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The extent to which toddlers have opportunities to learn in interactive, observational, and independent contexts is thought to vary by culture. However quantitative assessments of cultural variability and of the factors driving intra‐ and inter‐cultural differences in toddler's time allocation are lacking. This paper provides a comparative and quantitative examination of how toddlers spend their time and with whom (adults or children) in two communities (rural Yucatec Maya, urban United States). Additionally, it considers individual factors that predict time allocation. Results demonstrated that Maya toddlers spent more time in independent contexts compared to US toddlers and spent more time exclusively with other children than did US toddlers. Maya toddlers were more likely than US toddlers to spend time observing other people, however, when given the opportunity to observe others there were no differences in visual attentional allocation across cultures. For Maya toddlers maternal schooling related negatively to both time spent with other children and time spent in interactive contexts. The findings highlight the need for researchers to include diverse populations when considering early social experiences as well as assessing factors that may contribute differentially to variations in early experience across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An invitation to submit for the 2020 William M. Jones Best Graduate Student Paper in American Culture Studies is presented.

A call for papers from the "Journal of American Culture" is presented.

The field of counseling has been expanding over the globe in recent decades. Countries newly establishing the profession seem to adapt Western‐originated theories and practices without sufficient alteration or modification to their local cultures. Turkey with its 70 years of experience with counseling is a significant example. In this paper, the need for integrating foreign theories, concepts, and practices into the local‐host cultures will be discussed from social justice and de‐colonialization point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increased need for broadening participation in computing, there must be a focus not just on providing culturally relevant content but also on building accessible and inclusive computational tools. Most efforts to design culturally responsive computational tools redesign surface features, often through making nominal changes to add cultural meaning, yet the deeper structural design remains largely intact. We take a critical perspective towards novice programming environments to elucidate how the underlying structure privileges particular epistemologies and cultures. In this paper, we examine how the cultural practice of storytelling is supported and/or inhibited within novice programming tools. We draw upon the experiences of 38 Native American youth, who worked in teams to create place‐based, interactive stories and games for their community. Findings offer insights to the embedded cultural biases that exist in the structures of computational tools. We discuss insights for how to address cultural biases and promote deeper integration of cultural practices in future designs of culturally responsive computational tools. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic? Culturally responsive computing connects computing content heritage and vernacular cultural practices."Black boxing," or lack of transparency in how it works, in computational tools makes it difficult for novices to enter computing cultures.Design tools are embedded with particular ways of being, knowing, valuing and doing.What this paper adds? Thirty‐eight novice learners' computational designs were shaped by the ways in which a computational tool privileged particular knowledge systems.Storytelling, as a critical cultural practice, especially in Indigenous cultures, is heavily constrained by the design structure of computational tools.Computational tools are cultural artifacts with deeply embedded epistemological, ontological and axiological biases, which directly frame what learners can do with these tools.Implications for practice Collaborative, community‐based design processes could mitigate the cultural biases that persist in computational tools.Transparency in computation tools in critical to broadening participation in computing cultures.Culturally responsive design of computational tools at the structural level is required to build inclusive computing cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we go to press in a COVID‐19 world, the topic of anxiety is foremost on our minds. While each situation has to be considered in its own context, how to manage different anxieties has common denominators. There is currently a sharp increase in forced migration around the globe so mental health professionals must develop effective skills, like the ability to adapt services to different contexts and cultures, to manage the needs of immigrant people. Problem‐Solving Brief Therapy, as developed at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, is a systemic model of therapy, which aims at promoting change in the complaint the presenting client (the 'talker') cares about. The model's roots in Constructivism foster integrating the clients' beliefs and values into therapy to allow the therapists to adapt to the clients' particular needs. This paper is the analysis of a single case where the therapist worked with an immigrant family because their child suffered from severe anxiety related to the parents' threatened deportation. The paper focuses on premises and strategies that allowed minimising cultural barriers between therapists and family members, thus facilitating a strong therapeutic alliance conducive to improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of the African American community in the United States continues to evolve. The growing number of professional African Americans who grew up in the postcivil rights era combined with the persistent reminders of inequity paints a complex backdrop for understanding African American relationships. The majority of our knowledge about African American couples disproportionately comes from nonclinical