Rao thinks Karnataka and India as two unimaginable communities and discuss primarily the founding moments of negotiation between the discourses of Indian nationalism and Kannada linguistic nationalism. It is more an intellectual history and throws light on nationalism in a colonial context. Mostly studies concentrate on either the course or the leaders of the movement. Invariably congress as an organization finds place in all studies. But the blemish of such studies is a lesser concentration on activities of major socio cultural groups. The role of socio cultural groups assumes importance because of the milieu at the beginning of 20th century which annunciated a wave of social changes in the state. It is a known fact that the movement for linguistic state was successful in bringing a political integration of five separate sub regions but failed to unite people culturally. This concept of unification which is akin to the spirit of nationalism got expressed at the regional level in the sense of respect for once own culture, language and people. In case of Karnataka this expression had political overtones too which is expressed by some who fought for it (Srinivas & Narayan, 1946 ). Most of the early leaders of unification movement (and for that matter even movement for independence too can be cited here) belonged to one particular caste, and with passing of time has led to the notion of domination of that caste over the movement. This paper tries to give justice in a limited way by giving legitimate and adequate recognition for those castes which deserves it and do away with misconceptions. Two concepts political modernization and social mobility are used. The later derives its existence from the former in this case. The data used here is primarily gained from news papers and secondary sources like books and interviews given by participants. No hypothesis is tested nor any theory is developed in this attempt but historical materials are examined in the light of modernity. The key problem discussed here is emergence of communal politics and the role of social groups in unification. Biases of regionalism, caste and class have been overcome by rational thinking.

The importance of Australian national identity to a sense of belonging of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese cultural groups in regional Australia

This study explored the primacy of importance of Australian national identity as underpinning belongingness of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese cultural groups. A mixed-method approach comprised focus groups and interviews was used. Australian national identity did not hold primacy of importance to a sense of belonging in either group, however family identities were of primary importance to both, together with cultural identity of the Chinese. Anglo-Celtic's felt culturally disassociated, whereas Chinese sought majority acceptance through cultural promotion, and bicultural identification. Findings call for further research of Australian national identity of the majority and other minority cultural groups.

Perspectives on Diversity in the Military: A Comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands

In a comparative way, this article analyses the dimensions of cultural diversity in the military context of Belgium and the Netherlands, and describes how these organizations may be comparable or differ in their acceptance towards cultural diversity. To do this, we start by stressing the importance of dealing with cultural diversity in both the Belgian and Dutch military, and by depicting the main cultural traits of the two countries regarding major cultural groups. Multicultural attitudes, Muslim attitudes and Acculturation orientations are the main theoretical concepts we used in this research to elaborate ‘the perspectives on cultural diversity’ in the Belgian and Dutch military. We compared the results of a similar quantitative survey conducted in the Belgian and Dutch military. We discuss how cultural diversity is perceived among both organizations and the dimensions on which the subgroups tend to differentiate themselves.

The experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse family caregivers in utilising dementia services in Australia

BackgroundOlder people from culturally and linguistically diverse groups are underrepresented in residential aged care but overrepresented in community aged care in Australia. However, little is known about culturally and linguistically diverse family caregivers in utilising dementia services in Australia because previous studies mainly focused on the majority cultural group. Experiences of caregivers from culturally and linguistically diverse groups who are eligible to utilise dementia services in Australia are needed in order to optimize the utilisation of dementia services for these caregivers.MethodsThe aim of the study was to explore the experiences of family caregivers from Chinese, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese groups in utilising dementia services. Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics was used to interpret the experiences of the participants. Focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews were used to collect data. Data collection was conducted over a six month period in 2011. In total, 46 family caregivers who were caring for 39 persons with dementia participated.ResultsFour themes were revealed: (1) negotiating services for the person with dementia; (2) the impact of acculturation on service utilisation; (3) the characteristics of satisfactory services; and (4) negative experiences in utilising services. The present study revealed that the participation of caregivers from culturally and linguistically diverse groups in planning and managing dementia services ranged markedly from limited participation to full participation.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that caregivers from culturally and linguistically diverse groups need to be fully prepared so they can participate in the utilisation of dementia services available to them in Australia.

Women in Management and Leadership in the Olympic Movement in Muslim Majority Countries: An Empirical Evaluation of Huntington's Clash of Civilisations Typology

This article seeks to evaluate whether there are differences between Samuel Huntington's ‘civilisational groups' of countries in terms of women's leadership of Olympic organisations. This article draws on two questionnaire surveys which evaluate the electoral practices and outcomes of Olympic bodies (i.e. National Olympic Committees and International Federations) relating to gender equity and governance, with a specific intention to compare the role of women in the leadership of such bodies between Islamic societies and non-Islamic contexts. The vehicle for analysing the data employs Huntington's well-known but controversial civilisational typology which identifies nine major cultural civilisational groups (including Western and Islamic states). This allows the authors to explore the extent to which differences may exist between Western and Islamic societies and others, with regard to women's roles in leadership and governance of Olympic bodies. Differences between Muslim, and other religious groupings on the one hand and secular liberal democratic groupings on the other, are often assumed to reflect the distinction between tradition and modernity, and sort is seen in the literature in large part as a product of modernity. However, results of the statistical analysis of women's roles in senior positions in NOCs in particular, do not reflect Western ‘superiority’ in terms of women's representation. This article thus casts doubt on the appropriateness of considering the Islamic norm as traditional, and the Western norm as modern.

African Natural/Cultural Communication Media: A Survey of Meanings and Usage at Traditional Ceremonies

Culture has very broad meaning. Culture has been defined as the total way of life commonly followed by the members of society; culture is also social legacy , tradition, which an individual acquires from his group. The study attempts to examine the universal meanings of eight selected African natural communication media: missing beads, cockcrow, female hairstyles, kolanuts, masquerades, moon, talking drum/trumpet, and tribal marks, exploring through survey method, the meaning of these African media items; their cultural significance and usage at ceremonies in Africa. The universal meanings of the words support the fact that each word has both biblical and cultural origins particularly in Africa. Data collected from Babcock University academic and non-academic staff from the three Nigerian major cultural groups, within the age range of 36 and 50 years and above reveal that items significance and are a must have for African ceremonies ranging from chieftaincy, naming, marriage and cultural festivals such as Egungun and New Yam festivals. Ultimately this study would contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for re-awakening the significance of these and many more natural African communication media among the youths at home and in the Diaspora.