Culture-specific Aspects Research Articles

Causing trouble and being transmissible: COVID-19 survivors' experiences of stigma and discrimination in South Korea.

The stigma associated with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is relatively neglected in policies for handling the disease. Stigmatization occurs only within specific social contexts in local societies. This study aims to examine COVID-19 survivors' experiences of social stigma and discrimination in South Korea in the first 2 years of the pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Of 52 participants, 45 reported that they had to cope with stigma and discrimination in their intimate social relationships, workplaces, and children's schools, ranging from subtle actions to job loss. Sexual minorities who were involved in mass disease transmission in the early part of the pandemic experienced a higher level of stigmatization. The stigmatization dealt with in this study was related to two themes: survivors' sense of causing trouble and possibility of transmission. By intertwining this stigma with the experiences of public health measures through the voices of survivors, this study reveals the local context of East Asia in terms of culture-specific aspects of COVID-19-related stigma.

Culture meets commitment: how organizational culture influences affective commitment

PurposeOrganizational culture has been identified as an important factor in increased employee commitment. Particularly during a shortage of skilled workers, commitment is a meaningful indicator of higher loyalty and retention. However, limited research has studied the relationship between organizational culture and commitment from a global perspective. Most research focuses on specific aspects of culture and examines the aspects' effects on commitment separately. The author's objective is to identify influential organizational culture's dimensions and assess dimensions' relationship to commitment holistically.Design/methodology/approachFor this purpose, the author analyzed a data set with 241,648 participants from 9 industries in Germany. The survey captures individual attitudes toward certain aspects of organizational culture and assesses workers' commitment to their organizations.FindingsThe results of a linear regression show that all cultural dimensions considered, namely transformational leadership behavior, team cohesion, compensation, fairness and caring attitude, if well-developed, positively and significantly influence organizational commitment. Interestingly, team cohesion has the greatest effect on commitment, followed by transformational leadership behavior, compensation, caring attitude and fairness.Originality/valueThis paper aims to examine the relationship between organizational culture and commitment holistically, thereby revealing which aspects of corporate culture are particularly important for increasing workers' commitment.

Quality of Life and Sense of Coherence in Cancer Patients of German, Turkish and Polish Origin-A Cross-Sectional Study.

Due to a variety of symptoms and side-effects of cancer treatment, quality of life can be considerably impaired in cancer patients. Especially, cancer patients with a migration background seem to be at risk. The objective of our study is to investigate the quality of life and sense of coherence in adult cancer patients of German, Turkish and Polish origin. We assessed sociodemographic, migration-specific and cancer-related parameters. Quality of life was measured via the EORTC QLQ-C30, sense of coherence was measured with the SOC-13. We included 227 patients in the study (59.5% native Germans, 40.5% with migration background). Native Germans did not differ in quality of life compared to all migrants. However, more nausea and vomiting (NV) and higher appetite loss (AP) was found in Turkish migrants compared to Polish migrants and native Germans. For sense of coherence, we observed significantly higher scores for native Germans compared to all migrants. Turkish migrants had significantly lower scores compared to native Germans. A Turkish migration background seems to play an important role in the perception of symptoms, especially of nausea and vomiting and appetite loss. Culture-specific aspects should be considered in cancer care.

Heterosexual Script in Italian Young Adults: Measurement Across Genders

IntroductionThe Heterosexual script has not yet received extensive scientific attention in, one of the countries in which gender stereotypes are particularly prominent. The purpose of this study was to examine adherence to sexual scripts among Italian young adults by first evaluating the dimensionality, psychometric properties, and gender invariance of the Italian version of the Heterosexual Script Scale (HSS), a 22-item self-report questionnaire measuring endorsement of sexual scripts in the context of heterosexual relationships.MethodA community sample of 2781 women and men (F = 50.5%) was recruited in 2021 (mean age = 22.32, SD = 3.53 years, age range: 18–35 years). Participants completed the Italian version of the HSS, measures of ambivalent sexism, and a socio-demographic questionnaire.ResultsExploratory factor analysis revealed that, after deletion of four items (items 4, 7, 16, 22), four factors should be extracted: Courtship Strategies, Women Depend on Men, Women’s Self-Sacrifice, and Sex Defines Masculinity; Women Set Sexual Limits. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 18-item four-factor structure had a good fit (RMSEA [90% CI] = .06 [.06; .07]; CFI = .95; SRMR = .05). Good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas for the four factors ranged from .65 to .72), construct validity, and metric invariance across genders were demonstrated.ConclusionOverall, findings indicate that the HSS can be used to reliably assess the endorsement of gendered sexual scripts among young Italian women and men. Some specific cultural aspects emerged.Policy ImplicationsResearchers and sexual health practitioners should consider context-specific sexual scripts when designing research and intervention protocols. Sex education curricula could be improved by integrating modules aimed at promoting egalitarian gender scripts.

