Cross-cultural differences on the Conflict Tactics Scale: Parent-Child Version

Leung, D., Kennedy, M. A. & Gorzalka, B. B.

Child maltreatment, while once considered a Western phenomenon (Korbin, 1991), is now being acknowledged as an issue around the world.  Actual cross-cultural information on maltreatment is quite limited, particularly among Asian groups (Behl, Crouch, May, Valente & Conyngham, 2001; Lieh-Mak, Chung & Liu, 1983; McKelvey & Webb, 1995).  Cross-cultural research is beginning to suggest that the use of corporal punishment is quite common in Asia, just as it is in other parts of the world.  For example, spanking is still a widespread practice in North America.  Straus (2000) reported that over 94% of American parents hit their young children.  When looking at more severe forms of physical discipline (e.g., slapping above the shoulders, pinching, hitting with a hard object or shaking a child under age 2) 26% of Americans reported using such methods in the previous year (Dietz, 2000).  Another recent representative survey of parents in the United States found that 40% of those surveyed reported spanking their children under age 3 (Wissow, 2001).

The use of spanking is the most important risk factor for physical abuse (Straus, 2001).  Increased experience of corporal punishment as a child is correlated with an increased likelihood that corporal discipline will escalate into physical abuse (Straus, 2000).  Murray Straus, the developer of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) and a leading researcher on child maltreatment, has criticized the fact that researchers hoping to discover ways to end physical abuse routinely ignore this risk factor.  With over 94% of parents engaging in this behaviour and reports that spanking is used multiple times per week, Straus argues that child maltreatment specialists are underestimating the prevalence and chronicity of corporal punishment.  Even if the risk factor for corporal punishment is moderate, the prevalence of this risk factor (94%) means it can have a greater impact on public health than a high risk factor with low prevalence (Straus, 2001).  The idea that corporal punishment is at the core of physical abuse is supported by Asian research that reveals that child abuse injuries are often the result of culturally acceptable discipline practices applied with excessive force (Samuda, 1988).   Samudas (1988) survey of 100 university students in Hong Kong indicated that 95% of respondents reported that physical punishment was used in their homes, 46% reported that beating was used as the most severe form of punishment, and 35% remembered physical punishment as their most painful childhood physical experience.   Research with the CTS in India has revealed widespread use of physical discipline with 41.9% of middle-class professional disclosing that they had used abusive levels of physical punishment (Segal, 1995).

This research will examine cross-cultural rates of physical discipline and abuse as measure by the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC; Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore & Runyan, 2000).  While the original scale (CTS) has been used in hundreds of publication on child abuse, that scale was not developed to measure abuse experienced by children.  Despite that, its validity in measuring child maltreatment has been excellent.  The CTSPC is a modification of the CTS and designed to focus on physical and psychological aggression of children.  The original CTS has been used in Asia with satisfactory reliabilities after translation (Tang, 1996; 1998) and in India without translation (Segal, 1995).    The CTSPC has been administered to African American and Hispanic American parents but there is no current information on Asian populations. 

In the present study, 457 (377 female and 80 male) participants completed the CTSPC at a large Western Canadian University.  While they were no longer children, the average age of 19.5 years may have meant that the discipline they experienced in childhood was still fairly salient.  The participants were asked to self-report their ethnicity and were grouped into three different Asian groups: Chinese (n=266); Southeast Asian (n=32); and, Indo-Asian (n=25).  135 Caucasians of European-descent were also surveyed.

Results indicate that there were ethnic and gender differences in the rates of physical discipline experienced.   Across all 13 physical aggression questions, there was a significant main effect for ethnicity and gender.  87.4% of European Caucasian, 84% of Indo-Asian, 91% of Chinese and 90.6% of Southeast Asian respondents reported having experienced corporal punishment.  27.4% of European Caucasian, 20% of Indo-Asian, 58.3% of Chinese and 46.9% of Southeast Asian respondents reported experiencing severe physical assaults.  The types of severe physical assaults will be examined in more detail and post hoc analysis of specific group differences will be discussed.

Disordered eating attitudes: Sexual harassment victimization and ethnic differences

Karen Ip, Lisa Partaik, M. Alexis Kennedy, J. Samra & Boris B. Gorzalka

Sexual abuse has been identified as one of the potential risk factors in the development of eating psychopathology.  Many studies have demonstrated a small but statistically significant relationship between childhood sexual abuse and the presence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviours later in adulthood (Smolak & Murnen, 2002; Romans, Gendall, Martin, & Mullen, 2001).  It has also been shown that adolescents who are victims of dating violence and rape are more likely to engage in disordered eating behaviours, including the use of laxatives and diet pills, and binge-eating (Ackard & Neumark-Sztainer, 2002).

