Ethnic minorities' ratings of ethnically similar and European American counselors: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of studies that assessed ethnic minorities' perceptions of and preferences for ethnically similar counselors and European American counselors showed that ethnic minorities tended to prefer ethnically similar counselors over European American counselors. However, the perceptions of and preferences for counselors were influenced by the cultural affiliation of the participants and the research methods used. More precise methods for determining the degree to which ethnic minorities' preferences for ethnically similar counselors is a function of inferences concerning attitudes, values, and skill need to be developed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What college students really think about ethnic student organizations.

In this study, the authors examined European, Hispanic, and African American college students' attitudes toward ethnic student organizations (ESOs). Based on data from Study 1 (N = 750), it was found that students across ethnic groups expressed uncertainty about whether ESOs were beneficial/necessary, fair/acceptable, and about their interest in joining an ESO. As a group, Hispanic and African American students did not believe that ESOs contributed to racial or ethnic separatism on campus, whereas European Americans expressed uncertainty about that possibility. In Study 2, a separate sample of students (N = 631) was randomly assigned to read the mission statement of a White, Hispanic, or African American ESO. Consistent with asymmetry theory, students in general judged the White American ESO as significantly less beneficial/necessary, less fair/acceptable, and as contributing more to racial/ethnic separatism than the Hispanic and African American ESOs. European, Hispanic, and African American students viewed their own ESO most favorably, although European American students were more consistent in their appraisals of ESOs irrespective of the ethnic focus of the ESO. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Registered image subtraction for CT-, MR- and coronary angiography

The study described regional fat distribution and anthropometric variables in an ethnically diverse sample of women (N = 143) who were between 20 and 30 (premenopausal) or 40 and 50 (perimenopausal) yr of age and of normal weight for height. Measurements included 11 skinfolds (abdomen, biceps, calf, forearm, midaxillary, pectoral, subscapular, suprailiac, suprapatellar, thigh, and triceps), waist and hip circumferences, height and mass. Regional fat distribution for African American, Mexican American, and Caucasian women was described as gluteal femoral. African American women had the smallest waist-to-hip ratio, with larger absolute measures for both the waist and gluteal C than the Caucasians or Mexican Americans. Native American women had an abdominal fat distribution pattern which was explained by more fat on the abdomen rather than less fat on the gluteal-femoral area. Native Americans had a different fat distribution from the other ethnic groups. Caucasians are not a good comparison group for African Americans or Native Americans because there are large differences as indicated by effect sizes in regional fat distribution. Variation within the ethnic groups was larger than differences between the groups for most variables. The distribution within ethnic groups was biased by extreme scores; thus 50-70% of the subjects were similar regardless of ethnic group.     

The development of ethnic identity during adolescence.

The development of ethnic identity is a critical facet of adolescence, particularly for adolescents of color. In order to examine the developmental trajectory of ethnic identity, African American, Latino American, and European American early and middle adolescents (N=420) were assessed over 3 years. Two components of ethnic identity were assessed--group-esteem was found to rise for both early and middle adolescents; exploration rose for middle adolescents. African Americans and Latino Americans were lower in group-esteem but have greater increases than European Americans, particularly across a school transition. The course of ethnic identity development during early and middle adolescence, the role of school context, and the variability in developmental trajectories among racial and ethnic groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability and construct validity of the psychopathy checklist-revised for Latino, European American, and African American male inmates.

The utility of the psychopathy construct in predicting laboratory deficits, criminal behavior, response to intervention, and recidivism has been well documented in European American populations. However, less is known about the manifestation and correlates of psychopathy in Latino and African American populations. The present study examined the reliability and construct validity of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) in 83 Latino inmates compared with matched samples of African Americans and European Americans. Results provide preliminary evidence that the PCL-R provides a reliable and valid measure of psychopathy in Latinos, with generally similar patterns emerging across external correlates; however, some ethnic group differences were noted for relationships between psychopathy indicators and some external correlates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and ethnicity differences in storytelling to young children: Emotionality, relationality and socialization.

