O câncer de mama é uma doença que mobiliza o sistema familiar da mulher que o apresenta, e a forma como os familiares ajustam-se à doença tem efeito sobre o processo de enfrentamento da mulher. Conhecer a dinâmica familiar e identificar aspectos da interação entre os membros da família que ficam comprometidos com o surgimento da doença e que prejudicam o ajustamento e a qualidade de vida das mulheres e seus familiares é uma das etapas iniciais para se desenvolver serviços adequados à população em foco. A utilização de instrumentos de avaliação do funcionamento familiar, adequadamente construídos e validados, é uma estratégia que tem se mostrado como de grande relevância. No Brasil, não foram encontrados instrumentos que atendessem a esse fim. Portanto, optou-se pela adaptação transcultural e validação de um instrumento norte-americano de avaliação familiar, o que consistiu no objetivo desse estudo. O instrumento escolhido foi a Family Dynamics Measure II (FDM II), uma escala composta por 66 itens construída por um grupo de enfermeiras com base na teoria do sistema familiar saudável de Barnhill. O processo de adaptação do instrumento envolveu a tradução, a retro-tradução, a verificação da equivalência da versão retro-traduzida pela autora principal da escala, a análise semântica e duas análises da validade de face e de conteúdo por juízes. Para o teste das propriedades psicométricas do instrumento, foram realizadas análises de construto por meio da análise fatorial e por meio da validade convergente com a Escala de Ansiedade e Depressão Hospitalar (HADS), e a análise da fidedignidade por meio do cálculo da consistência interna dos itens (alfa de Cronbach). A versão adaptada da FDM II, a HADS e uma ficha de identificação sócio-demográfica foram aplicadas a uma amostra de 251 familiares de mulheres portadoras de câncer de mama, atendidas em dois serviços de saúde do interior do estado de São Paulo. O produto da análise semântica e da validade de face e de conteúdo por juízes resultou em uma versão da FDM II em português adaptada para uso no Brasil. A análise fatorial mostrou que a versão adaptada não confirmou a dimensionalidade teórica do instrumento. Porém, foi semelhante à obtida pelas autoras na análise fatorial do instrumento original. Na análise da validade convergente da FDM II com a HADS, as correlações entre as medidas de ansiedade e depressão e as medidas das dimensões da FDM II foram inversas de moderada a baixa intensidade. E na análise da fidedignidade, a consistência interna dos itens foi muito boa (α = 0,90), apesar dos coeficientes por dimensão serem mais baixos. Concluindo, a versão adaptada da FDM II foi considerada válida, e sugerem-se novos estudos para fortalecer essa evidência. / Breast cancer is a disease that affects the woman\'s family and, the way the family faces the disease affects the woman coping process. Knowing the family dynamics and identifying interaction aspects among the relatives affected by the disease, and that may damage the coping process and life quality of the woman and her family, is an initial stage to develop adequate services for the focused population. The use of well constructed and reliable tools to assess the family dynamics is a relevant strategy. Tools of that kind, to achieve such results, were not available in Brazil. Therefore, the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of a north-American instrument for family assessment was chosen to supply this need and became the purpose of this study. The chosen scale was the Family Dynamics Measure II (FDM II), a 66 items questionnaire, built by a group of nurses and based on Barnhill\'s healthy family system. The adaptation process involved the translation, back-translation, assessment of the equivalence between the original and the back-translated version by the main scale\'s author, a semantic analysis and two face and content validity assessments by judges. For the psychometric properties tests of the instrument, analysis of the construct were carried out by means of factor analysis and convergent validity towards Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and reliability analysis, through items internal consistency calculation (Cronbach\'s alpha). The FDM II adapted version, HADS, and a socio-demographic identification form were submitted to a sample with 251 breast cancer women\'s relatives, in treatment at two health services facilities in Sao Paulo state. The product of the semantic and the face and content validity analysis resulted in a version of the FDM II in Portuguese adapted for use in Brazil. Factor analysis showed that the adapted version did not confirm the theoretical dimensionality. However, it was like to those obtained by the authors at the factor analysis on the original instrument. At the convergent validity analysis on FDM II and HADS, the correlation between anxiety and depression measurements and the FDM II dimensions measurements were inverted, from moderate to low intensity. At the reliability analysis, the items internal consistency were very good (α = 0,90), despite the low coefficients by dimension. The conclusion is that the FDM II adapted version was considered valid and new studies to strengthen this evidence are suggested.

