Family First: Evidence of Consistency and Variation in the Value of Family Versus Personal Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size ( N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries ( N = 49). We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen’s ds = .20, range −.02 to.48), but present in 98% of the studied countries, with statistical significance in 73% to 75%, and variance across countries <2%. We also found that the size of this effect did vary somewhat across cultural contexts. In Latin American cultures highest on relational mobility, the idealization of family over personal happiness was very small (average Cohen’s ds for Latin America = .15 and .18), while in Confucian Asia cultures lowest on relational mobility, this effect was closer to medium ( ds > .40 and .30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country-level individualism–collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of “protecting family life” to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers and by progressive movements too.

Emotion regulation, perfectionism, and eating disorder symptoms in adolescents: the mediating role of cognitive eating patterns

Poor emotion regulation, along with elevated perfectionism, is recognised as a risk factor for the development of eating disorder (ED) symptoms. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and perfectionism with ED symptoms, while controlling for emotional eating, uncontrolled eating, and cognitive restraint as mediators. In total, 482 adolescents (246 girls and 236 boys; M = 15.00, SD = 0.31) participated in this study. Based on the participants' body height and weight measured by the medical team during their regular preventive health examinations, the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Participants also answered the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. According to the results obtained, adolescent girls in our sample reported more difficulties in emotion regulation, more uncontrolled and emotional eating, and more ED symptoms. A significant direct effect was found for difficulties in emotion regulation and ED symptoms but not for perfectionism. In addition, only emotional eating and cognitive restraint (not uncontrolled eating) mediated the relationship between difficulties in emotion regulation and perfectionism and ED symptoms. The results suggest that difficulties in emotion regulation may be more important than perfectionism in explaining ED symptoms in a sample of healthy adolescents. When adolescents experience problems in emotion regulation in combination with emotional or uncontrolled eating, they might be at a higher risk of experiencing concerns about weight and a variety of other ED symptoms, and this should be considered when planning preventive interventions for adolescents.

Role of Sociocultural Pressures and Internalization of Appearance Ideals in the Motivation for Exercise

This study examined the mediating role of sociocultural pressures (i.e., parental, peer, significant others, and media) and the internalization of appearance ideals (i.e., thin, muscular, attractive) on the relationship of Body Mass Index (BMI) and exercise frequency to exercise motives (i.e., weight management, appearance, positive health). A total of 262 young women, age 18 to 29, participated in the study. Average BMI in this sample was 22.09 (SD = 2.69) and ranged from 18.03 to 31.51, with 15.3% of the sample having a BMI of 25 and above, which qualifies as overweight. Participants completed Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4-Revised and Exercise Motivations Inventory-2 (EMI-2) along with some demographic information and questions regarding their exercise habits. The results indicated that women with higher BMI are more motivated to exercise to lose weight, and women who exercise more frequently are motivated by the aspect of positive health. Also, women with higher BMI perceive more sociocultural pressures to obtain a culturally acceptable body. The sociocultural pressures and appearance internalization mediated the relationship between BMI and the frequency of exercise with motives for exercise. The implications and future directions of research are discussed.

REVIDIRANI UPITNIK PERCEPCIJE BOLESTI – PROVJERA MJERNIH KARAKTERISTIKA LJESTVICE ATRIBUCIJA UZROKA BOLESTI

Percepcija bolesti izravno utječe na ponašanja, strategije suočavanja i emocionalne odgovore na bolest, kao i na tijek tjelesnog i psihičkog oporavka nakon što se bolest već pojavila. Cilj je provedenog istraživanja bio provjeriti konstruktnu i kriterijsku valjanost Ljestvice atribucije uzroka bolesti, koja ispituje kojim sve čimbenicima osobe atribuiraju uzroke svoje bolesti. Eksploratornom faktorskom analizom, provedenom na rezultatima osoba oboljelih od šećerne bolesti tipa 2 (N = 88), izdvajaju se tri moguće skupine čimbenika kojima osobe pripisuju nastanak svoje bolesti. Taj je model, uz originalu strukturu koju predlažu autori, zatim testiran konfirmatornom faktorskom analizom, na uzorku osoba oboljelih od kardiovaskularnih bolesti (N = 177). Model s tri povezana faktora i manjim brojem čestica imao je najbolje indekse pristajanja, u usporedbi s preostalim modelima. Također, ti su faktori bili u značajnoj umjerenoj korelaciji s mjerama anksioznosti i depresivnosti, što govori u prilog kriterijske valjanosti ljestvice. Iako se prema originalnoj strukturi upitnika (IPQ-R) razlikuju četiri moguće skupine uzroka bolesti, naši rezultati pokazuju da je na hrvatskom uzorku primjerenija tro-faktorska struktura. Mogući uzroci bolesti tako se grupiraju u psihološke čimbenike, nekontrolabilne čimbenike te opće čimbenike rizika. Dobivene podljestvice imaju zadovoljavajuće statističke pokazatelje, uz nešto nižu pouzdanost tipa unutarnje konzistencije.