Triggers of Workplace Violence in Emergency Departments: A Qualitative Study

Background: Workplace violence has become an alarming phenomenon facing healthcare systems worldwide. Emergency nurses were the most victimized from workplace violence incidents. There is a crucial need for conducting qualitative research addressing the unique contextual factors associated with workplace violence against emergency nurses in Jordan.Purpose: This study aimed to explore circumstances that Jordanian emergency nurses, who were victims of workplace violence from clients and/or their relatives, perceive as provocative for workplace violence events.Methods: A qualitative phenomenological method was used. Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit participants (n=15), who were victims of workplace violence, and working in eight emergency departments distributed over all regions of Jordan. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. All interviews were recorded and transcribed into Arabic. The Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to manually analyse the gathered data. Member checking, prolonged engagement with data, stepwise replication, and personal journaling were used to enhance the rigor of the study.Results: Findings of this study resulted in four superordinate themes that represents the main individual, social, and organisational factors contributing to workplace violence in Jordanian emergency departments. These themes include aggressors’ misconceptions and misbehaviours with four subordinate themes, inappropriate Jordanian social customs with two subordinate themes, organisational circumstances of emergency department with two subordinate themes, and escalator nurses with three subordinate themes.Conclusion: This study highlighted how specific social, cultural, legal, and administrative aspects of Jordanian society were inappropriately employed so as to lead to spread of the workplace violence. This study has provided insight into the need for change at personal level of emergency nurses, social level of Jordanian public, and organizational level of hospital administration and environment in order to mitigate workplace violence incidence in emergency departments.

Cultural Expression of Anxiety Symptoms in Kannada Language: A Qualitative Study.

In anxiety disorders, culture is important in symptom presentation and help-seeking. Most tools for anxiety disorders are not validated in India and thus might not capture culture-specific aspects of anxiety. This study aims to identify and generate culturally specific terms to describe symptoms of anxiety as part of the development of the Kannada version of the Panic and Anxiety National Indian Questionnaire (PANIQ). The PANIQ is a tool under development to identify anxiety and panic in Indian settings. This study used qualitative methods like focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) to identify and generate items related to anxiety and panic in Kannada from stakeholders like individuals with anxiety disorders, their caregivers, healthcare workers, and mental health professionals who treat individuals with anxiety and panic disorders. Five FGDs (n = 28), one triad (n = 3), and 34 IDIs (n = 34) were conducted. The mean age of the participants was 38.9 (standard deviation: 12.28) years; 57.1% were from rural areas. We generated 615 Kannada items. These were classified into 21 domains and facets. Items in domains like Somatic symptoms, Fear, and Impairment in day-to-day life were higher than those noted in existing tools for anxiety that focus more on cognitive symptoms of anxiety. This study generated culturally specific items of anxiety through a qualitative process of tool development incorporating subjective experiences of persons with anxiety disorders and other stakeholders. This is among the first steps toward the development of PANIQ.

A compass but not a road map: Diversity considerations with the AFCC Guidelines on Parenting Plan Evaluations

AbstractThe 2022 Guidelines for Parenting Plan Evaluations in Family Law Cases were developed taking into account membership feedback which identified guidance around issues of Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) as a high priority. The current Guidelines have integrated issues of diversity in many areas of the document, by adding a section on guiding principles and values, expanding and clarifying evaluator education and training, and embedding cultural and diversity considerations in many sections of the document. The Guidelines do not provide more direct instruction or education on specific topics or aspects of culture and diversity.