Na área da saúde, a grande maioria dos instrumentos de avaliação desenvolvida até o momento encontra-se no idioma inglês e foi elaborada com a intenção de ser utilizada em países falantes de língua inglesa. Os questionários de qualidade de vida Quality of Life in Swallowing Disorders (SWAL-QOL) e Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction (SWAL-CARE) em língua portuguesa do Brasil foram traduzidos para utilização em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias. É de extrema importância o uso desses protocolos de qualidade de vida específicos, ou seja, traduzidos, adaptados e validados para um público-alvo definido. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma nova tradução e adaptação transcultural dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE originais para a língua portuguesa do Brasil, de acordo com a realidade de idosos acometidos por disfagia neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, a tradução anterior dos questionários para aplicação em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias foi aplicada em 05 idosos para observarmos as dificuldades de compreensão relatadas pelas fonoaudiólogas que já aplicavam esses questionários na clínica de fonoaudiologia da FOB - USP. Gravamos os encontros em que os questionários foram aplicados a fim de comprovarmos a dificuldade por parte dos idosos de compreenderem o conteúdo dos questionários. Em seguida, iniciamos o processo de tradução e adaptação transcultural que seguiu as diretrizes para escalas de qualidade de vida relacionadas à saúde propostas por Beaton et al. (2000). Assim, para a tradução e adaptação transcultural foram considerados seis estágios: (1) traduções, (2) síntese das traduções, (3) retrotraduções, (4) comitê de peritos, (5) teste da versão prévia e (6) submissão dos documentos deste processo para um comitê de acompanhamento. No primeiro estágio, duas traduções foram elaboradas por tradutores distintos; no segundo estágio, essas duas traduções foram analisadas, e uma versão síntese foi estabelecida durante uma reunião entre os tradutores e um juiz neutro; no terceiro estágio, essa versão síntese foi retrotraduzida para a língua inglesa por dois falantes de língua inglesa; no quarto estágio, houve uma nova reunião envolvendo os dois tradutores, um dos dois retrotradutores, uma fonoaudióloga, um perito em Letras e um metodologista que estabeleceram a versão prévia a ser testada; no quinto estágio, aconteceram os testes e as adequações necessárias para que uma versão final em língua portuguesa fosse estabelecida. Fizeram parte do estágio 5, 10 pacientes pertencentes ao público-alvo desta pesquisa, idosos com disfagia orofaríngea neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, esses 10 pacientes responderam à versão final dos questionários a fim de identificarmos a clareza e a compreensão da terminologia utilizada nos questionários. As questões que apresentaram 15% de respostas de difícil compreensão e não se aplica foram reavaliadas por uma banca de especialistas composta por 3 fonoaudiólogas especialistas em disfagia. A única questão apontada por dois pacientes como de difícil compreensão foi a questão 28 do SWAL-QOL. O conteúdo dessa questão foi discutido entre as fonoaudiólogas durante reunião da banca de especialistas e foi alterado. No sexto estágio, os documentos deste processo foram submetidos para acompanhamento pela pesquisadora e sua coorientadora. A pesquisadora revisou a versão prévia e foi estabelecida, então, a versão final em língua portuguesa do Brasil dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE para idosos com disfagia neurogênica. / In the health field, most assessment instruments that have been developed so far are written in English and designed to be used in English-speaking countries. The SWAL-QOL, a dysphagia-specific quality of life questionnaire, and the SWAL-CARE, a quality of care questionnaire, were first translated and cross-culturally adapted into the Brazilian language to be used with patients with dysphagia by different etiologies. It is extremely important that these questionnaires be specific for a defined target public. Thus, the objective of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt both questionnaires, the SWAL-QOL and the SWAL-CARE, into the Brazilian Portuguese language according to the reality of the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia. First, the Brazilian Portuguese version of both questionnaires, developed to be used with people with dysphagia by different etiologies, were applied in 05 elderly people so that we could observe the difficulties patients have to understand the content as reported by speech pathologists that had been using the questionnaires in their clinical practice at FOB - USP. The meetings were filmed so that we could record the difficulties the elderly had to understand the content while trying to answer the questionnaires. After that, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was initiated and followed the guidelines for the translation of health-related quality of life protocols recommended by Beaton et al. (2000). Thus, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was conducted in 6 stages: (1) translations, (2) synthesis of translations, (3) back translations, (4) expert committee, (5) pretesting and (6) submission and appraisal of all written reports by developers/committee. In the first stage, two translations were done by two different translators; in the second stage, these two translations were analyzed by the two translators and a neutral judge in order to reach a synthesis version; in the third stage, this synthesis version was back translated into English by two native speakers; in the fourth stage, another meeting was held with the two translators, one of the two back translators, a speech language pathologist, a specialist in Languages and a methodologist that together reached a previous version to be tested; in the fifth stage, tests were performed and the necessary changes were made in order to reach the final version of the questionnaires. A total of 10 patients, who belonged to the target public of this study, elderly people with oropharyngeal neurogenic dysphagia, took part in this fifth stage. First, the previous version of the questionnaires was applied in these 10 patients in order to observe whether the content was clear and understandable for them. Items analyzed as hard to understand and content does not apply by more than 15 % of the participants were reconsidered by an expert committee composed by three speech pathologists. The only question marked as hard to understand by two patients was the question 28 of the SWAL-QOL. The speech pathologists discussed the content of such question during the expert committee meeting and decided on changing it. In the sixth stage, all documents were submitted and appraised by a committee composed by the researcher and her co-supervisor. Then, the researcher reviewed the previous version and we reached the final version of the SWAL-QOL and SWAL-CARE for the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia.

