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The Relationship Between Perceived Parental Rejection and Adjustment for Arab, Canadian, and Arab Canadian Youth Sarah Rasmi, Susan S. Chuang and Saba Safdar Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2012 43: 84 originally published online 16 December 2011 DOI: 10.1177/0022022111428172

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Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43(1) 84–90 The Relationship Between © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Perceived Parental DOI: 10.1177/0022022111428172 Rejection and Adjustment jccp.sagepub.com for Arab, Canadian, and Arab Canadian Youth

Sarah Rasmi1, Susan S. Chuang1, and Saba Safdar1

Abstract The present study examined whether psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and risk behavior differed among European Canadian (n = 147), Arab Canadian (n = 129), and Arab youth in Egypt and Lebanon (n = 131). Using parental acceptance-rejection theory, we also examined the strength of associations between perceived parental rejection and positive and negative outcomes for these youth. Our results suggested that European Canadian youth were less likely to perceive parental rejection and had higher life satisfaction than both Arab groups. However, although Arab Canadians and Arabs perceived more parental rejection than their European Canadian counterparts, it had less of an effect on their adjustment. We argued that culturally normative aspects of parent-youth relationships in Arab families may mitigate the effects of perceived parental rejection and that immigration may not exert a negative effect on Arab families in Canada. Instead, we suggested that researchers need to focus on the strengths of youth and families, rather than the negative effects of immigration and/or cultural group status.

Keywords Arab, immigration, parent-youth relationships

Historically, Arab culture and its people have been underrepresented in the social sciences literature, leaving a gap in our understanding of the similarities and differences between Arab and other cultures. Currently, there are large and growing Arab populations in many countries includ- ing Canada, due in part to its official multiculturalism policy and extensive network of settlement agencies (Chuang, Rasmi, & Friesen, 2011). Yet Arab scholarship has directed very little attention to immigration issues, in Canada or elsewhere. The need to examine Arab populations has never been as critical as it is now, in light of the Arab Spring. Immigration is a complex phenomenon, but at its core, it is a family process, necessitating an examination of both familial and individual adaptation. This is particularly important for Arabs

1University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Corresponding Author: Sarah Rasmi, Psychology Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2W1. Email: [email protected]

Downloaded from jcc.sagepub.com at University of Western Australia on May 11, 2012 Rasmi et al. 85 in Canada, who are faced not only with the challenges of negotiating discrepant Arab and Canadian values (Schwartz, 2006) but also post-9/11 discrimination (Khalema & Wannas-Jones, 2003). We address these issues by examining how the parent-youth relationship is related to youth adjustment in Arab immigrants to Canada, and compared to matched samples of European Canadians and Arabs in the Middle East (Egypt and Lebanon).

Parent-Youth Relationships Early parenting research tended to apply Western models of parenting to families from various backgrounds, despite the importance of nesting these processes within the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which they occur (Harkness & Super, 2002). In contrast to this approach, Rohner (1986) developed parental acceptance-rejection theory (PART) based on ethnographic research conducted in over 40 industrial and nonindustrial societies. According to PART, parental warmth is a unidimensional continuum anchored by parental acceptance and parental rejection, which are organized around four classes of behavior: warmth/affection1, hostility/ aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection. They are similarly perceived by youth and adults transculturally, despite cultural differences in the specific words and behaviors used to express them (Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2005). A central postulate of PART (personality subtheory) argues that universally, youth who perceive parental rejection experience poorer psychological, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes than those who perceive parental acceptance (Rohner & Khaleque, 2010). A review of over 100 studies found support for personality subtheory in Arab countries (see Ahmed, Rohner, Khaleque, & Gielen, 2010). However, most studies included in this review were unpublished theses or dis- sertations, conference presentations, and/or written in the Arabic language, making them largely inaccessible to Western researchers. Similar to the vast majority of PART research, these studies were also conducted with members of each country’s majority group. As a result, we have a very limited understanding of personality subtheory in immigrant groups, where there is likely to be more intercultural interaction, as well as variation across culture. We address these gaps by examining the validity of PART’s claims for immigrant Arab youth in Canada compared to their heritage and settlement culture counterparts.

Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment To date, the deficit perspective has guided most immigration research, and as a result, researchers and practitioners have focused their attention on treatment strategies and risk-based preven- tion programs (Park, 2004), as opposed to strength-based programs and services that could facilitate immigrant youth and families’ positive adjustment in Canada. We address this issue by examining immigrant Arab youth’s positive psychological functioning (life satisfaction and psychological well-being) in comparison to youth from the majority culture in their heritage and settlement countries. The limited research examining children and youth’s life satisfaction suggests that it is strongly associated with family satisfaction (Park, 2004). Cross-culturally, people from collec- tivist, Eastern cultures tend to report lower life satisfaction than those from individualist, North American cultures (Diener & Suh, 2000). Therefore, we expect European Canadians to report higher life satisfaction than both Arab groups (Hypothesis 1a). Based on some evidence suggest- ing that immigrants have lower life satisfaction than non-immigrants (e.g., Ullman & Tatar, 2001), we also expect Arabs to report higher life satisfaction than Arab Canadian youth (Hypothesis 1b). Although no studies have examined psychological well-being in an Arab

