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Personal freedom has known to be positively associated with well‐being. As socioeconomic conditions advanced in modern societies, the pursuit of personal freedom has also gradually increased. This trend further coincides with the decline in marriage and fertility rates. This implies that the pursuit of personal freedom could be related to lower involvement with the family. The current study examined how personal freedom would be related to family compositions and well‐being across different socioeconomic conditions using a large‐scale data set. The results indicated that personal freedom was the most consistent predictor of well‐being. Marriage‐like relationships were also positively related to well‐being. However, the relationship between the number of children and well‐being was mostly insignificant except for the most recent data showing a positive relationship. Results also indicated that personal freedom did not lead to singlehood but was negatively related to the number of children. Socioeconomic conditions of countries and different time periods moderated these relationships. The influences of different socioeconomic conditions and the time period were discussed further in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There remains an obvious gap in the acculturation literature, which relates to cultural change associated with the majority/dominant group. This paper explores how majority members react to a perceived expectation from minority members that majority members should undergo cultural change. A study was conducted exploring how majority members' perceptions of a demand by minority members that the majority should adopt the minority culture affects the majority members' preferences for minority acculturation, and whether effects are mediated by perceptions of symbolic threat. Two hundred sixty‐six participants who self‐reported being white British completed an online survey. A model was hypothesized whereby a perception that minority members demand that the majority takes on the minority culture predicted perceived symbolic threat, which was in turn negatively associated with a desire that minority members should maintain the minority culture, and positively with a desire that minority members should adopt the majority culture. Results supported the hypothesized model, with all individual paths and indirect effects significant in the hypothesized directions. Symbolic threat mediated the effect of perceived demand for minority culture adoption on majority preferences for minority acculturation. Findings are discussed in relation to implications for intergroup relations in culturally plural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify several of the mismatches at play when social workers encounter families belonging to diverse groups and assess risk, well‐being and protection for children. Two minority groups in Israel were studied: the Ultra‐Orthodox Jewish community and Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia. A context‐informed approach was adopted to explore the subjective perceptions and constructions of "risk," "well‐being," and "protection" among parents of the two communities (N = 60) and the social workers who work with them (N = 50). The social workers included some who belong to the minority groups they serve and others who are from the majority group. The analysis of the interviews yielded two main themes: (a) an understanding of the discrepancies in parents' and professionals' perceptions and constructions of "risk" and "protection" for children as the product of differences in the values, norms and contexts of these two groups; and (b) the implications of these discrepancies for the relationship between professionals/social service agencies and parents who are potential service users. Our findings call upon professionals to re‐visit "universals" in the "risk" discourse while taking into account the realms of culture, ethnicity, religiosity, spirituality and community life when assessing risk and treating children and families of minority communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological degradation threatens human survival, increasing the need to understand factors related to pro‐environmental attitudes and worldviews. In a globalising world, new paradigms arise as central to social sciences, including the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the multicultural identities of individuals raised between the cultures, third culture kids (TCKs). NEP is an ecocentric perspective that stresses the interdependence between nature and humans, opposite to anthropocentrism. TCKs' exposure to cultural diversity during developmental years might support global issues engagement and ecocentric worldviews. The present study focused on non‐Western TCKs (N = 399; mean age 21 years), aiming to explore whether multicultural identity configurations (integration, categorisation, compartmentalisation), values dimensions (self‐transcendence, openness and conservation) and global mindset predicted ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews. The results demonstrated that TCKs were ecocentrically inclined. The path model revealed that ecocentrism could be directly positively predicted by integrated multicultural identity, self‐transcendence and a global mindset. Anthropocentrism was predicted by multicultural identity categorisation and conservation values. Also, values of self‐transcendence and openness buffered the impact of compartmentalisation and categorisation on ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. This study set innovative directions in multiculturism and environmentalism discourse through understanding a multicultural identity's relationships with pro‐environmental attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural differences in visual perceptual learning (VPL) could be attributed to differences in the way that people from individualistic and collectivistic cultures preferentially attend to local objects (analytic) or global contexts (holistic). Indeed, individuals from different cultural backgrounds can adopt distinct processing styles and learn to differentially construct meaning from the environment. Therefore, the present work investigates if cross‐cultural differences in VPL can vary as a function of holistic processing. A shape discrimination task was used to investigate whether the individualistic versus collectivistic backgrounds of individuals affected the detection of global shapes embedded in cluttered backgrounds. Seventy‐seven participants—including Asian (collectivistic background) and European (individualistic background) students—were trained to discriminate between radial and concentric patterns. Singelis's self‐construal scale was also used to assess whether differences in learning could be attributed to independent or interdependent self‐construal. Results showed that collectivists had faster learning rates and better accuracy performance than individualists following training—thereby reflecting their tendency to attend holistically when learning to extract global forms. Further, we observed a negative association between independent self‐construal—which has previously been linked to analytic processing—with performance. This study provides insight into how socio‐cultural backgrounds affect VPL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning immigrant teachers may experience cross‐cultural conflicts because their home cultures may differ in important ways from U.S. school culture. In California, mentors are assigned to work with new teachers, many born in other countries, to solve a range of problems—often attributable to cross‐cultural conflicts between the culture of the school and the cultures of these teachers. Mentors are veteran teachers, but even those who receive special training as mentors are not educated in theories explaining how culture influences child‐rearing and schooling practices. In this study, 12 beginning immigrant high school math and science teachers born in Asia and Latin America participated in lengthy, semi‐structured interviews conducted by an experienced mentor specialist (not known to the participants). Conflicts reported by participants were analysed from the perspective of differences between the collectivistic cultures of the teachers and individualistic culture of the schools in which they teach. The conflicts reported, primed in part by the nature of interview questions, were categorised as having to do with differences in perceptions of the roles of parents, teachers and students and relations among those roles—particularly