However, the literature to date has been lacking in two areas.  Firstly, few studies have looked at the relationship between sexual harassment and pathological eating behaviours and attitudes.  Sexual harassment can also be a  disabling and distressing forms of sexual victimization, and thus may also contribute to an increase in eating pathology.  In support of this hypothesis, Harned (2000) found that women who had been sexually harassed exhibited greater disordered eating symptomology.  This effect remained even when the occurrence of other forms of sexual abuse was controlled for.

The second limitation is that no studies to date have examined cross-cultural differences in the relationship between sexual abuse and eating pathology.  It is plausible that different ethnic groups may experience different rates of sexual victimization; in addition, these groups may differ in their manner of coping with this abuse.  For example, while it has been hypothesized that victims of sexual abuse may adopt disordered eating behaviours in an effort to cope with their negative feelings; members of different ethnic groups may not choose to employ this coping mechanism.  The present study attempts to address the above two limitations by investigating the relationship between sexual harassment and pathological eating attitudes and behaviours in a variety of different ethnic groups. 

Questionnaire packages were administered to 1283 undergraduates attending the two large universities in British Columbia.  The sample included 981 females and 301 males.  Participants were divided into 8 major ethnic groups:  Caucasian (n = 459), Chinese (n = 574), Indo-Asian (n = 102), South-East Asian (n = 87), Afro-Caribbean (n = 8), Middle-Eastern (n = 20), Hispanic, (n = 10), and First Nations (n = 11).  Limitations in interpreting results for our smaller groups will be addressed.  Measures employed included the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2; Garner, 1991) and the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald, Shulman, Bailey, Richards, Swecker, Gold, Ormerod, & Weitzman, 1988).  Respondents were also asked whether they had ever experienced an episode of sexual harassment.  The Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, and Body Dissatisfaction subscales were analyzed from the EDI-2, while all four subscales as well as a total score were employed for the SEQ.

Preliminary results indicated that Caucasians identified having experienced significantly more instances of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and hostility in the environment than Chinese participants.  In addition, a greater proportion of Caucasians had experienced an episode of sexual harassment than Chinese and Middle-Eastern participants.  Chinese participants experienced significantly more occurrences of sexual coercion than those of Middle-Eastern descent.  On the EDI-2, the eight ethnic groups did not differ significantly from each other on any of the subscales.  In terms of correlations, for Chinese and Caucasian participants, all SEQ subscales as well as the total score were significantly positively correlated with the Drive for Thinness and the Bulimia subscales of the EDI-2.  For Indo-Asian and Afro-Caribbean participants, sexual coercion was significantly positively related to Bulimic attitudes.  Finally, for Hispanic participants, all SEQ subscales (except for sexual coercion) as well as the total score were significantly positively correlated with a drive for thinness. 

The results of this study indicate that a history of sexual harassment must be taken into consideration when dealing with eating disorders both in a research and in a clinical setting.  In addition, cross-cultural differences must be made aware of and respected.

A comparison of Chinese and Caucasian parenting strategies

Leung, D, Kennedy, M. A. & Gorzalka, B. B.

It has long been argued that cultural and societal norms play a guiding role in child- rearing beliefs and practices (Chao, 1994; Super & Harkness, 1986).  The sociocultural aspect determines what child disciplinary attitudes and practices are deemed effective, appropriate and acceptable by each particular society (Kriger & Kroes, 1972).  Recent research and reviews of cross-cultural literature have begun to explore the complexity of cultural influences and parenting attitudes.     

Consistent with Confucian filial piety, Chinese families have traditionally been authoritarian and hierarchical with the dominance and strong respect for elders (Chao, 1995; Ho, 1994).  Children are often required to pledge obedience and reverence to parents, and in turn, parents are responsible for governing (i.e., teaching and disciplining) their children and are held accountable for their childrens failure.  Accordingly, Chinese parents have been found to be punishment oriented and quite protective and concerned about their children (Chen et al., 1998).   In North American cultures however, parents generally adopt a more contemporary, less authoritarian attitude towards child-rearing (Wang & Phinney, 1998).  Children are encouraged to be confident and independent in challenging situations and acquiring self-reliance, autonomy and assertive social skills are essential in forming interpersonal relationships (Chen et al., 1998).    

Review of the literature reveals that there is a serious lack of research that makes direct comparisons of the child-rearing attitudes of Chinese and European Caucasian parents.  Of the few investigations that are available, mixed results have been presented on the dimensions of rejection toward the child and usage of physical punishment (Chen et al., 1998; Chiu, 1987; Kriger & Kroes, 1972; Wang & Phinney, 1998).  In an earlier study, Chiu (1987) found Chinese mothers to be nurturing and warm and to use love-oriented rather than physical means for behaviour control.  Chen et al. (1998) contradicted this finding by presenting evidence that showed Chinese mothers to be less accepting and more rejecting of their children, a behaviour that is consistent with their positive attitude towards punishment (Chen et al., 1998).   The purpose of the present study was to further clarify the cultural influences on parenting attitudes by comparing child-rearing attitudes among three groups with different cultural backgrounds, namely, Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China, Canadian-born Chinese and European Caucasians. 