Application of agile management methods in companies operating in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

The current pandemic situation has forced organisations to adapt quickly and change processes through digital transformation. Businesses began to interact with consumers online and generally had to adjust existing processes and develop or improve the products and services offered. The agile transformation as part of Industry 4.0 started several years ago and in the current situation can be considered the best starting point for ongoing changes. The agile approach is mostly used in the field of IT, where it has penetrated mainly into software solutions and project management. Later, this concept began to penetrate deeper into several areas of the organisation, today we can talk about the company-wide transformation into an agile platform. While agility was initially perceived as a benefit, especially for software solutions, today it helps in successful business mainly by penetrating the organisational culture in which organisations define the desired values, ideas and procedures of employee behaviour in the organisation and is able to implement agile management principles. In the presented article, we present the results of research focussed on the analysis of the current state of application of agile management methods in companies operating in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to identify the approach to building an agile culture as a basic prerequisite for their effective implementation. The contribution of this article to agile management research is to identify specific aspects of agile culture that support agile management functioning. The size of the examined sample and the comparison of the results between the group of companies in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic provide findings with a high degree of reliability.

Social media and data privacy in education: an international comparative study of perceptions among pre-service teachers

Social media platforms offer many educational possibilities, but they also create challenges associated with their business models. One increasingly relevant challenge, especially in the context of teacher education and schools, is personal data privacy. When considering social media and data privacy in education, taking into account culture-specific aspects in different countries, such as legal frameworks, user attitudes, and cultural values, is uncommon. This cross-sectional study explores the perceptions of pre-service teachers (N = 225) from universities in four countries (Germany, New Zealand, Spain, and the USA) concerning educational and professional social media use, as well as data privacy awareness and practices. Data were collected via a survey and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicate that along with common belief in social media’s educational potential, data privacy concerns were present, knowledge related to data privacy was lacking, and differences existed between participants from the different universities. We discuss these results in relation to legal frameworks, user attitudes, and cultural values concerning social media data privacy, and consider implications for research, practice, and policy.

Investigating the Links Between Performers' Self-Compassion, Mental Toughness and Their Social Environment: A Semi-Systematic Review.

Being mentally tough while evaluating oneself in a compassionate way is still a difficult path for performers. Self-compassion, characterized by the ability to be kind to oneself, to see one’s experiences as part of the larger human experience and have a balanced awareness to one’s emotions and thoughts, was recently studied as a stepping stone to performance optimization and personal development. Despite a mistrust of this concept in the sports world, various studies show its benefits within athletes. A major question remains the environment that fosters or hinders the development of self-compassion: when role models extend compassionate attitudes, does it allow performers to respond in more self-compassionate ways? The relationship between self-compassion, mental toughness, and social environment is still unclear and is an important direction for future research within performers. This semi-systematic literature review aims at proposing an overview of the state of the art regarding self-compassion, mental toughness, and the influence of performer’s, and social environments. Sixteen studies were retrieved. We conclude that the number of multi-day intervention programs and longitudinal studies should be increased. The studies should also consider assessing the specific aspects of performance culture and settings. In addition, overall performance-specific measures could be developed to assess general levels of self-compassion. The development of a theoretical framework explaining how self-compassion affects a performer, the role of their entourage and its link to other psychological resources, such as mental toughness, could help to better understand this concept.

Global out-of-home childcare and world culture

The focus of this article is the link between the modern world culture and national public policy commitments. Drawing on world society theory and using data for 193 countries between 1990 and 2020—1411 documents in total—we analyze the global pattern of policy commitments to out-of-home childcare deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization refers to the policy of moving children from institutional residential care (e.g. orphanages) to family-based and family-like care in the community. Using the reports by state parties of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we find that 85 percent of countries make at least some commitment to deinstitutionalization. At the same time, the data reveal significant variation in the interpretation of deinstitutionalization. We also find that similar policy commitments are underpinned by diverse motives that reflect different normative frames within the dominant world culture—human rights, scientization, and cost efficiency. This diversity does not fit the standard world society concepts of convergence, resistance, or decoupling. We argue that countries can selectively adopt specific aspects of world culture, with important policy implications.

