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This article analyses the intercultural competence of students from Turkey who participated in the EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (Erasmus). Intercultural competence is an important aspect of 21st-century skills and lifelong learning. The study presented here also considered antecedent factors such as participants' cultural capital and home-host domains as well as identity-related issues. It aimed to understand the dynamics of relating to the new destination/culture: awareness of one's own culture/society/surroundings; availability of social networks and support; approach to learning (language, practical matters, relevant cultural information, etc.), and communication. The researchers' findings demonstrate constructive change in terms of learning, communication-connection, self-management and cultural awareness. They confirm the importance of various layers of friendship networks (but not necessarily ethnic ties), as well as a balanced composition of home and host domain resources. Regarding identity issues, students were observed to cling to universal identities, such as being an international/exchange student, and/or strategic personal ones, rather than religious, ethnic and national identities. The sojourn period can be defined as an academic but more notably a sociocultural engagement towards becoming more conversant in daily routines and personal gains in a transnational space. This highlights the importance of informal educational experiences.

In the present study, we examined the dimensionality and the measurement invariance of the Multicultural Ideology Scale (MCI), and mean differences across different cultural groups within the multilingual, multicultural context of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a unique context to study attitudes towards diversity because 47.4% of the citizens are non-nationals (i.e. economic migrants, sojourners, refugees) and minority and majority are increasingly difficult to define. Our sample included 1,488 participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds who completed the survey in German, French or English. In contrast to previous findings, our analyses on responses to the MCI scale produced a two-dimensional structure, distinguishing between positive and negative attitudes towards multiculturalism. The factor structure was partially invariant across ethnocultural groups: Configural and metric invariance were established across natives and non-natives and different language versions. Scalar invariance was only established across gender groups. Natives and male participants reported the most negative attitudes towards multiculturalism. We discuss the importance of assessing measurement invariance and provide recommendations to improve the assessment of psychological multiculturalism.

In this chapter, the authors report on a study that examined relations between social connectedness, school engagement, and achievement in minority (Roma) and majority youth in Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Romania. Based on a social connectedness model, they investigated the interplay of two connectedness domains (i.e., school and family) and their relations to school engagement and achievement. Participants were 1,063 adolescents who completed the Social Connectedness Scale on school engagement and average academic achievement. The authors found that social connectedness, especially school connectedness, was associated with school engagement while parental education was associated with school achievement. Implications are discussed in terms of how these findings are relevant to greater insight into the promotion of connectedness and the academic success of minority and majority youth across the countries under investigation.

Background Health risk behaviors during adolescence may cluster into patterns that might be predicted by specific factors, among which HIV may have an important role. Method In a cross-sectional study conducted between 2017 and 2018, clustering of HRB and its associated factors was investigated in rural Kenya among 588 adolescents (36% perinatally HIV infected; 28% perinatally HIV exposed but uninfected; and 36% HIV unexposed/uninfected). Latent class analysis of 22 behaviors followed by multinomial logistic regression were conducted. Four risk behavior classes were identified. Results No significant differences were found in behavioral class membership across the three HIV groups (p = 0.366). The risk of membership to the higher risk behavioral classes relative to class 1 (the substance and drug abstinent low risk takers) increased with older adolescent age (p = 0.047), increased among adolescent who experienced mental distress (p < 0.001), and those who felt unsafe in their neighborhood (p < 0.002). Better working memory (p = 0.0037) was found to be protective. Conclusion The results highlight a need to include screening and interventions for internalizing mental health problems and deficits in executive functioning, as well as steps to involve family members and communities to address psychosocial risk factors in adolescents in Kenya.

Autobiographical memories are relevant to many areas of psychological functioning. So far, however, there is no evidence whether personal memories can also be instrumental for self-affirmation. We conducted two experiments, varying national identity threat among U.S. Americans recruited through MTurk. In Study 1, participants spontaneously recalled autobiographical memories after being exposed to varying levels of threat. When the threat was identity-relevant, those who spontaneously recalled mastery autobiographical memories had higher collective self-esteem than those who did not. In Study 2, we instructed participants to recall either mastery autobiographical memories or routine memories. When the threat was identity-relevant, collective self-esteem was again higher for mastery recall compared to routine recall, moderated by national identification and self-esteem. We also found a general, self-affirmative effect of autobiographical memories, regardless of threat relevance or recall content. Findings provide a first empirical demonstration that autobiographical recall can enhance self-affirmation in identity threat situations.

We investigated how the knowledge and usage of two languages relate to sociocultural adjustment in bilingual adolescent samples from three ethnic groups in Indonesia (214 Javanese, 108 Toraja, and 195 Chinese adolescents; 272 females; M-age = 14.33 years). We tested a model specifying that the vocabulary knowledge of each language mediates the relation between language usage and sociocultural adjustment (here combining strongly correlated measures of adjustment to the ethnic and national culture). The results revealed the same partial mediation model in all groups; bilingualism is important for sociocultural adjustment in all ethnic groups. There were substantial group differences in ethnic language vocabulary scores, but the correlations between ethnic language usage with sociocultural adjustment were the same across groups. Results also showed that ethnic language usage matters more than ethnic language knowledge, and national language knowledge matters more than ethnic language knowledge for sociocultural adjustment. Moreover, our findings confirm that there is a language shift going on in Indonesia because Bahasa Indonesia as national language, which was the second language in the past, has become the dominant language across ethnic groups in Indonesia.

