Family Functioning in a Collectivist Culture of Malaysia: A Qualitative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melati Sumari ◽  
Dini Farhana Baharudin ◽  
Norfaezah Md Khalid ◽  
Nor Hasniah Ibrahim ◽  
Ida Hartina Ahmed Tharbe

A family is a social unit in society. The societal culture where a family exists contributes to the functioning of the family. A review of the literature on family functioning indicates that most studies on family functioning were conducted by researchers in Western countries, particularly in the United States, and were conducted using a Western sample. In most studies, quantitative measurements were used to measure family functioning. No family measurement has been developed so far to measure family functioning in a collectivist culture such as that found in Malaysia. Therefore, we decided to use a qualitative approach in order to explore and understand family functioning in a collectivist society and focused on Malaysia as a case example. Focus group discussions were used to gather the data. Eleven family practitioners from different settings participated in a three-series discussion. Six themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) family role, (2) parenting styles, (3) family rule, (4) communication, (5) value orientation, and (6) cohesiveness. The method used yields rich data and highlights the importance of understanding an issue within its cultural context. The implication for family practitioners and future researchers is discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-83
Author(s):  
Sudhir H. Kalé ◽  
David Harland ◽  
Ken Moores

A family is the primary social unit in which individuals are born and get acclimatised to societal culture. Most researches on family businesses are derived from frameworks developed in the United States or other Western societies. The premise of this article is that the way family businesses across the world are managed will vary drastically based on the culture of the society where these businesses operate. Using Australia and India as country examples, we apply Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture to formulate illustrative propositions highlighting the impact of culture on family business governance and management. These propositions are of particular significance to human resource management across areas of both governance and management, and concern, in particular, intergenerational matters associated with succession, management style, employment and developing next-generation leaders.


2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Goggin

Interest in the fate of the German psychoanalysts who had to flee Hitler's Germany and find refuge in a new nation, such as the United States, has increased. The ‘émigré research’ shows that several themes recur: (1) the theme of ‘loss’ of one's culture, homeland, language, and family; and (2) the ambiva-lent welcome these émigrés received in their new country. We describe the political-social-cultural context that existed in the United States during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Documentary evidence found in the FBI files of three émigré psychoanalysts, Clara Happel, Martin Grotjahn, and Otto Fenichel, are then presented in combination with other source material. This provides a provisional impression of how each of these three individuals experienced their emigration. As such, it gives us elements of a history. The FBI documents suggest that the American atmosphere of political insecurity and fear-based ethnocentric nationalism may have reinforced their old fears of National Socialism, and contributed to their inclination to inhibit or seal off parts of them-selves and their personal histories in order to adapt to their new home and become Americanized. They abandoned the rich social, cultural, political tradition that was part of European psychoanalysis. Finally, we look at these elements of a history in order to ask a larger question about the appropriate balance between a liberal democratic government's right to protect itself from internal and external threats on the one hand, or crossover into the blatant invasion of civil rights and due process on the other.


This chapter reviews the book Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution (2015), edited by Sylvia Barack Fishman. Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families deals with topics that intersect Jewishness, religion, nationality, gender and sexual identities, and life course perspectives. It shows that Jewishness cannot be understood without intersectional analysis of its national and cultural context (illustrated by the United States and Israel), religious context, its temporal context, and its life course context. Fishman explores the ways in which the U.S. and Israeli contexts are significantly different with regard to Jewish families and family orientations; how childrearing among gay and lesbian couples entails different challenges than among heterosexual couples; the added dimension to combining work and family in the case of religiously observant families; and how the overwhelmingly secular outside society can serve to empower haredi women in a shift toward egalitarianism.


Author(s):  
Maria Rosario T. de Guzman ◽  
Aileen S. Garcia ◽  
Irene O. Padasas ◽  
Bernice Vania N. Landoy

A large body of empirical work has shown the role that parenting plays in the development of prosocial behaviors of children. Parenting styles (e.g., democratic versus authoritarian) and parenting practices (e.g., inductive discipline versus guilt-shame induction) in particular have been empirically linked to prosocial behaviors as well as numerous other well-being indicators in children. What is less understood is the role that culture and cultural context might play in the parenting-prosocial nexus. This chapter explores the contributions of culture comparative and in-depth cultural studies of parenting and children’s prosocial behaviors. These studies extend the range of variability of parenting dimensions and contexts as they relate to children’s prosocial outcomes – providing a means of testing the generalizability of theory in a wider range of settings, as well as in identifying facets of parenting and family life that may otherwise be neglected in current scholarship. Collectively, studies support traditional socialization theories and show how numerous parenting dimensions are linked to prosocial outcomes in children in several cultural communities. Nonetheless, emerging research suggests culturally embedded processes that impact upon the parenting and prosocial link - meriting closer attention for future scholarship.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jin You ◽  
Qian Lu ◽  
Michael J. Zvolensky ◽  
Zhiqiang Meng ◽  
Kay Garcia ◽  
...  