Neste estudo foi realizada a tradução e adaptação transcultural para o português no contexto da cultura brasileira e validada a versão do Questionário de Incapacidade decorrente de Dor Orofacial de Manchester. As diretrizes seguidas para a tradução e adaptação transcultural foram propostas por Beaton et al. (2000) e Wild et al. (2005). A versão final instituída (Brasil - MOPDS) foi aplicada em 50 pacientes com Dor Orofacial da clínica ambulatorial de ATM e Oclusão do Departamento de Prótese Dentária da Faculdade de Odontologia da Universidade de São Paulo. A Brasil MOPDS foi administrada duas vezes por um entrevistador (intervalo de 15-20 dias) e uma vez por um entrevistador independente. A versão brasileira do questionário OHIP-14 e a Escala Visual Analógica (EVA) foram realizadas em uma das entrevistas. Para análise da consistência interna foi utilizado Alpha de Cronbach e o Coeficiente de Correlação de Spearman. O Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasse (ICC) e o Coeficiente de Correlação de Bland-Altmann (CCBA) foram computados para avaliar a validade e a confiabilidade externa e interna. A consistência interna encontrada foi alta ( = 0,9175) e as correlações interobservador (ICC = 0,924) e intraobservador (ICC = 0,982) foram excelentes. As validades comparadas ao OHIP- 14 (r = 0,857) e a EVA (r = 0,758) foram altas. A Brasil MOPDS foi validada e adaptada com sucesso para aplicação em pacientes brasileiros, com validade e confiabilidade interna e externa satisfatória. / In this study was done the translation and cross cultural adaptation of the Manchester Orofacial Pain Disability for the Portuguese language. The guidelines followed for this process was suggested by Beaton et al. (2000) and Wild et al. (2005). Therefore, the final version (Brazil - MOPDS) was established and applied in 50 patients with Orofacial Pain selected in TMJ and Occlusion clinic ambulatory of University of São Paulo University Dentistry School. The Brazil MOPDS was administered twice by one interviewer (15-20 days interval) and once by an independent interviewer. The Brazilian OHIP short version (OHIP-14) and the Visual Analogical Scale (VAS) were applied on the same day. For internal consistency analysis, the Cronbach´s Alpha test, Spearmans Correlation Coefficient, intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altmans Correlation Coefficient were used to evaluate the validation and internal and external reliability. Results: The internal consistency found was high (=0, 9175). Inter-observer correlations (ICC = 0.924) and intra-observer (ICC= 0.982) were excellent. Validity compared with OHIP-14 (r= 0.857) and VAS (r= 0.758) were high. Brazil MOPDS was successfully translated and adapted to be applied to Brazilian patients, with satisfactory internal and external reliability.

