Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology http://jcc.sagepub.com/ 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 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/43/1/84 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Additional services and information for Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jcc.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jcc.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/43/1/84.refs.html >> Version of Record - Dec 19, 2011 OnlineFirst Version of Record - Dec 16, 2011 What is This? Downloaded from jcc.sagepub.com at University of Western Australia on May 11, 2012 JCCXXX10.1177/0022022111428172Rasmi et 428172al.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 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 behav- ior 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 per- ceived 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 litera- ture, 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 atten- tion 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, paren- tal warmth is a unidimensional continuum anchored by parental acceptance and parental rejec- tion, 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 per- ceive 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, research- ers 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 nega- tive 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