Research has shown that age and ethnicity are associated with individuals' motivations for emotional regulation and social interaction. The authors proposed that these age and ethnicity-related motives would be reflected in storytelling. Women representing 2 age and 2 ethnic groups (young adulthood, old age, African American, European American) told stories to young girls. Stories were coded for emotional, relational, and socialization focus. They predicted that older adults would selectively emphasize positive over negative emotions and would direct more utterances toward their interaction with their listener. The authors expected that African Americans would be more likely to emphasize socialization themes. Results suggest that older adults positively modulate emotional content while storytelling; qualified support was found for hypotheses concerning socialization and interrelational emphasis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weight, self-esteem, ethnicity, and depressive symptomatology during pregnancy among inner-city women.

The relationship of weight and self-esteem to depressive symptomatology was examined among 36 African American and 96 European American pregnant inner-city women. Lower self-esteem and higher deviations from medically ideal weight predicted increased dysphoria during the 3rd trimester for European American women, but only lower self-esteem predicted increased dysphoria for African American women. These results support the hypothesis that African Americans are less likely than European Americans to experience negative psychological repercussions of greater weight. Consistent with findings among nonpregnant middle-class samples, these results extend the association between heavier weight and increased risk for psychological distress to pregnant women of European American descent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-focused attention and emotional reactivity: The role of culture.

Research conducted with European Americans suggests that attention to the individual self intensifies emotional reactivity. We propose, however, that cultural models of the self determine which aspect of the self (individual vs. relational), when attended to, intensifies emotional reactivity. In 3 studies, we predicted and observed that attention to individual aspects of the self was associated with levels of emotional reactivity that were greater in individuals from European American contexts (which promote an independent model of the self) than in individuals from Asian American contexts (which promote an interdependent model of the self). In contrast, attention to relational aspects of the self was associated with levels of emotional reactivity that were similar or greater in individuals from Asian American than in individuals from European American contexts. These findings highlight the importance of considering cultural and situational factors when examining links between the self and emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion and aging: Experience, expression, and control.

Age differences in emotional experience, expression, and control were investigated in 4 studies. A community sample of 127 African Americans and European Americans (ages 19–96 years) was used in Study 1; a community sample of 82 Chinese Americans and European Americans (ages 20–85 years) was used in Study 2; a community sample of 49 Norwegians drawn from 2 age groups (ages 20–35 years and 70+ years) was used in Study 3; and a sample of 1,080 American nuns (ages 24–101 years) was used in Study 4. Across studies, a consistent pattern of age differences emerged. Compared with younger participants, older participants reported fewer negative emotional experiences and greater emotional control. Findings regarding emotional expressivity were less consistent, but when there were age differences, participants reported lesser expressivity. Results are interpreted in terms of increasingly competent emotion regulation across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining Disproportionately High Rates of Adverse Birth Outcomes Among African Americans: The Impact of Stress, Racism, and Related Factors in Pregnancy.

Compared with European Americans, African American infants experience disproportionately high rates of low birth weight and preterm delivery and are more than twice as likely to die during their 1st year of life. The authors examine 5 explanations for these differences in rates of adverse birth outcomes: (a) ethnic differences in health behaviors and socioeconomic status; (b) higher levels of stress in African American women; (c) greater susceptibility to stress in African Americans; (d) the impact of racism acting either as a contributor to stress or as a factor that exacerbates stress effects; and (e) ethnic differences in stress-related neuroendocrine, vascular, and immunological processes. The review of literature indicates that each explanation has some merit, although none is sufficient to explain ethnic disparities in adverse birth outcomes. There is a lack of studies examining the impact of such factors jointly and interactively. Recommendations and cautions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion recognition across cultures: The influence of ethnicity on empathic accuracy and physiological linkage.