Purpose Literature has documented the prevalence of anxiety and its adverse effect on quality of life among patients with breast cancer from Western countries, yet cross-cultural examinations with non-Western patients are rare. This cross-cultural study investigated differences in anxiety and its association with quality of life between US and Chinese patients with breast cancer. Methods Patients with breast cancer from the United States and China completed measures for anxiety (Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast). Results After controlling for demographic and medical characteristics, Chinese patients reported higher levels of trait and state anxiety than US patients. Although there was an association between anxiety and quality of life in both groups of patients, the association between state anxiety and quality of life was stronger among Chinese patients than among US patients, with the association between trait anxiety and quality of life the same between the two cultural samples. Conclusion These findings suggest that anxiety and its association with quality of life among patients with breast cancer varies depending on cultural context, which reveals greater anxiety and poorer quality of life among Chinese patients compared with US patients. This suggests greater unmet psychosocial needs among Chinese patients and highlights the need to build comprehensive cancer care systems for a better quality of life in Chinese populations.


Mycoses ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 463-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Koshnick ◽  
Kia K. Lilly ◽  
Katherine St Clair ◽  
Mary T. Finnegan ◽  
Erin M. Warshaw

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Mark L. Wolraich ◽  
Scott Lindgren ◽  
Ann Stromquist ◽  
Richard Milich ◽  
Charles Davis ◽  
...  

Treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common behavioral disorders in children in the United States, remains controversial because of concern about stimulant medication use. Extending a previous study of pediatricians, the present study surveyed a random national sample of family practitioners and then directly screened 457 patients of 10 pediatricians and family practitioners in two small midwestern cities. Responses to the national survey indicated that stimulant medication remains the main treatment prescribed by primary care physicians for children with ADHD. In the direct patient screening, the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses was 5.3% (pediatricians) and 4.2% (family practitioners) of all elementary-schoolaged children screened. Eighty-eight percent of these children were treated with methyiphenidate. Although medication was considered an effective treatment by the parents of 85% of the children given the medication, efficacy was unrelated to the accuracy of diagnosis. When explicit DSM-III-R criteria were used, only 72% of those assigned a diagnosis of ADHD by the physicians would have received that diagnosis based on a structured psychiatric interview with the parents and only 53% received that diagnosis based on teacher report of symptoms, even when the child was not receiving medication. Although the majority of physicians (in both the surveys and the direct screenings) reported using at least some behavioral treatments with their patients, parents reported infrequent use of nonpharmacologic forms of therapy, such as behavior modification. These data thus indicate a relatively modest rate of stimulant medication use for ADHD, but a serious underuse of systematic behavioral treatments in primary care.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Alison Happel-Parkins ◽  
Katharina A. Azim

This feminist narrative inquiry discusses the experiences of two women in a metropolitan city in the Midsouth of the United States who each intended to have a drug- and intervention-free childbirth for the birth of their first child. This data came from a larger study that included narratives from six participants. Using Alecia Y. Jackson and Lisa A. Mazzei's concept of “plugging in,” we read and analyzed the data through three feminist theorists: Sara Ahmed, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Susan Bordo. This allowed us to push the limits of intelligibility of women and their narratives, challenging the dominant, medicalized discourses prevalent in the current cultural context of the United States.


Author(s):  
GISELA DEMO ◽  
ELUIZA ALBERTO DE MORAIS WATANABE ◽  
DANIELLE CHRISTINE VASCONCELOS CHAUVET ◽  
KÉSIA ROZZETT

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objectives of this study were to validate the Customer Relationship Management Scale (CRMS) in France, and to compare the French model to both Brazilian and American ones. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: Based on the premise that scientific measurement instruments may be used to reflect customers' perception about the organization actions and effectiveness, it is important to validate a scale within a multidimensional cultural context. Therefore, the applicability of the instrument shall be possible in different contexts, longitudinally, with diverse subjects, thus providing external validity and generalization. Key methodological aspects: This is a descriptive, instrumental, quantitative, cross-sectional survey where we used the Customer Relationship Management Scale (CRMS). The sampling method was non-probabilistic convenience and the total of answered questionnaires added up to 454. We carried out a quantitative research through Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Summary of key results: The results obtained in the analyses allow us to conclude that the relation between clients and companies is really two-dimensional and it involves two distinct factors, namely Loyalty and Customer Service. The scale validated in Brazil and in the United States remained stable, in terms of validity (quality of items) and reliability, when validated in a distinct context, that is, France. This makes its application in French organizations possible, improving its external validity and generalization. Key considerations/conclusions: The main objective of this study was reached and an instrument to assess what aspects French customers rank as relevant regarding CRM was produced showing theoretical consistency, reliability and construct validity as well.


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