in terms of role hierarchy and regard for authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much like other parts of Asia, late adolescence in India is a particularly stressful time with academic pressures of a highly competitive examination system that determines future occupational success. The present study examined interrelations among reports of parenting, adolescents' regulation of academics‐related emotions, school engagement, adolescent socio‐emotional functioning and state‐exam performance. Four hundred and fifty 10th and 12th graders from suburban high schools in India participated, along with their mothers. At the beginning of the school year, mothers completed measures of parenting, and adolescents completed measures of emotion regulation, school engagement and behaviour problems. At the end of the school year, grades from state exams were obtained from the schools. A multiple mediator model was tested using structural equation modelling. Authoritarian parenting was positively related to adolescent behaviour problems, but not adolescent state‐exam performance. Maternal non‐supportive responses to adolescent negative emotion were indirectly positively related to adolescent behaviour problems through adolescent emotion dysregulation. Adolescent school engagement mediated the positive relation between maternal supportive responses to adolescent negative emotion and adolescent state‐exam performance. These findings underscore the relevance of adolescent emotions for their academic functioning, with implications for the development of interventions for those who struggle during these highly stressful years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the validity of situational view on culture-specific behaviours focusing on self-evaluation. Two experiments with American students as samples were conducted to examine whether priming their self-construals would affect individuals' self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, the participants' self-evaluation was compared across different conditions of primed self-contruals. In Experiment 2, the participants were split into 2 groups based on their initial default self-consturals and, the self-evaluations were compared across the 2 groups after priming self-contruals. The results demonstrated that although the participants' self-evaluation was initially in accord with their default self-construal, it changed into accord with the primed self-construals. The findings supported the proposed cultural game player view. Implications on situational view of self-evaluation are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in acquiescence and extremity pose substantial threats to the validity of cross-cultural research that relies on survey methods. Individual and cultural correlates of response styles when using 2 contrasting types of response mode were investigated, drawing on data from 55 cultural groups across 33 nations. Using 7 dimensions of self-other relatedness that have often been confounded within the broader distinction between independence and interdependence, our analysis yields more specific understandings of both individual- and culture-level variations in response style. When using a Likert-scale response format, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as similar to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour harmony, similarity with others and receptiveness to influence. However, when using Schwartz's (2007) portrait-comparison response procedure, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant but also connected to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour self-reliance and self-consistency. Extreme responding varies less between the two types of response modes, and is most prevalent among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant, and in cultures favouring self-reliance. As both types of response mode elicit distinctive styles of response, it remains important to estimate and control for style effects to ensure valid comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the proposer behaviour in an ultimatum game ( UG) frame under anonymous and non-anonymous conditions among a Korean and German subject pool ( n = 590) in comparison. Whereas the anonymous condition is represented by the standard UG, the non-anonymous condition integrates an aggregate of the Korean cultural context variables university affiliation, regional origin and seniority. The latter, a classic Confucian context variable, is measured by age differentials. The former two are impactful components of so-called Yongo networks, a unique Korean informal institution identical to Chinese Guanxi ties. Yongo networks, yet underrepresented in research, are said to be a central context variable to explain Korean social ties and decision-making behaviour. We observe significant differences between the offer behaviours of Korean and German subjects when exposing selected cultural variables. We argue that the behavioural differences observed are in fact due to culture not anonymity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social perception studies have revealed that smiling individuals are perceived more favourably on many communion dimensions in comparison to nonsmiling individuals. Research on gender differences in smiling habits showed that women smile more than men. In our study, we investigated this phenomena further and hypothesised that women perceive smiling individuals as more honest than men. An experiment conducted in seven countries (China, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Republic of South Africa and USA) revealed that gender may influence the perception of honesty in smiling individuals. We compared ratings of honesty made by male and female participants who viewed photos of smiling and nonsmiling people. While men and women did not differ on ratings of honesty in nonsmiling individuals, women assessed smiling individuals as more honest than men did. We discuss these results from a social norms perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have investigated the implications of social change for human development from different perspectives. The studies published in this special section were conducted within Greenfield's theoretical framework (2009). The findings concerning links between specific sociodemographic features (e.g., commercial activities, schooling) and individual cognition and social behaviour are particularly interesting because they tap the underlying forces that drive human development. To further understand the issues in these studies and in the field, a pluralist-constructive perspective is discussed, which emphasises the integration of diverse values and practices in both Western and non-Western societies and its effects on the development of sophisticated competencies in individual adaptation to the changing global community. In addition, several issues are highlighted and some suggestions are provided for future explorations in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the implications of social change for cognitive development in a Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico, over 43 years. The same procedures were used to collect data in 1969-1970, 1991, and 2012-once in each generation. The goal was to understand the implications of weaving, schooling and participation in a commercial economy for the development of visual pattern representation. In 2012, our participants consisted of 133 boys and girls descended from participants in the prior two generations. Procedures consisted of placing colored sticks in a wooden frame to make striped patterns, some familiar (Zinacantec woven patterns) and some novel (created by the investigators). Following Greenfield (2009), we hypothesised that the development of commerce and the expansion of formal schooling would influence children's representations. Her theory postulates that these factors move human development towards cognitive abstraction and skill in dealing with novelty. Furthermore, the theory posits that whatever sociodemographic variable is changing most rapidly functions as the primary motor for developmental change. From 1969 to 1991, the rapid development of a commercial economy drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions. From 1991 to 2012, the rapid expansion of schooling drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on culture topics which include women's aesthetic sense and values of beauty in Thailand's Bangkok, changing sense of beauty and views of makeup among women in China's Shanghai, and health and well-being in varying socio-cultural contexts.