Na área da saúde, a grande maioria dos instrumentos de avaliação desenvolvida até o momento encontra-se no idioma inglês e foi elaborada com a intenção de ser utilizada em países falantes de língua inglesa. Os questionários de qualidade de vida Quality of Life in Swallowing Disorders (SWAL-QOL) e Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction (SWAL-CARE) em língua portuguesa do Brasil foram traduzidos para utilização em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias. É de extrema importância o uso desses protocolos de qualidade de vida específicos, ou seja, traduzidos, adaptados e validados para um público-alvo definido. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma nova tradução e adaptação transcultural dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE originais para a língua portuguesa do Brasil, de acordo com a realidade de idosos acometidos por disfagia neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, a tradução anterior dos questionários para aplicação em pacientes com disfagia por diferentes etiologias foi aplicada em 05 idosos para observarmos as dificuldades de compreensão relatadas pelas fonoaudiólogas que já aplicavam esses questionários na clínica de fonoaudiologia da FOB - USP. Gravamos os encontros em que os questionários foram aplicados a fim de comprovarmos a dificuldade por parte dos idosos de compreenderem o conteúdo dos questionários. Em seguida, iniciamos o processo de tradução e adaptação transcultural que seguiu as diretrizes para escalas de qualidade de vida relacionadas à saúde propostas por Beaton et al. (2000). Assim, para a tradução e adaptação transcultural foram considerados seis estágios: (1) traduções, (2) síntese das traduções, (3) retrotraduções, (4) comitê de peritos, (5) teste da versão prévia e (6) submissão dos documentos deste processo para um comitê de acompanhamento. No primeiro estágio, duas traduções foram elaboradas por tradutores distintos; no segundo estágio, essas duas traduções foram analisadas, e uma versão síntese foi estabelecida durante uma reunião entre os tradutores e um juiz neutro; no terceiro estágio, essa versão síntese foi retrotraduzida para a língua inglesa por dois falantes de língua inglesa; no quarto estágio, houve uma nova reunião envolvendo os dois tradutores, um dos dois retrotradutores, uma fonoaudióloga, um perito em Letras e um metodologista que estabeleceram a versão prévia a ser testada; no quinto estágio, aconteceram os testes e as adequações necessárias para que uma versão final em língua portuguesa fosse estabelecida. Fizeram parte do estágio 5, 10 pacientes pertencentes ao público-alvo desta pesquisa, idosos com disfagia orofaríngea neurogênica. Em um primeiro momento, esses 10 pacientes responderam à versão final dos questionários a fim de identificarmos a clareza e a compreensão da terminologia utilizada nos questionários. As questões que apresentaram 15% de respostas de difícil compreensão e não se aplica foram reavaliadas por uma banca de especialistas composta por 3 fonoaudiólogas especialistas em disfagia. A única questão apontada por dois pacientes como de difícil compreensão foi a questão 28 do SWAL-QOL. O conteúdo dessa questão foi discutido entre as fonoaudiólogas durante reunião da banca de especialistas e foi alterado. No sexto estágio, os documentos deste processo foram submetidos para acompanhamento pela pesquisadora e sua coorientadora. A pesquisadora revisou a versão prévia e foi estabelecida, então, a versão final em língua portuguesa do Brasil dos questionários SWAL-QOL e SWAL-CARE para idosos com disfagia neurogênica. / In the health field, most assessment instruments that have been developed so far are written in English and designed to be used in English-speaking countries. The SWAL-QOL, a dysphagia-specific quality of life questionnaire, and the SWAL-CARE, a quality of care questionnaire, were first translated and cross-culturally adapted into the Brazilian language to be used with patients with dysphagia by different etiologies. It is extremely important that these questionnaires be specific for a defined target public. Thus, the objective of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt both questionnaires, the SWAL-QOL and the SWAL-CARE, into the Brazilian Portuguese language according to the reality of the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia. First, the Brazilian Portuguese version of both questionnaires, developed to be used with people with dysphagia by different etiologies, were applied in 05 elderly people so that we could observe the difficulties patients have to understand the content as reported by speech pathologists that had been using the questionnaires in their clinical practice at FOB - USP. The meetings were filmed so that we could record the difficulties the elderly had to understand the content while trying to answer the questionnaires. After that, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was initiated and followed the guidelines for the translation of health-related quality of life protocols recommended by Beaton et al. (2000). Thus, the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was conducted in 6 stages: (1) translations, (2) synthesis of translations, (3) back translations, (4) expert committee, (5) pretesting and (6) submission and appraisal of all written reports by developers/committee. In the first stage, two translations were done by two different translators; in the second stage, these two translations were analyzed by the two translators and a neutral judge in order to reach a synthesis version; in the third stage, this synthesis version was back translated into English by two native speakers; in the fourth stage, another meeting was held with the two translators, one of the two back translators, a speech language pathologist, a specialist in Languages and a methodologist that together reached a previous version to be tested; in the fifth stage, tests were performed and the necessary changes were made in order to reach the final version of the questionnaires. A total of 10 patients, who belonged to the target public of this study, elderly people with oropharyngeal neurogenic dysphagia, took part in this fifth stage. First, the previous version of the questionnaires was applied in these 10 patients in order to observe whether the content was clear and understandable for them. Items analyzed as hard to understand and content does not apply by more than 15 % of the participants were reconsidered by an expert committee composed by three speech pathologists. The only question marked as hard to understand by two patients was the question 28 of the SWAL-QOL. The speech pathologists discussed the content of such question during the expert committee meeting and decided on changing it. In the sixth stage, all documents were submitted and appraised by a committee composed by the researcher and her co-supervisor. Then, the researcher reviewed the previous version and we reached the final version of the SWAL-QOL and SWAL-CARE for the elderly with neurogenic dysphagia.