social science fields such as sociology and demography. Unfortunately, the scholarly literature on how to work with African American couples is relatively scant. This paper seeks to add to this limited literature by providing clinicians and scholars with a proposed set of issues to consider when conceptualizing and treating African American couples. In particular, the complexity and nuance needed to work with African American couples are best done by using an integrative model. Thus, this paper will discuss how the Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST) model is particularly well suited for working with African American couples. This paper will summarize the science on African American marriages with a focus on salient factors such as gender, SES, and trust, which will then be translated into clinical practice by utilizing a case example. The case example will be of a middle‐class couple in order to delineate the challenges and the growing heterogeneity of African Americans. The article will conclude with a commentary on the evolving heterogeneity of African Americans, which sheds light on how an integrative perspective is important for disentangling and embracing the growing complexity of African American couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of 'wise mother and good wife (WMGW)' (Hyonmo Yangcho) is the traditional idealized image of Korean womanhood as one who serves her country and others through her roles as a mother and wife. This ideology may continue to have some significance in the lives of many first‐generation Korean immigrant women, but its potential role in the adjustment challenges these women may face while acculturating to the immigrant context in the United States has received little attention. In this paper, we briefly review the historical background of the WMGW ideology and discussed the significance of focusing research attention on the role of this notion in contemporary first‐generation Korean immigrant women in the United States. We focus on the intersecting influences of gender, ethnicity, and immigrants' generation status, which may further marginalize some first‐generation Korean immigrant mothers. We then outline possible unique challenges faced by some of these mothers due to the WMGW gender ideology, highlighting potential immigration‐related difficulties including changes in their social support networks, parenting burden, mental health, and language issues. Finally, we provide suggestions for researchers and practitioners working with U.S. Korean immigrant women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the role of culture in determining whether, or not, an individual is a homeowner. We use data on first‐generation immigrants who arrived in the United States under 6 years old. Following the epidemiological approach, any dissimilarity in the proportion of homeowners by country of origin may be interpreted as a consequence of cultural differences. Our estimates indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the cultural proxy and the immigrants' choice of home‐ownership. Additionally, we present evidence of different mechanisms of transmission of culture, which reinforces our results on the cultural effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: There is convincing evidence that physician empathy leads to better patient care. As a result, there has been considerable research interest in investigating how empathy changes during undergraduate medical studies. Early (generally North American) studies raised concerns that medical training causes a decline in empathy. More recent studies (conducted around the world) have begun to suggest that either a slight increase or decrease in empathy occurs during undergraduate medical training, which has led some to argue that empathy changes indiscriminately (with no discernible pattern). This paper explores whether there is evidence to suggest that empathy changes indiscriminately or with a discernible geo‐sociocultural pattern during undergraduate medical training. Methods: Literature that investigated change in empathy during undergraduate medical training was reviewed. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies were tabulated separately according to their respective geographical locations. The tabulated results were analysed to investigate whether empathy changed similarly or differently within different geographical locations. Results: The studies reviewed indicate similar patterns of empathy change within approximate geo‐sociocultural clusters. Whereas US studies predominantly show small but significant decreases in empathy, Far Eastern studies mostly show small but significant increases in empathy as undergraduates progress through the medical course. Conclusions: These results suggest that change in empathy during undergraduate medical education is not as indiscriminate (patternless) as once thought. Additionally, these results support the notion that empathy is a locally construed global construct. Does empathy change during medical school? The authors review the literature and report an emerging geo‐sociocultural pattern across different parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low‐income Latinas/os are exposed to widespread mental health disparities in the United States. Most recently, a resurgence of anti‐immigration narratives has led vulnerable Latina/o immigrants to experience considerable contextual stressors with multiple deleterious consequences for their overall well‐being, including significant disruptions to their parenting practices. Within this context of adversity and despite the multiple benefits associated with parent training (PT) prevention interventions, the availability of contextually and culturally relevant PT interventions remains limited in underserved Latina/o communities. This paper constitutes a contribution to this gap in knowledge by presenting a model of intervention delivery utilized in the dissemination of culturally adapted versions of the evidence‐based intervention known as GenerationPMTO.