The present study tested whether empathic accuracy and physiological linkage during an emotion recognition task are facilitated by a cultural match between rater and target (cultural advantage model) or unaffected (cultural equivalence model). Participants were 161 college students of African American, Chinese American, European American, or Mexican American ethnicity. To assess empathic accuracy—knowing what another person is feeling—participant’s (raters) used a rating dial to provide continuous, real-time ratings of the valence and intensity of emotions being experienced by 4 strangers (targets). Targets were African American, Chinese American, European American, or Mexican American women who had been videotaped having a conversation with their dating partner in a previous study and had rated their own feelings during the interaction. Empathic accuracy was defined as the similarity between ratings of the videotaped interactions obtained from raters and targets. To assess emotional empathy—feeling what another person is feeling—we examined physiological linkage (similarity between raters’ and targets’ physiology). Our findings for empathic accuracy supported the cultural equivalence model, while those for physiological linkage provided some support for the cultural advantage model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic, subjective, and expressive responses to emotional films in older and younger Chinese Americans and European Americans.

Previously, the authors found that during idiosyncratic emotional events (relived emotions, discussions about marital conflict), older European American adults demonstrated smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than their younger counterparts (R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, W. V. Friesen, & P. Ekman, 1991; R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, & J. M. Gortman, 1994). This study examined whether such differences held when the emotional events were standardized, and whether they extend to another cultural group. Forty-eight old (70–85 years) and 48 young (20–34 years) European Americans and Chinese Americans viewed sad and amusing film clips in the laboratory while their cardiovascular, subjective (online and retrospective), and behavioral responses were measured. Consistent with previous findings, older participants evidenced smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than did younger participants during the film clips. Consistent with earlier reports, old and young participants did not differ in most subjective and behavioral responses to the films. No cultural differences were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informal exchanges with non-kin among retired sunbelt migrants: a case study of a Finnish American retirement community

OBJECTIVES: This study examined informal exchanges with non-kin among retired Sunbelt migrants, with special emphasis on the impact of ethnic enclaves in generating exchanges of instrumental assistance and emotional support among elderly European Americans. METHODS: Data were collected through interviews with four samples of elders: Finnish Americans who migrated to an ethnic retirement community in Florida; European Americans who migrated to the same community but are not part of an ethnic enclave; Finnish Americans living in an age-integrated setting in Minnesota; and retired European Americans living in the same Minnesota community. RESULTS: Migrants were less likely than elders aging-in-place to report informal exchanges with non-kin. Finnish American migrants were less likely than other European American migrants to provide instrumental assistance to non-kin but were more likely to anticipate relying on informal long-term care support, regardless of proximity to kin. There were no differences in the two migrant samples in exchanges of emotional support. DISCUSSION: Evidence regarding substitution of non-kin for geographically distant kin is mixed. Results are consistent with a strategy of "banking" support, at the community level among the Finnish American migrants and at the network level among other European American migrants.     

Race and the workforce: Occupational status, aspirations, and stereotyping among African American children.

This study examined whether African American children's perceptions of occupational status and their own vocational interests are affected by racial segregation of the workforce. Children (N = 92) rated familiar occupations with respect to status, desirability, and stereotyping. Children also rated novel jobs that had been depicted with African Americans, European Americans, or both African and European Americans. As predicted, for familiar jobs, children's judgments were linked to their knowledge of racial segregation of these jobs. In addition, novel occupations that had been depicted with African Americans were judged as lower in status than the identical occupations that had been depicted with European Americans, demonstrating a causal influence of workers' race on children's judgments. Children's age and socioeconomic background moderated their occupational judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

American = White?

Six studies investigated the extent to which American ethnic groups (African, Asian, and White) are associated with the category "American." Although strong explicit commitments to egalitarian principles were expressed in Study 1, Studies 2-6 consistently revealed that both African and Asian Americans as groups are less associated with the national category "American" than are White Americans. Under some circumstances, a dissociation between mean levels of explicit beliefs and implicit responses emerged such that an ethnic minority was explicitly regarded to be more American than were White Americans, but implicit measures showed the reverse pattern (Studies 3 and 4). In addition, Asian American participants themselves showed the American = White effect, although African Americans did not (Study 5). The American = White association was positively correlated with the strength of national identity in White Americans. Together, these studies provide evidence that to be American is implicitly synonymous with being White. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural and temperamental variation in emotional response.