Downloaded from jcc.sagepub.com at University of Western Australia on May 11, 2012 86 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43(1) context, since it is positively related to life satisfaction (Ryff, 1989), we expect a similar pattern: European Canadians will report higher psychological well-being than both Arab groups (Hypothesis 2a), and Arabs will report higher psychological well-being than Arab Canadians (Hypothesis 2b). Although risk behavior becomes salient in adolescence and young adulthood, its prevalence may be influenced by culture. Studies have found that youth in Western countries report more risk behavior than those from Eastern countries (e.g., Jessor, Turbin, Costa, Dong, Zhang, & Wang, 2003). Based on this research, as well as the importance of reputation and honor in Arab society (Uskul, Oyserman, & Schwarz, 2010), we expect that European Canadians will report more risk behavior than both Arab groups (Hypothesis 3). Given the contradictory findings reported by immigrant risk behavior studies (e.g., Amundsen, Rossow, & Skurtveit, 2005; Brindis, Wolfe, McCarter, Ball, & Starbuck-Morales, 1995; Vazsonyi, Trejos-Castillo, & Huang, 2006), we will not make a specific hypothesis for Arab Canadian risk behavior relative to Arabs.

Perceived Parental Rejection and Psychological and Behavioral Outcomes Although personality subtheory has not been explored in immigrant groups, the robustness of previous findings with members of the cultural majority suggests that these relationships will be replicated. However, the strength of the relationship is likely to differ, due to a general trend for non-Western families to report more perceived parental rejection but not necessarily more negative outcomes (e.g., Erkman & Rohner, 2006; Steely & Rohner, 2006). Though no study has compared the strength of the relationship between perceived parental rejection and its outcomes in different ethnocultural groups, culturally normative aspects of parent-youth relationships such as parental control may buffer the deleterious effects of perceived parental rejection for many ethnocultural groups. Moreover, given the large number of factors that influence immigrant youth adjustment, we expect perceived parental rejection to have a lesser effect on Arab and Arab immigrant youth’s life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and risk behavior compared to European Canadians (Hypothesis 4).

Method Participants

A total of 407 university students and recent graduates participated in this study. The sample consisted of 147 European Canadians (69.4% female, M age = 18.50), 129 first-generation Arab Canadians (58.1% female, M age = 21.12), and 131 Arabs (69.5% female, M age = 20.12).

Measures Perceived parental rejection. Rohner et al.’s (2005) 24-item Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire: Short Form retrospectively measured perceived parenting behaviors experienced between the ages of 7 and 12. Items were rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (almost always true of my parents) to 4 (almost never true of my parents). Psychological well-being. Ryff’s (1989) 18-item Psychological Well-Being Scale measured positive psychological functioning, based on six dimensions (self-acceptance, positive relations with others, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, and autonomy). Items were rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

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Life satisfaction. Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin’s (1985) 5-item Satisfaction With Life Scale measured youth’s life satisfaction. Each item was rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Risk behavior. We created a 16-item checklist by combining items from Chen, Greenberger, Lester, Dong, and Guo’s (1998) misconduct measure with the aggression subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Items centered around four classes of behavior (school misconduct, antisocial behavior, illicit substance use, and aggression) and were rated on a 4-point frequency scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (often).

Results As can be seen in Table 1, European Canadians (M = 35.49, SD = 12.39) reported significantly less Perceived Parental Rejection than Arab Canadians (M = 42.98, SD = 14.36) and Arabs (M = 45.03, SD = 13.45), who did not significantly differ from one another. Using a series of ANOVAs and hierarchical regression analyses, we determined that gender did not differ and age did not predict a significant amount of variance across our three groups. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to examine Hypotheses 1 through 3. Consistent with Hypothesis 1a, European Canadians (M = 5.32, SD = 1.09) reported significantly higher Life Satisfaction than Arab Canadians, t(274) = 4.70, M = 4.62, SD = 1.38, and Arabs, t(276) = 7.01, M = 4.29, SD = 1.36, F(2, 404) = 23.88, p = .00. Contrary to Hypothesis 1b, Arab Canadians and Arabs did not differ in terms of Life Satisfaction. Hypotheses 2a, 2b, and 3 were also unsup- ported as no group differences emerged in terms of Psychological Well-Being and Risk Behavior. To examine Hypothesis 4, correlation coefficients were computed and then compared using the Fisher r-to-z transformation to test the difference between the correlations (see Table 2). Perceived Parental Rejection was more strongly related to Life Satisfaction (r = –.50), Psychological Well-Being (r =–.50), and Risk Behavior (r = .31) for European Canadians than Arab Canadians (r = −.32, z = 1.82, p = .034; r = −.28, z = 2.10, p = .018; r = .04, z = 2.25, p = .012, respectively), and directionally supported for European Canadians and Arabs for Psychological Well-Being and Risk Behavior (r = −.35, z = 1.45, p = .07; r = .14, z = 1.4, p = .08, respectively), providing partial support for Hypothesis 4.