International entrepreneurial SMEs in the muslim world: The role of religion in the GCC countries

Recent studies examining the internationalisation of SMEs in emerging economies have observed that religion affects international market entry, which suggests that specific cultural aspects, such as religion, have not hitherto received enough attention. Hence, this study examines a theme that has seemingly escaped the research agenda: how does religion affect SMEs’ internationalisation? The study draws empirical evidence from 10 manufacturing SMEs located in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Through an embedded approach to case study research, the study queries the role of religion in the development of intra-Muslim internationalisation and contributes to the scant literature that examines the impact of Islamic values on international business activities. The findings show three dimensions of Islamic entrepreneurship, viz. regional rather than international networking orientation, risk aversion and proactiveness.

Poetics of Titles: Some Observations on Literary Translations from Russian into Italian

The present article is devoted to the poetics of literary titles and their manifold meanings and functions in literary works. Due to their formal, stylistic and/or semantic characteristics, titles represent one of the most challenging and controversial elements in literary translations. In fact, they often refer to specific cultural aspects, idiomatic expressions or realia coming from the original linguistic context, which are not so easy to reproduce in translation with the same effects. Moreover, in some cases, editors or publishers prefer to propose specific titles slightly or consistently different from the originals for “marketing” strategies. Starting from Gerard Genette’s (1930-2018) seminal study on the topic, we will focus on some titles of Italian translations of Russian literary works of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, aiming to analyse the reasons underlying different choices. We will also propose reflections on the complex intertextual and cross-cultural dynamics connected to literary titles’ history and their translation processes.

Impact of Semantic Loss in the Holy Quran with Reference to Yusuf Ali's and Pickthall's Translations of Al-Nur Surah

This study aimed to identify the impact of semantic loss in Ali's and Pickthall's translations by analyzing 15 cultural specific terms (CSTs) from Al-Nur Surah in the Holy Quran. It also investigated the causes behind this loss. The study also attempted to investigate to what extent Ali and Pickthall had succeeded in achieving cultural equivalence in translating the 15 CSTs. For the purpose of the study, the comparative textual analysis method was used as the main data instrument to answer the research questions. Results showed that there are some causes for semantic loss in Ali's and Pickthall's translations. For example, semantic loss in Ali’s translation accounts for 40%, while Pickthall’s semantic loss accounts for 53.33%. In addition, results of the study showed some causes for semantic loss in Ali’s and Pickthall’s translations including culturally bound terms, and lack of knowledge of Arabic metaphorical expressions. The researchers recommended that translators of the Holy Quran should be knowledgeable of the Quranic terms since the Holy Quran is a genre which has specific beliefs, manners and cultural aspects. In addition, translators should depend on exegesis books to know the reasons of revelation.

Applying the Dual Filial Piety Model in the United States: A Comparison of Filial Piety Between Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans.

The definition and measurement of filial piety in existing research primarily focuses on the narrow conceptualizations of Asian filial piety, which would inflate cultural differences and undermine cultural universals in how people approach caring for their elderly parents. Employing the Dual Filial Piety Model (DFPM), this study aimed to examine the relationship between filial piety and attitude toward caring for elderly parents beyond the Asian context. In our study (N = 276), we found that reciprocal filial piety (RFP) does not differ across cultures while authoritarian filial piety (AFP) does. We also found that collectivism, rather than ethnicity, predicted RFP and AFP, which in turn predicted positive attitude toward caring for elderly parents. Our work demonstrates the cross-cultural applicability of the DFPM and highlights the universal and culture-specific aspects of filial piety.

Gender Role Attitudes and Parents’ Intention to Continue Childbearing in Turkey

It is increasingly acknowledged that gender (in-) equality is one of the most significant factors underlying change in fertility behavior. Researchers have extensively studied the link between gender (in-) equality and fertility decision-making in various settings. However, most of these studies have focused on industrialized countries in North America, Europe, and East Asia, while very few examine this relationship in a non-western, developing country context. Employing individual-level survey data, this paper examines the relationship between parents’ gender role attitudes and their fertility intentions for an additional child in urban Turkey, surveyed in 2014. The findings of this study show that parents’ attitudes toward gender roles were not an important predictor of fertility decision-making in Turkey. This study suggests that the lack of significant findings supporting the expected association may be related to the measurement of gender role attitudes, suggesting a need to construct a measure that addresses culture-specific aspects of gender roles. This study contributes to the literature by providing a new data point, Turkey, and bringing a comparative perspective to the existing research.