© The proposed model also describes a process of change that we have documented in empirical research with low‐income Latina/o immigrant parents who have been exposed to the adapted interventions. The manuscript is organized in four sections. First, an overview of the model is discussed, along with a brief summary of major theories. Next, the core components of the model are described, complemented by the presentation of a case study. Finally, implications for prevention and clinical intervention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican-origin families are a large and rapidly increasing subgroup of the U.S. population, but they remain underrepresented in family scholarship. This paper introduces a special section of four papers on Mexican-origin families designed to contribute to the advancement of research on how cultural, family, and gender socialization processes unfold across key developmental periods and life transitions in this cultural context. Two longitudinal studies of Mexican-origin families provided the data for these four papers: (a) The Juntos Project, an 8-year longitudinal study of mothers, fathers, and adolescent sibling pairs in 246 Mexican-origin families; and (b) The Supporting MAMI Project, a study following 204 adolescent mothers and their mother figures from the third trimester of pregnancy through their young children's 5th birthdays. In this introductory paper, we highlight four themes, including (a) differential acculturation and reciprocal socialization, (b) interdependence in families, (c) the intersection of culture and gender, and (d) methodological issues. We end with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stroke survivors might perceive their quality of life (QoL) as being affected even years after onset. The purpose of this review was to go through the literature to identify factors related to QoL for persons with stroke in China and Western countries for possible similarities and differences in their respective cultural views. Method: A narrative literature review was conducted on the papers identified by searching PubMed, EBSCO/CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data that published up to November 2016. Factors predicting QoL after stroke were extracted, and comparisons were made between Chinese and Western studies respecting cultural aspects. Results: A total of 43 articles were included in this review, with 31 conducted in Western countries and 12 in China. Predictors of QoL included Demographic factors: age, gender, marital status, education level, socioeconomic status; Clinically related factors: severity of stroke, physical function, depression/anxiety, cognitive impairment, incontinence and other comorbidities; Environmental factors: residential status, social support, social participation; and Individual factors: coping strategies and self‐perception. Being married and resident at home might be associated with the perception of QoL differently between Chinese and Western survivors. Conclusions: Most predictors of QoL in stroke survivors were the same in China and the Western countries. However, their QoL might be predicted differently regarding to the individualistic and collectivistic cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries and cultures differ in their approach to childbirth, as well as in their research practices. This paper examines 10 surveys of women's reports of their labor and birth in seven countries spanning North America and Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Similarities and differences in practice are highlighted, and the methodological difficulties of conducting research in cross-cultural settings are examined. This paper discusses innovative and culturally unique perinatal practices that are not revealed by such surveys and stresses the importance of sharing such ideas globally. ( BIRTH 39:4 December 2012) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strange body of the accordion, breathing, undulating, strapped to the chest of its player, is among the many striking elements linking Werner Herzog's Stroszek (1976) and Michael Schorr's Schultze gets the blues (2003). This paper considers Schultze to be a complex response to Herzog's film, using the accordion as a link between German and American culture as well as between contemporary German cinema and its towering predecessors in New German Cinema. Both Stroszek and Schultze are interested in some strain of the ‘American Dream’: Stroszek hopes to find wealth and happiness, and Schultze seeks a certain ethnic spice found within the ‘melting pot’ of American culture. In both cases, the complex machinery of the accordion is a metaphor for dreams that might be realised in America and for the mobility required to realise them. In tracing the link between these two films, my paper investigates ways in which music is bound to cultural landscapes, and to what extent a new cultural identity can be attained through one's relationship to musical sound. For Stroszek, and, more successfully, for Schultze, the accordion is a symbol of an intact and mobile body capable of crossing cultural boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a rationale for, and overview of, procedures used to develop the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is nationally representative community household survey that estimates the prevalence of mental disorders and rates of mental health service utilization by Latinos and Asian Americans in the US. The central aims of the NLAAS are to: 1) describe the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the rates of mental health services use for Latino and Asian American populations using nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) assess the associations among social position, environmental context, and psychosocial factors with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and utilization rates of mental health services, and 3) compare the life-time and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and utilization of mental health services of Latinos and Asian Americans with national representative samples of non-Latino whites (from the National Comorbidity Study-Replication) (NCS-R) and African Americans (from the National Survey of American Life) (NSAL). This paper presents new concepts and methods utilized in the development of the NLAAS to capture and investigate ethnic, cultural and environmental considerations that are often