abstract: Biculturalism embodies the degree to which individuals adapt to living within two cultural systems and develop the ability to live effectively across those two cultures. It represents, therefore, a normative developmental task among members of immigrant and ethnic-racial minority groups, and has important implications for psychosocial adjustment. Despite a strong theoretical focus on contextual influences in biculturalism scholarship, the ways in which proximal contexts shape its development are understudied. In my dissertation, I examine the mechanisms via which the family context might influence the development of bicultural competence among a socio-economically diverse sample of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youths (30% Mexico-born) followed for 7 years (Mage = 10.44 to 17.38 years; Wave 1 to 4). In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development. In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2019

This study examines the impact of national culture on the content of corporate Web sites, and Web users’ attitudes and intentions toward culturally congruent or incongruent Web sites. In this work, culturally bipolar clusters based on Hofstede’s (1991) and Hall’s (1976) cultural dimensions are conceptualised. New Zealand and Korea are chosen as representatives of the respective bipolar clusters. This research utilises both content analysis and experimental research to provide deep insight into an area which has not yet been explored. Two studies are undertaken, Study One, focusing on the content analysis, examines how the use of visual communication and Web features differs between the two countries and between industry types. Study Two assesses Web users’ predispositions to respond favourably or unfavourably to the Web site. Web users’ perceptions, measured by experimental research with four culturally manipulated Web sites, are assumed to be the most suitable concept for studying the effectiveness of Web sites. Three ethnic groups are involved: Korean university students, New Zealand university students, and English-Korean bilingual university students. The findings reveal differences in the content of corporate Web sites from the two countries. However, these results do not support the findings of extant research. The results show that the corporate Web sites studied can be distinguished not only by the two national cultures, but also by other significant factors such as a company’s characteristics, its online presence strategy, national broadband infrastructure, and unique Internet culture. Additionally, the segment of young adults shows a convergence of cultural value systems which can be attributed to the fact that young adults in both countries have similar perceptions toward corporate Web sites regardless of their nationalities. Language structure and local terminology on the Web sites, however, are still important. This study contributes to knowledge by providing critical insights into the effectiveness and cultural congruence of Web sites. The results will benefit both academics and practitioners.

Australia is a culturally diverse country with many migrant and refugee families in need of mental health services. Yet, surveys indicate that many culturally diverse community members do not feel comfortable in accessing mental health services, often due to a limited understanding of current western practices and the lack of practitioner cultural sensitivity. Despite the apparent need, few investigations have been conducted with migrant families to understand their different values and needs, and identify how they adjust to a new culture. The paucity of empirical research is largely due to the number of variables associated with the process of cultural change, and the fact that culture itself may lend different meaning to symptom experience, and the expression thereof. Moreover, because migrant adaptation is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, it is often rendered difficult to investigate. Cultural groups have been observed to exhibit differences in the pathogenesis and expressions of psychological adjustment, thus making culturally sensitive assessment a particularly arduous yet important task. Although the number of studies conducted on cultural adaptation trends of adult migrants is growing, few investigations have examined the acculturation experiences of children and adolescents. Moreover, the link between acculturation and mental health has confounded researchers and practitioners alike. Considering assessment procedures largely influence therapeutic strategies, it is deemed essential that Australian health care professionals understand language, behavioural, and motivational differences between ethnic groups. In response to appeals for empirical data on culture-specific differences and developmental pathways of emotional resiliency and psychopathology, the present research program examines the complex interplay between situational factors and internal processes that contribute to mental health among young migrants and refugees. The research focuses particularly on anxiety, which is not only the most common form of childhood psychopathology but also frequently coincides with stressful life events such as cultural relocation. Two hundred and seventy-three primary and high school students (comprised of former-Yugoslavian and Chinese cultural groups) participated in this research program. Primary (n=131) and high school (n=142) students completed self-report measures of acculturation, internalising symptoms, social support, self-concept/esteem, ethnic identity, and future outlook, and were compared by cultural group, heterogenic ethnicity, school level, gender, and