Discussion Although few group differences emerged, the present study corroborated PART’s personality subtheory with its overall finding that youth who perceived parental rejection had lower levels of psychological well-being and life satisfaction and were more likely to participate in risk behavior. This study extended the PART literature by replicating its findings with an Arab Canadian immigrant sample, but also by comparing the strength of these associations with matched samples of European Canadian and Arab youth in the Middle East. We also found that European Canadian youth who perceived parental rejection tended to be more poorly adjusted than their Arab Canadian and Arab counterparts. This finding may be explained by considering two complementary aspects of normative parent-youth relationships in Arab culture: parental control and intrafamilial hierarchy. Arab parents are strong uncertainty avoidant and believe that they are protecting their children by discouraging exploration of the unknown and enforcing strict rules and regulations (Hofstede, 2001). As such, a primary social- ization goal in Arab families is obedience, achieved in part through vertical parent-child com- munication and even physical punishment (Kayyali, 2006). Although these practices are considered maladaptive in Western culture, they are supported by the Arab values of embeddedness and

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Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficients for Constructs

Ethnocultural Group

European Canadian Arab Canadian Arab (n = 147) (n = 129) (n = 131)

M SD ∝ M SD ∝ M SD ∝ Perceived parental Rejection 35.49 12.39 .72 42.98 14.36 .67 45.03 13.45 .70 Psychological Well-being 3.86 .59 .88 3.75 .52 .77 3.72 .61 .85 Life satisfaction 5.32 1.09 .85 4.62 1.38 .87 4.29 1.36 .84 Risky behavior 1.69 .45 .85 1.63 .46 .85 1.73 .45 82

Note. Significantly different means are bolded. All ps < .001.

Table 2. Outcome Measures Correlated With Perceived Parental Rejection

Ethnocultural Group

European Canadian (n = 147) Arab Canadian (n = 129) Arab (n = 131) Psychological well-being −.50** −.28** −.35** Life satisfaction −.50** −.32** −.41** Risky behavior .31** .04 .14

hierarchy (Schwartz, 2006). For this reason, Arab youth have been found to be more intercon- nected with their families than European Americans, while also favoring the notion of “absolute submission” to their parents (Dwairy, Achoui, Abouserie, & Farah, 2006). Although obedience and conformity are the cultural underpinnings of Arab society—especially within the family— because Arab parents are typically warm and caring in the treatment of their children (Abudabbeh, 1996), perceived parental rejection is not met as negatively as in Western families, where inde- pendence is encouraged, and warmth and control are separate, almost mutually exclusive constructs (Chao, 1994).

Arab and Arab Immigrant Youth We found no significant differences between Arab Canadians and Arabs in regards to perceived parental rejection, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and risk behavior. Had we only examined these relationships for immigrant Arab and European Canadian families, our results would have suggested that Arab immigrants have poorer relationships with their parents and are more poorly adjusted than their native-born peers. Importantly, this finding could have been interpreted to suggest that immigration is associated with decreased individual and family functioning, as well as perpetuating some of the negative stereotypes sur- rounding Arabs. By using three samples, we were able to anchor Arab Canadians against their counterparts in both heritage and settlement contexts and report that Arab Canadian youth and families are doing well.

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Future Directions

Our study presents an exciting new area of research for PART and parenting scholars, as it suggests cross-cultural differences beyond the universal association between PART and adjustment. Indeed, our understanding of PART’s personality subtheory is saturated: Hundreds of studies have confirmed that youth all over the world have poorer adaptive outcomes when they perceive parental rejection (Rohner & Khaleque, 2010). It is now time to direct our focus to the factors that buffer the adverse effects of perceived parental rejection cross-culturally.

Limitations The main limitation of this study is generalizability, particularly for Arabs in the Middle East. Arab participants in this study were students at two private, American universities in Egypt and Lebanon, who only represented two of the 22 Arab nations. Moreover, Arabs from Egypt and Lebanon are generally less collectivistic than Arabs from the Persian Gulf (Buda & Elsayed- Elkhouly, 1998). Although Arabs have a larger, shared sense of identity and many commonali- ties, it is important to be mindful of intracultural variation. Finally, the self-report, cross-sectional nature of this study prevents us from inferring causal influence.

Acknowledgments This manuscript is based on the first author’s Master’s Thesis. The authors would like to thank Dr. Matthew Whoolery and Dr. Charles Harb for their support in recruiting participants from Egypt and Lebanon. The first author would also like to thank Dr. Timothy M. Daly and Professor Julie Lee for their helpful com- ments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Note 1. To be consistent with the other three negatively coded dimensions, this dimension is reverse-coded as “coldness/lack of affection” for analyses.

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