ignored in mental health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, American criminal courts have seen the rise of the culture defence strategy or the argument that the defendant’s cultural background should excuse crime, mitigate responsibility or reduce the penalty for criminal behaviour. This paper argues that the rise and success of this strategy in practice reflects not just multiculturalism – as earlier studies contend – but the culturalimpulse known as the ‘therapeutic ethic’. Using the culture defence archive as a valuable and underused sociological resource, it examines the extent to which this legal strategy embodies the therapeutic ethic. Through an analysis of actual cases, the paper traces the medicalisation of culture in courts by which cultural differences are consistently converted into psychological disorders in order to diminish criminal responsibility. It suggests that culture defence must be seen not only against changes in criminal law – such as the increase in legal excuses that rely on the therapeutic ethic – but as an instance of how ‘other’ cultures may be pathologised in multicultural legal arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how certain cultural arguments gain the authority necessary to explain the social problem of domestic violence. I begin by demonstrating the existence of competing explanations for the question of why abusive relationships continue. I find that a certain kind of explanation, multiple victimization arguments that emphasize the numerous ways battered women are victimized, are most common. Through an analysis of social science citations, news papers, and legislative and judicial decisions, I conclude that one multiple victimization argument in particular, Lenore Walker's battered woman syndrome (Walker, 1979, The Battered Woman. New York: Harper & Row; Walker, 1984, The Battered Woman Syndrome. New York: Springer), has become the most recognized explanation for why abusive relationships continue. The syndrome was best able to meet the criteria necessary for gaining cultural authority put forth by Schudson (1989, Theory and Society 18:153–180): retrievability, rhetorical force, resonance, resolution, and institutional retention. In recent years, however, this authority has been threatened as social and cultural conditions have changed, leaving competing understandings of the domestic violence issue to challenge Walker's claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper contains observations of families in a small anthracite coal region in Pennsylvania who regularly present themselves for treatment at the local Mental Health Center. These observations are anecdotal in nature and they are not based on any statistical findings. The purpose of the paper is to present a unique cultural tradition and how this tradition influences the operation of the family in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life story methods in Europe commonly belong to the field of biographical sociology. This paper points out that biographical sociology is missing from American sociology and describes in-depth two well-known methods in this field in Europe, the narrative interview and objective hermeneutics. The absence of biographical sociology from U.S. sociology should be remedied, it is argued, for the following reasons: First, an analysis of biographical patterns could counteract the heavy emphasis on social structure in American sociology and enrich certain subfields within it. For example, some of the concepts used in European biographical sociology, such as the concept of the 'trajectory' can be related to conceptions of agency set forth by American and British sociologists and thus enrich sociology overall. Second, biographical sociology can help counteract the heavy orientation towards quantitative research in American sociology without falling into the pitfalls of purely interpretive methodologies. And third, biographical sociology can significantly enrich the still missing link between culture and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts child death review (CDR) structures and processes in six countries - Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, England and Wales. It presents findings from a comparative study based on analysis of data from 18 case studies. Data were collected through a combination of documentary analysis, interviews and observations. The study found that CDR processes vary according to: where the function is located and whether review is undertaken at state, local or national level; whether review is rooted in legislation; the focus of review; whether dedicated funding is provided; whether families are involved in the process; and whether structures are supported by useful data systems. It was not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of different review systems but the findings suggest that structure makes little difference in terms of determining the extent to which CDR findings inform prevention effort and activity. While factors such as lack of funding, lack of national data, or lack of legislation may hinder the work of CDR teams, CDR findings have informed prevention initiatives despite such barriers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Standardisation and aggregation of data at national or state level are crucial for effective CDR., A model of individual review, cross-case review and themed review can result in real learning and practice change., A public health model of CDR offers the most potential in terms of prevention., Families can contribute key information but participation must be managed sensitively and take account of cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community services and supports for children with intellectual disabilities ( ID) can ameliorate the negative effects of caregiving and enhance child outcomes. For example, in Central and South America, many children with disabilities are institutionalized with inadequate sanitation and medical care. In the United States, certain demographic factors (e.g., poverty, limited access to healthcare, language barriers, and immigrant status) contribute to the underdiagnosis and poor-quality treatment of Latino families and their children with ID, thus