residential duration variables. Specifically, Study 1 aimed to map the cultural adjustment patterns of migrant youth so as to determine both situational and internal process risk and protective factors of emotional distress. The main findings from Study 1 indicate: (1) patterns of cultural adjustment differ for children and adolescents according to cultural background, gender, age, and length of stay in the host culture; (2) former-Yugoslavian migrants generally report greater identification and involvement with Australian cultural norms than Chinese migrant youth; and (3) the divergent variables social support and bicultural adjustment are not universally paired with acculturative stress, as previously indicated in other adult migrant and acculturation studies. These outcomes highlight the importance of addressing the emotional and psychological needs of young migrants from unique age-relevant cultural perspectives. Building on these outcomes, the aim of Study 2 was to propose an organisational structure for a number of single risk factors that have been linked to acculturative stress in young migrants. In recognising that divergent situational characteristics (e.g., school level, gender, residential duration in Australia, social support, and cultural predisposition) are selectively paired with internal processing characteristics (e.g., emotional stability, self-worth/acceptance, acculturation/identity, and future outlook), a top-down path model of acculturative stress for children and adolescents of Chinese and former-Yugoslavian backgrounds was proposed and tested. To determine goodness of model fit, path analysis was employed. Specific cross-cultural profiles, application for the proposed age and culture sensitive models, and research considerations are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze (1) how Vietnamese business culture resembles and differs from Unilever corporate culture, (2) what advantages and disadvantages are resulted from these similarities and differences, and (3) how the company made use of the advantages and overcome the disadvantages. This thesis also aims at (4) indicating some shortcomings in Unilever‟s adaptation strategy and providing some recommendations. This research work is qualitative in nature and is based upon a case study. Both primary and secondary data are used for the case analysis. Primary data are collected by semi-structured interviews. As a Western company entering Vietnam – an Eastern market, Unilever has encountered both challenges and benefits from the differences and similarities between its global core values and Vietnamese culture. With its global vision: “We have local roots with global scale”, the company made a number of changes to accommodate the differences and took advantage of the similarities. Its adaptation strategies not only build up a strong and appropriate culture but also act as a source of competitive advantage, which contributes to Unilever impressive success in theVietnamese market. However, there are still some shortcomings that need to be taken into consideration.

Purpose: Our purpose is to study how language proficiency and cross-cultural adaptation affect ethnically diverse teams in their cross-cultural communication competence. Methodology: The data was collected through six interviews of team members working in a product development project in a multinational company. The interviews were conducted in March of 2012. The data analysis followed an interpretative thematic analysis inspired by Boyatzis (1998). To analyze the data we have utilized some steps of the thematic analysis. With the analysis it was identified that ethnically diverse teams build language proficiency and cross-cultural adaptation. Findings: The findings from this research indicate that cross-cultural adaptation and language proficiency should be considered as important dimensions of cross-cultural communication competence within ethnically diverse teams. Language proficiency remains a challenge for many ethnically diverse teams and should be included in studies related to communication. Employees’ ability to adapt to the current environment and culture has an essential impact on team communication. Research limitations/implications: The research was done in a Multinational company based in Sweden within one team at Electrolux AB, therefore implications from our study may not be applicable to all ethnically diverse teams in Multinational companies globally.

<p>This essay is an analysis of a translation of the chapter Success Begets Success – From 1800 to C70 Coupé in David G. Styles’ book Volvo 1800. The Complete Story. By studying cultural adaptations together with the translation of terminology and connectors and basing the analysis on translation theory, certain conclusions can be drawn about the problems of translating a car-related text. This essay is mainly based on the theories of Vinay & Darbelnet (in Munday 2001), Rune Ingo (2007) and Bengt Altenberg (1999). The main results are that terminology is very important and that a translator needs to know the terms very well in order to translate successfully. For cultural adaptations it is necessary to make the text appear natural in the target culture without losing any vital information from the source text. Failure to meet those demands may result in a text which is rejected by people who are very interested in and knowledgeable about Volvo. Regarding connectors, avoidance of repetition is a key to success and slight increases or decreases in formality must sometimes be performed in order to reach this goal. Translation may be a rather vague science, but there are still strategies that must be regarded as better than others.</p>