Understanding Wildlife Crime from Eco-Existential and African Perspectives: A Psycho-Philosophical Investigation.

Wildlife crime has huge consequences regarding global environmental changes to animals, plants and the entire ecosystem. Combatting wildlife crime effectively requires a deep understanding of human–wildlife interactions and an analysis of the influencing factors. Conservation and green criminology are important in reducing wildlife crime, protecting wildlife and the ecosystem and informing policy-makers about best practices and strategies. However, the past years have shown that wildlife crime is not easy to combat and it is argued in this article that there are underlying existential “givens” and culture-specific aspects that need to be investigated to understand why wildlife crime is still on the rise. This theoretical article explores (eco-)existential perspectives, Greening’s four givens and selected African philosophical concepts, aiming to understand the complexities behind the prevalence of wildlife crime within global and African contexts.

Paternal Influence on the Developmental Pathways of Maternal Parenting Stress, Home Learning Stimulation, and Children’s Social Skills in the U.S. and Korea: A Moderated Mediation Model1

To increase the specificity in paternal influence as the importance caregiving context on mothers and children, we aimed to test 1) whether the mediation effect of maternal parenting stress at age 3 on children’s social skills at age 9 via home learning stimulation at age 5 was significant; 2) whether this mediation effect varied according to paternal involvement and depression at age 3; and 3) whether this proposed path was culturally generalizable. To examine causal pathways and compare differences between two cultures, we analyzed the proposed moderated mediation models using nationally representative longitudinal data from the U.S. (the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study) and Korea (the Panel Study on Korean Children) using SPSS 25 and PROCESS. We found that in both countries, higher maternal parenting stress at age 3 hindered the development of school-aged children’s social skills through lower levels of home-learning stimulation. We also found cultural differences: paternal involvement significantly buffered the negative effects of maternal parenting stress in Korea, while paternal mental health (i.e., non-depression) played that buffering role in the U.S. This study illustrates both the cross-cultural generalizability and culture-specific aspects of family processes, then discusses some theoretical implications and potential practices that would better support families in promoting their children’s social development.

The influence of internalized heterosexism on life satisfaction: comparing sexual minority women in Belgium and Turkey

To date, the majority of research studying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) health has been conducted in Westernized, predominantly individualistic countries. Building on minority stress theory and models of LGBTQ health, we explored how sexual orientation and nationality moderated the association between internalized heterosexism and life satisfaction for lesbian and bisexual (LB) women living in two countries (Turkey and Belgium) with contrasting social contexts. The results of two-way MANOVA, in a sample of 339 Turkish and 220 Belgian LB women, revealed main effects but no interaction effects. LB women in Belgium reported less internalized heterosexism and more life satisfaction than LB women in Turkey. The results of moderation analyses indicated no moderation effect, however internalized heterosexism and country emerged as the best predictors of life satisfaction. Findings were interpreted with a focus on how culture-specific aspects contribute to life satisfaction among LB women. Our findings suggest mental health professionals working with LB women need to tailor therapeutic interventions to reflect the social context connected to their patients’ nationality, in order to effectively address internalized heterosexism, improve life satisfaction, and promote self- and social advocacy. Cultural values, such as adherence to collectivistic or individualistic norms, should be included as variables in future research examining determinants of LGBTQ health.

Conceptualizing Suicidal Ideation Among Firefighters Through the Lens of an Integrated Theoretical Model.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and is a major concern among professional American firefighters, with rates for suicidal ideation in firefighters two times higher than rates in the general population. The Neuman systems model integrated with the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide provides a better understanding of the specific occupational and cultural aspects of firefighting that lead to a greater risk for suicidal ideation. This model provides an innovative lens that can inform the development and the implementation of interventions aimed at preventing suicidal ideation among firefighters.