limiting their access to effective community and family supports. This paper utilizes a cultural lens to target advocacy as a mechanism for improving access to local community services and social supports for children with ID. The author examines specific cultural beliefs regarding family support and child development among Latino families, and provides policy recommendations derived from these cultural beliefs that aim to enhance advocacy efforts among Latino caregivers. The author notes that effective advocacy, at the family and at the policy level, can be a useful tool to access crucial community and social supports that enhance child and family outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This paper utilizes sociolinguistic theories of social stratification, gravity and cascade models to analyze the usage of English in the linguistic landscape of Korea. Public signs in different regions of Seoul and Korea were photographed and analyzed according to the percentage of English, Korean, Konglish, and Chinese. Labov's gravity model was not found to be accurate, but his social stratification and cascade models were moderately supported. However, in all regions of Seoul and greater Korea, there are domains of English. English is found in the physical domains of main streets, amusement parks and foreign districts, in the product domains of beer, wine and clothing, and in the sociolinguistic domains of modernity, luxury and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several decades, nurses have been increasingly theorizing about the relationships between culture, health, and nursing practice. This culture theorizing has changed over time and has recently been subject to much critical examination. The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges impeding nurses' ability to build theory about the relationships between culture and health. Through a historical overview, I argue that continued support for the essentialist view of culture can maintain a limited view of complex race relations. I also argue that attempts to apply culture theory, without knowledge of important historical, political, and economic factors, has often resulted in oversimplified versions of what was originally intended. Furthermore, I argue that individual-level interventions alone will be insufficient to address health inequities related to culture. Despite new critical conceptualizations of culture and the uptake of cultural safety, nursing scholars must better address the broader organizational, population, and political interventions needed to address inequities in health. I conclude with suggestions for how nurses might proceed with culture theorizing given these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canonisation of ‘essential’ or ‘desirable’ shared knowledge and understanding is a contested process. Nevertheless the project of designing a historical and cultural canon of the Netherlands, commissioned by the national government, was successful in the sense that it induced intensive public and academic debate about history and culture and mobilised a plethora of history-related initiatives. In this paper, I shall explore to what extent geographical imagination has played a role in the Dutch historical and cultural canon and in the regional, local and thematic ‘canons’ that followed. It will be concluded that the geographical imagination seems to come quite natural with these attempts towards cultural and historical self-imaging and self-representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to investigate the culture-specific symptom manifestation and expression of depression in Korean immigrant women in the United States of America (USA). BACKGROUND: The literature indicates that Korean immigrants to the USA report higher levels of depressive symptoms than immigrants from other Asian ethnic groups, and women immigrants tend to encounter more gender-related emotional difficulties. However, because of traditional cultural beliefs, immigrants may not seek treatment for depression and, when they do, tend to leave treatment prematurely. METHODS: We used an ethnographic method based on Spradley's Developmental Research Sequence with a sample of 17 Korean immigrant women who scored mild-to-severe depression on a Korean version of the Hamilton Depression Inventory Scale. Data were collected from 2005 to 2006, and consisted of tape-recorded interviews, field notes and diaries. FINDINGS: Depressive symptoms were complex, intertwined and felt in all domains of the person's existence. They were expressed mainly through emotional and physical suffering, and the expression of suffering as a way of life. Themes elicited were emotional entrapment, shame and failure as women, disappointment at not being able to live a normal life and emotional restraint, as emotions were not generally expressed verbally but instead were expressed somatically, bodily and metaphorically. CONCLUSION: Being aware of culture-specific symptoms of depression among Korean immigrant women can assist nurses in caring for them and thus improving their therapeutic alliances and preventing them from prematurely terminating treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two historical moments in the continual formation of Native American societies are examined: the creation of distinct and bounded 'Indian' societies in the south-eastern colonial United States, and the recent internal differentiation of the Lumbee Indian peoples in North Carolina. Four issues are at stake: the production of difference and inequality within and between Native American societies; the formation and transformation of 'culture' in this context; a re-examination of the concept of class; and the simultaneous production of culture and class among indigenous peoples and perhaps more generally. This leads to a suggestion concerning the problem of hegemony in struggles over inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical development of cricket in America and seeks to explain why, despite having a significant initial impact, the game ultimately became culturally marginal. It is argued that class and cricketing relations in England in the mid-nineteenth century had a significant and hitherto unacknowledged impact on the diffusion