No / Response style effects are a source of bias in cross-national studies, with some nationalities being more susceptible to particular response styles than others. While response styles, by their very nature, vary with the form of the stimulus involved, previous research has not investigated whether cross-national differences in response styles are stable across different forms of a stimulus (e.g., item wording, scale type, response categories). Using a quasi-experimental design, this study shows that response style differences are not stable across different stimulus formats, and that response style effects impact on substantive cross-national comparisons in an inconsistent way.

LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, and Wynn (2000, 2001) conducted a content analysis of 495 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in the United States from 1945 to 1999 in order to determine whether the culture of fatherhood and gender disparities in the media had changed over the past half-century. Drawing on their research, I conducted a similar kind of analysis of 246 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in Japan from 1950 to 2004. By comparing and contrasting the results in the two studies, I show how comic portrayals of families have changed in Japan and in the United States, and demonstrate the value of analyzing comic strips in cross-national research.

LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, and Wynn (2000, 2001) conducted a content analysis of 495 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in the United States from 1945 to 1999 in order to determine whether the culture of fatherhood and gender disparities in the media had changed over the past half-century. Drawing on their research, I conducted a similar kind of analysis of 246 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in Japan from 1950 to 2004. By comparing and contrasting the results in the two studies, I show how comic portrayals of families have changed in Japan and in the United States, and demonstrate the value of analyzing comic strips in cross-national research.

The death of a parent represents a potential traumatic life event that has been linked to depression in both Japan and the United States. Yet experiences surrounding death and ways of grieving are framed differently across cultures. At the individual level, the majority of the bereaved people in both Japan and the United States attempt to maintain bonds with the deceased family members. Being complementary to the individual-level desire, Japanese death-related beliefs and practices seem to provide a tool to maintain bonds. In contrast, American death-related beliefs and practices may be at odds with the individual desires by encouraging the bereaved individuals to detach themselves from the deceased parents. Japanese culture may work as a macro level support to bereaved individuals, while American culture is not supportive of the individual desires. Using two national data sets from Japan and the United States, this study tested whether: (1) bereaved individuals report worse mental health than non-bereaved individuals, (2) the mental health consequences of losing a parent is greater in the United States than in Japan, and (3) in this vein, persons in Japan report greater emotional support than those in the United States, and emotional support explains cultural differences in the link between being bereaved and depression. Supporting Hypothesis 1, bereaved respondents were more depressed than non-bereaved respondents. The statistical test rejected Hypothesis 2, and Hypothesis 3 was not testable. This research considers the role of culture as a macro-level support and cross-national research methods.

So far, research on the causes of over-indebtedness in Europe has predominantly focused on the characteristics of individuals or households. This article investigates to what extent country-level factors are associated with a European household's risk of being over-indebted. We examine variables that reflect policies aimed at combating over-indebtedness (the average level of economic literacy prevalent within a country and its classification into a specific debt-discharge regime) and variables that reflect other welfare-state policies (a country's affiliation to a specific employment regime and a summary measure referring to the net replacement rate in the case of long-term unemployment). The results, which are based on multilevel logistic regression analyses of European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for 27 European countries, suggest that all four country-level factors matter. This particularly applies to the variables reflecting other welfare-state policies, thus underlining the relevance of the design of social policy in fighting over-indebtedness.

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No description available.

This article maps the field of international comparative research in school social work. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted and subjected to a narrative synthesis. The review reveals 11 publications that are predominantly non-empirical, take mainly Asian, European, North American countries and Australia and New Zealand into account, and are focused on profession-related and sociopolitical aspects of school social work. A synthesis of school social work practice themes transcending national boundaries emerged from the findings, covering child-, family-, school-, and community-related issues. Accordingly, children are predominantly confronted with similar issues, irrespective of the place where they live, such as violence toward themselves, at home, in school, and in their community. Bearing in mind methodological challenges when carrying out comparative studies, recommendations include the conduct of practice-focused studies that generate new stimuli to improve already well-developed practices in a culturally appropriate way and enable mutual learning among school social workers.