Large-scale surveys such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) use advanced statistical models to estimate scores of latent traits from multiple observed responses. The comparison of such estimated scores across different groups of respondents is valid to the extent that the same set of estimated parameters holds in each group surveyed. This issue of invariance of parameter estimates is addressed in model fit indices which gauge the likelihood that one set of parameters can be used across all groups. Therefore, the problem of scale invariance across groups of respondents can typically be framed as the question of how well a single model fits the responses of all groups. However, the procedures used to evaluate the fit of these models pose a series of theoretical and practical problems. The most commonly applied procedures to establish invariance of cognitive and non-cognitive scales across countries in large-scale surveys are developed within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. The criteria that are commonly applied to evaluate the fit of such models, such as the decrement of the Comparative Fit Index in confirmatory factor analysis, work normally well in the comparison of a small number of countries or groups, but can perform poorly in large-scale surveys featuring a large number of countries. More specifically, the common criteria often result in the non-rejection of metric invariance; however, the step from metric invariance (i.e. identical factor loadings across countries) to scalar invariance (i.e. identical intercepts, in addition to identical factor loadings) appears to set overly restrictive standards for scalar invariance (i.e. identical intercepts). This report sets out to identify

Objective: In sub Saharan Africa one of the key challenges in assessment using neuropsychological tools has been the lack of adequately validated and easily implementable measures. This study will translate into English, adapt and standardize the Computerized Battery for Neuropsychological Evaluation of Children (BENCI). The BENCI battery will be adapted using back-translation design, comprehensive cultural adaptation and standardized in a case–control study involving two groups of children: HIV infected and HIV unexposed, uninfected children. The content adaptation will be iteratively carried out using knowledge of English and feedback from pilot testing with children. The proposed study will frst involve the cultural adaptation of the BENCI. It will then recruit 544 children aged 8–11 years with half of them being HIV+, while the other half will be HIV unexposed-uninfected. Test–retest reliability will be analyzed using Pearson’s correlation while ANOVA and correlational analyses will be used to calculate discriminant, convergent and construct validity. Results: This study will result in an open access adequately adapted and standardized measure of neuropsychologi‑ cal functioning for use with children in East Africa. The protocol paper provides an opportunity to share the planned methods and approaches. Keywords: Cross-cultural neuropsychological assessment, Cognitive functioning in Kenyan children, Reliability, Convergent validity, Construct validity, Discriminant validity and neurocognitive tests

We investigated the acculturation process of international students (N = 319, 162 female) from 62 countries who were residing in the Netherlands, using the acculturation framework by Arends-Toth and Van de Vijver (2007). We applied SEM to test the model that acculturation conditions (perceived cultural distance (PCD], personal growth initiative [PGI], proficiency in English and the host language, and length of residence) in conjunction with acculturation orientations as mediators (host, heritage, expatriate) predict psychological adjustment as acculturation outcome (acculturative stress, satisfaction with life, mental health problems). We found direct and indirect effects of acculturation conditions on adjustment; high PGI, high English and Dutch proficiencies, and low PCD were associated with better adjustment Host orientation (predicted by high PGI, Dutch proficiency, and low PCD) was positively associated with adjustment. Heritage orientation (predicted by low English proficiency) was negatively associated with adjustment. As a novel aspect, we included expatriate orientation - an orientation towards other expatriates in the host community. Expatriate orientation was predicted by low Dutch proficiency and was positively associated with adjustment. We also observed direct links between acculturation conditions and outcomes: positive associations between PCD and acculturative stress and between length of residence and acculturative stress; and negative associations between PGI and mental health problems and between English proficiency and acculturative stress. We provide evidence that including expatriate orientation is relevant among international students: It is stronger than both host and heritage orientations, thereby underlining the importance of studying acculturation in a contextualized way.

Responses to norm violators are poorly understood. On one hand, norm violators are perceived as powerful, which may help them to get ahead. On the other hand, norm violators evoke moral outrage, which may frustrate their upward social mobility. We addressed this paradox by considering the role of culture. Collectivistic cultures value group harmony and tight cultures value social order. We therefore hypothesized that collectivism and tightness moderate reactions to norm violators. We presented 2,369 participants in 19 countries with a norm violation or a norm adherence scenario. In individualistic cultures, norm violators were considered more powerful than norm abiders and evoked less moral outrage, whereas in collectivistic cultures, norm violators were considered less powerful and evoked more moral outrage. Moreover, respondents in tighter cultures expressed a stronger preference for norm followers as leaders. Cultural values thus influence responses to norm violators, which may have downstream consequences for violators' hierarchical positions.