of the game to America, and that this unplanned social process can only be understood in the light of the specific interdependencies between the British and Anglo-Americans, between upper and lower class English immigrants, and between English immigrants and “Native White Americans”. Correlatively, this analysis spreads new light on the establishment of baseball as America’s national game, illustrating a greater level of dependence on the English and English sport than is traditionally attributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the current status of kinship research in the United States and identifies factors that might account for the declining interest in the subject among family researchers. The analysis uses both structural and cultural factors to illustrate how they can determine the diversity in kinship functioning that ranges from those family systems where kinship relationships flourish and those where they play a small part in family life. The structural and demographic variables determine the numbers and availability of kin, whereas the cultural variables determine the norms that establish the motivation to sustain kinship bonds. To illustrate how these factors operate among subgroups in the United States, I analyze three types of kinship systems: the lineal emphasis in White families of the very old; the collateral emphasis in the families of their Black counterparts; and the egocentric emphasis of White suburban fitmilies that are undergoing marital change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many disciplines have used focus groups in research and the use has increased in the past 15 years (Smith, 1995). Procedural concerns have been explored, such as the selection of the participants, the location, and the size of the group, but little attention has been given to the consideration of cultural influences. The purpose of this paper is to focus attention on the impact of culture in conducting focus groups. Experiences from 15 focus groups conducted in two qualitative research studies with two Washington state Indian tribes over a 5 year period are presented and illustrate the importance of culture in conducting focus groups. Communication patterns, roles, relationships, and traditions were found to be important elements that must be considered in conducting focus groups cross-culturally. While some strategies discovered were found to be helpful, additional research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing number of foreign nursing students enrolled in university nursing programmes in the United States and the paucity of relevant studies it would seem essential to assess the difficulties foreign nursing students encounter in their adjustment to university nursing programmes and to evaluate the mechanisms that facilitate their adaptation. Data from this study was based on the results of 82 questionnaires completed by foreign nursing students enrolled in university nursing programmes nationwide. Language difficulties, a faculty to a great extent unfamiliar with foreign cultures, rapid pace, insufficient clinical experience, and highly competitive programmes were found to cause the foreign nursing students problems in their educational experiences. In addition to identifying the difficulties foreign nursing students have in adjusting to a university nursing programme, this paper proposes and discusses changes that would help make the foreign nursing students' experiences more meaningful and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the contemporary culture of heroin addiction in the United States, using a revised portion of the general theory of action. The concept of a cultural action system is introduced and somewhat reformulated. The micro evolution of heroin culture from its generating conditions in inner-city street youth culture is reviewed. An LIGA analysis of the system of heroin culture is presented. There is a summary with concluding remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological and ethnohistorical accounts of the Northwest Coast and Southeast Alaska have underemphasized the early and thorough industrialization of the area. This paper describes the transformation of Native fan. lies and community forms by small scale salmon-canning firms m the late 19th and early 20th century, beginning with the building of the first salmon cannery in Klawock, Alaska, in 1878. Attention to the unmaking of past forms of obligation and expectation leads to an understanding of the volatility of specifically local histories in Native villages. Totem poles and tricycle races are both locations of ambiguous cultural production that are tied to these histories in overlapping and complex ways, and as such, they serve as metaphors for the larger processes at work in these towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dental Fear Survey (DFS), a paper and pencil instrument for assessing dental fear and avoidance, has been widely used and validated in fear studies in the US. However, before such instruments are used in countries and cultures dissimilar to the one in which it was developed, they should be cross-validated in that culture. The present study is an examination of the DFS response characteristics in a group of 374 Brazilian university students. Factor analysis of the DFS revealed three factors essentially identical to those found among university students in the US and in Singapore, as well as among US adult dental patients. Higher DFS scores were significantly associated longer intervals since last dental visit. These results are taken as evidence that the DFS performs in this Brazilian sample very much as it does in other samples; and is thus, a valid indicator of dental fear at least among Brazilian university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the research papers that compose the symposium on culture and achievement motivation in the U.S. He states that these papers are interesting as they provide fresh perspectives on motivation as it emerges in contexts and cultures not often portrayed in the motivation literature in the so-called Western world. He points out that these papers also holds out the promise that the study of culture and motivation is neither dormant nor outmoded.