Cette étude porte sur la violence meurtrière en Haïti, qui selon plusieurs auteurs est maintenant à l'état endémique. Pourtant, son taux d’homicide officiel (10.2 par 100 000 habitants) se situe seulement légèrement au-dessus de la moyenne mondiale, mais demeure beaucoup plus bas que celui d'autres pays des Caraïbes ou d'Amérique Centrale. Le premier objectif de ce mémoire est de déterminer si le taux officiel proposé par l’Office des Nations Unies contre la drogue et le crime (UNODC) représenterait une sous-estimation du phénomène. Afin de répondre à cet objectif, de nouvelles données provenant de la Commission Nationale Épiscopale Justice et Paix (CÉ-JILAP), qui recense les homicides s’étant produits dans l’ensemble du pays durant l’année 2012, ont été employées. Ces données ont été colligées à l’aide d’une grille comprenant des informations au sujet des victimes, des suspects et du motif du crime. Le second objectif de cette recherche est d'examiner la situation en Haïti face à celle de ses pays voisins. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons le cadre conceptuel et les données de l'Enquête mondiale sur l'homicide (EMH). Le but est de présenter les facteurs macro qui peuvent avoir un impact sur les taux de criminalité en Haïti. Les données de la CÉ-JILAP révèlent que le taux d’homicide de 10.2 par 100 000 habitants serait une sous-estimation du taux réel des homicides. Celui-ci se situerait plutôt entre 12.5 et 17.9 par 100 000 habitants. En ce qui concerne les données de l’EMH, les résultats démontrent que, comparativement aux autres pays, Haïti était plus touché par les conditions sociales adverses ce qui expliquerait la prévalence plus grande de l'homicide. En Haïti, l’on note la présence de types d'homicides rares que l'on retrouve peu dans les autres pays, soit des homicides liés au lynchage et à la sorcellerie. / This study pertains to deadly violence in Haiti, which, according to scholars, has reached an endemic state. However, its homicide rate (10.2 per 100 000 inhabitants) is slightly above the global average. The first objective of the current study is to determine whether this rate, suggested by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) represents an under estimation of the total number of homicides being perpetrated in this country. In order to meet this objective, disaggregated data on homicides in Haiti will be presented. Data from the Commission Nationale Épiscopale Justice et Paix (CÉ-JILAP), compiling homicide incidents which took place in 2012 are used (n = 1 133). The information was collected by using a coding sheet, which included information pertaining to victims, suspects and crime motive. The second objective of this project is to present these factors in the Haitian context, and to compare them to the situation in other countries across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. We used the data and dynamic theory of homicide proposed by the World Homicide Survey (WHS) to this end. Questionnaires were distributed to informants hailing from 11 countries in order to further understand the manifestations of crime in this region. The data from the CÉ-JILAP reveal that the figure proposed by the UNODC is an underestimation of the actual homicide rate in Haiti. The estimated rate would be between 12,5 and 17,9 per 100 000 inhabitants. With regards to the WHS, results show that, compared to other countries, adverse social conditions such as poverty and inequality were very present in Haiti. Furthermore, informants noted a higher frequency of rare forms of homicides, such as lynching and homicides related to witchcraft.

The primary aim of this thesis was to explore the role culture plays in service delivery, more specifically on consumers' perceptions of service quality and its potential impact on complaint behaviour. A key premise of the thesis was that prominent models of service quality are conceptualized largely in western contexts without considering conceptual meaning in various contexts or nuances of meaning. Furthermore, there may indeed be unique aspects of culture in each context not yet identified in the extant literature. With this in mind, a qualitative approach was employed in order to gain an in-depth understanding of consumers' perceptions. The thesis was conducted in three stages culminating in three separate papers. Stage 1 involved a student sample of Trinidad and Tobago nationals currently enrolled at university in the North West region of the UK. Generally this stage served as a pilot for the larger cross-national study. Interview data and subsequent thematic analyses culminated in a holistic, multi-dimensional hierarchical framework labelled Conceptualization of Service Quality in Cultural Context (CSQCC). Within this framework two key cultural triggers called Culture of Closeness and Culture of Servitude where found to have an overarching influence on all variables in the model. As well as uniquely including culture, the CSQCC also encompasses human resources and operational variables not included in traditional service quality models namely Employee Work Ethic/Attitudes, Organizational Responsibility and Customer Responsibility. Stage 2 which included samples of British and Trinidad and Tobago nationals, all currently living in their country of birth were part of the larger study sample. Findings from both country contexts indicate that the general structure of the CSQCC identified in Stage 1 is upheld demonstrating universality in terms of the range of factors consumers utilize in their evaluations of service quality, at least in Britain and the UK. Notwithstanding the similarities, the importance weightings for the universal aspects of the CSQCC framework appear to vary. Furthermore, cultural triggers again were found to have an overarching influence consumers' perceptions, two such triggers were identified for British nationals-British Reserve and Culture of Cordiality, and for Trinbagonian nationals two additional triggers-Festive Culture and Culture of Entitlement. Data for Stage 3 was collected at the same time at Stage 2 and involved a cross-national analysis of consumer complaint behaviour. Based on the empirical data a Cultural Framework of Consumer Complaint Behaviour (CFCCB) was proposed inclusive of consumers' behavioural processes and post-interaction behavioural outcomes. There are four key processes-cognitive, motivational, environmental and emotive-with emotions playing a central role. The unique cultural triggers identified in Stages 1 and 2 were also found to influence these behavioural processes which in turn impact behavioural outcomes. To the best of the researcher's knowledge such a holistic model as the CFCCB has not been previously conceptualized. There is no such thing as "culture-free" behaviour; culture and human behaviour are deeply intertwined, and thus multinationals and global firms need to be environmentally sensitive, identify the cultural triggers in potential markets, and assess their likely impact on service quality delivery.