Research participants were 481 Canadian university students.  The students were asked to complete the Parent Discipline Attitude Survey (PDAS; Buntain-Ricklefs, Kemper, Bell & Babonis, 1994).  This scale is a 21 item questionnaire that surveys the acceptability of physical and emotional discipline.  The authors reported a strong internal reliability, Chronbach alpha = .86 for the PDAS (Buntain-Ricklefs et al., 1994).  In the present sample 328 women and 72 men completed the PDAS.  The participants were asked to self-report their ethnicity.  A European-descent Caucasian group (n=135) was compared to a Chinese immigrant group (n=166) and a North American born Chinese group (n=100).  80 students of other ethnic origins are not analyzed at this time.

When the three groups were compared, analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the appropriateness ratings of 8 of the 21 discipline items polled.  There were also significant gender differences on 6 of the items.  Only 3 items showed both significant ethnic and gender differences.  Interaction effects will also be discussed.  The areas where Chinese immigrants and Canadian-born Chinese differ will also be discussed but these differences are fewer than the differences between Chinese and Caucasian,  suggesting child-rearing attitudes are slow to change with increased exposure to Western parenting ideals.

Rape myths acceptance among prostitution clients and a comparison group

Klein, C., Kennedy, M. A., Gorzalka, B. B. & Yuille, J. C.

As Canada deals with the worst serial murder case in its history, with remains recovered for 15 of 60 missing prostituted women,  there has been a renewed recognition of the dangers inherent to the sex trade.  Amid these questions, the clients of prostitutes are coming under new scrutiny.  The motivations and sexual behaviors of these anonymous sexual offenders  have not been adequately examined.  One variable that has been associated with other types of sexual violence is a belief in rape myths, defined by Burt (1980) as "prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists, (p. 217)".  Belief in these rape myths presents a narrow definition of rape and, as a result, leads to rape-supportive attitudes (Burt, 1981).  Both because of the current attention on sexual violence, particularly against street workers, and because of the lack of information on the clients of prostitutes in the literature, the present study sought to investigate the extent to which clients of prostitutes, or "johns", hold rape myths compared to a control group of men who have never gone to prostitutes.  In addition, sexual conservatism/liberalism, attraction to violent sexuality, and thoughts about sex were assessed after a study by Monto and Hotaling (2001) found that the strongest predictors of rape myth acceptance these factors. 

While an initial assumption might be that johns would differ considerably from non-clients, a study by Burt (1983) found that rapists and the general public hold many of the same beliefs about violence, with the main difference between the two groups being that rapists offered more justifications for higher degrees of violence and dissociated blame from their perceptions of violence.  As a result, we hypothesized that that clients of prostitutes would harbor similar degrees of rape myth acceptance as our control group.  Based on Monto and Hotaling's (2001) results, which found relatively low rates of rape myth acceptance in johns, we also hypothesized a lower degree of rape myth acceptance than initially thought.  Over 500 men arrested for soliciting or attempting to solicit sex and over 250 men who had never gone to prostitutes completed Burts (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale.  They also completed sections III and IV of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (1996) which measure frequency of sexual thoughts, or sex drive, and sexual conservatism/liberalism.  In addition, questions developed by the first author assessed attraction towards violent sexuality.  All of the sex trade consumers were men who were about to take part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia and who voluntarily completed research questionnaires.  The Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia is a one-day diversion program run by the John Howard Society of the Lower Mainland and the Vancouver Police Department.  Men are either given the option of attending the program on arrest (if they have no previous criminal records), are sent to the program as part of a sentence, or are referred through the Alternative Measures Program.  The control group was men enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses at a large university in the same city as the diversion program.

Analyses did reveal some differences in attitudes between the two groups, but their answers very often quite similar.  For example, 75.5% of johns and 80% of undergrads agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Any woman can get raped."  9.9% of johns and 16.4% of undergrads agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "A woman who goes to the home or apartment of a man on their first date implies that she is willing to have sex." Items polling the use of force in sexual relationships produced very few disclosures in either group. The john population reported a sex drive more than 1 standard deviation lower than the norm for the Derogatis subscale.  Analyses will also consider variables such as the extent of past sexual experiences and number of times with a prostitute in the john population. 

Beliefs of consumers and non-consumers of prostitution