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Psychological aspects of family across cultures: A 30-nation study |
MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract
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James Georgas
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Psychological aspects of family across cultures: A 30-nation study James Georgas To what degree is the structure and function of the family changing in cultures throughout the world and how have social changes affected family roles, interaction and communication, values, personality, self-construal, and bonds between parents and children, grandparents, and other kin? Will the family system in nations throughout the world inevitably follow the same path as in North America and Northern Europe as predicted by modernization and globalization theories? The project studied the relations between cultural variables, dimensions of family structure and function, and their relations with psychological variables based on Berry's Ecocultural Framework. Thirty nations were chosen so as to represent the different geocultural zones around the globe: North, Central and South America, northern, eastern and southern Europe, West and East Asia, Oceania, north, northeast, central and southern Africa. Factor analysis suggests that two family roles, Psychological and emotional variables and Instrumental variables, e.g., finances and home care, are universal across cultures. Ecocultural variables are correlated with these family roles and values across cultural zones, indicating different relationships between high and low affluent countries. Religion and Affluence have opposite effects on some variables. However, some aspects of family roles and psychological dimensions are universal across cultures. |
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