To examine the relative influence of cultural and temperamental factors on emotional response, we compared the emotional behavior, reports of emotional experience, and autonomic responses of 50 European American (EA) and 48 Chinese American (CA) college-age dating couples during conversations about conflicts in their relationships. EA couples showed more positive and less negative emotional behavior than did CA couples, despite similarities in reports of emotional experience and autonomic reactivity. Group differences in emotional behavior were mediated by cultural (values and practices) but not temperamental factors (neuroticism and extraversion). Collapsing across groups, cultural factors accounted for greater variance in emotional behavior but lesser variance in reports of emotional experience compared with temperamental factors. Together, these findings suggest that the relative influence of cultural and temperamental factors on emotion varies by response component. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive test performance among nondemented elderly African Americans and whites

We examined the neuropsychological test performance of a randomly selected community sample of English-speaking non-Hispanic African American and white elders in northern Manhattan. All participants were diagnosed as nondemented by a neurologist, whose assessment was made independent of neuropsychological test scores. African American elders obtained significantly lower scores on measures of verbal and nonverbal learning and memory, abstract reasoning, language, and visuospatial skill than whites. After using a stratified random sampling technique to match groups on years of education, many of the discrepancies became nonsignificant; however, significant ethnic group differences on measures of figure memory, verbal abstraction, category fluency, and visuospatial skill remained. Discrepancies in test performance of education-matched African Americans and whites could not be accounted for by occupational attainment or history of medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. These findings emphasize the importance of using culturally appropriate norms when evaluating ethnically diverse elderly for dementia.     

Cultural themes in the psychotic symptoms of African American psychiatric patients.

Professional psychologists need to recognize ethnic/racial differences between African Americans and European Americans in psychotic symptom expression to treat individuals with severe mental illness from various cultural backgrounds. Specifically, they need to understand confluent paranoia or the interaction between culture and pathology in psychotic symptom expression. To assist mental health professionals, the present study identified cultural themes in the delusions and hallucinations of a sample of 156 African American psychiatric patients via content analysis. Race-related themes and religious themes were observed in the psychotic symptoms of these patients assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV. Race-related and religious content were manifested in different types of delusions. Race-related themes were more common in persecutory delusions, whereas religious themes occurred more often in other delusions. Race-related themes were associated more with delusions, while religious themes correlated with both delusions and hallucinations. Implications for the treatment of confluent paranoia in African Americans are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and emotional reactivity: Variation among Asian Americans of East Asian descent and European Americans.

Studies of Western samples (e.g., European Americans [EAs]) suggest that depressed individuals tend to show diminished emotional reactivity (J. G. Gehricke & A. J. Fridlund, 2002; G. E. Schwartz, P. L. Fair, P. Salt, M. R. Mandel, & G. L. Klerman, 1976a, 1976b). Do these findings generalize to individuals oriented to other cultures (e.g., East Asian cultures)? The authors compared the emotional reactions (i.e., reports of emotional experience, facial behavior, and physiological reactivity) of depressed and nondepressed EAs and Asian Americans of East Asian descent (AAs) to sad and amusing films. Their results were consistent with previous findings: Depressed EAs showed a pattern of diminished reactivity to the sad film (less crying, less intense reports of sadness) compared with nondepressed participants. In contrast, depressed AAs showed a pattern of heightened emotional reactivity (greater crying) compared with nondepressed participants. Across cultural groups, depressed and nondepressed participants did not differ in their reports of amusement or facial behavior during the amusing film. Physiological reactivity to the film clips did not differ between depressed and control participants for either cultural group. Thus, although depression may influence particular aspects of emotional reactivity across cultures (e.g., crying), the specific direction of this influence may depend on prevailing cultural norms regarding emotional expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When familiarity breeds accuracy: Cultural exposure and facial emotion recognition.

Two studies provide evidence for the role of cultural familiarity in recognizing facial expressions of emotion. For Chinese located in China and the United States, Chinese Americans, and non-Asian Americans, accuracy and speed in judging Chinese and American emotions was greater with greater participant exposure to the group posing the expressions. Likewise, Tibetans residing in China and Africans residing in the United States were faster and more accurate when judging emotions expressed by host versus nonhost society members. These effects extended across generations of Chinese Americans, seemingly independent of ethnic or biological ties. Results suggest that the universal affect system governing emotional expression may be characterized by subtle differences in style across cultures, which become more familiar with greater cultural contact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)