Aims and objectives: We were interested in group differences in Indonesia in bilingualism, whether vocabulary knowledge shows a differential pattern across the languages, and whether language skill and usage differences between groups are moderated by contextual factors, such as ethnic group size. Data and analysis: We examined group differences in language usage at home and in public, self-reported proficiency, and vocabulary scores in both languages among 632 adolescents (292 males, Mage = 14.57 years) from four ethnic groups in Indonesia (214 Javanese, 115 Batak Toba, 108 Toraja, and 195 Chinese). Differential item functioning analysis was conducted to test whether adolescents had different vocabulary they only know in one language, which would indicate equality or inequality in access to knowledge in the two languages. Findings: There were large differences in language knowledge and usage. The lowest scores in ethnic language vocabulary and usage were found among the Chinese group. Across groups, scores for Bahasa Indonesia (L2) vocabulary were higher than ethnic language (L1) vocabulary. However, the ranking from easy to difficult words was similar across the languages and there were no specific sets of items that were differentially known in any language. Implication: Despite the differences in bilingualism skill and usage, all groups have similar access to different domains of the languages, and L2 (Bahasa Indonesia) seems to have become the dominant language in all groups. Our findings also imply that bilingualism comprises various domains, including language skill, self-reported proficiency, and self-reported usage, and that the associations between these components are not very strong. Originality: We investigated bilingualism among non-immigrant adolescents in an under-researched, non-WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) society. The study shows the role of language usage and s

Schools are important for the academic and socio-emotional development, as well as acculturation of immigrant-and refugee-background youth. We highlight individual differences which shape their unique experiences, while considering three levels of the school context in terms of how they may affect adaptation outcomes: (1) interindividual interactions in the classroom (such as peer relations, student-teacher relations, teacher beliefs, and teaching practices), (2) characteristics of the classroom or school (such as ethnic composition and diversity climate), and (3) relevant school-and nation-level policies (such as diversity policies and school tracking). Given the complexity of the topic, there is a need for more research taking an integrated and interdisciplinary perspective to address migration related issues in the school context. Teacher beliefs and the normative climate in schools seem particularly promising points for intervention, which may be easier to change than structural aspects of the school context. More inclusive schools are also an important step toward more peaceful interethnic relations in diverse societies.

This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Explaining Positive Adaptation of Immigrant Youth across Cultures. This study tested a mediation model of ethnic socialization (i.e., parental practices that promote children's knowledge about their history, heritage culture, cultural authenticity, and ethnic bias management) in Roma youth. Roma are the largest ethnic minority group in Europe subjected to severe discrimination, both currently and historically. Participants were 202 Roma youth aged 14 to 19 years old (M = 16.25, 53% females), who provided self-reports on their experience of ethnic socialization, ethnic identity, school achievement, and life satisfaction. Cultural pride reinforcement was related to better school achievement, whereas cultural coping with antagonism was positively related to life satisfaction. The study confirmed the model in that ethnic socialization was positively related to life satisfaction through effects on ethnic identity but negatively associated with school achievement. Findings have implications for adaptive cultural mechanisms promoting positive developmental outcomes among historically disadvantaged groups including those intersecting immigrant and multigenerational ethnic minority group categories., The authors would also like to acknowledge the support by a Marie Curie Grant (Forte Projekt 2013-2669) and Japan Society for Promotion of Science Grant (JSPS PE 15763) to the first author. We would like to thank Neli Filipova, Radka Kostadinova, Stoyka Jekova, Albena Damyanova, all school personal and students for their help in carrying out the study.

We examined the importance of parental culture maintenance behaviour, bilingualism, ethnic identity, and national identity for the well-being of adolescents in multicultural Indonesia. We tested a mediation model in which the link between (perceived) parental culture maintenance behaviour and well-being is mediated through speaking Bahasa at home and national identity on the one hand and speaking the ethnic language at home and ethnic identity on the other hand. Participants were 448 adolescents (261 females) from four Indonesian ethnic groups (Chinese from Java, Chinese from North Sumatra, Batak, and Javanese), aged between 12 and 19 years (Mage = 15.92 years). We found support that parental culture maintenance was positively related to both ethnic and national identity, was correlated to the usage of ethnic language at home, but not correlated to usage of Bahasa Indonesia at home, language usage was not associated with identity; there was no link between parental culture maintenance behaviour and usage of languages at home with well-being, but both national and ethnic identity were positively associated with children’s well-being across groups. We conclude that parental culture maintenance, ethnic identity, and national identity are important for the well-being of adolescents, whereas speaking the language is independent from well-being and ethnic identity.

We set out to address the adequacy of dyslexia screening in Dutch and non-western immigrant children, using the Dutch Dyslexia Screening Test (DST-NL) and outcomes of the Dutch dyslexia protocol, both of which are susceptible to cultural bias. Using the protocol as standard, we conducted an ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) analysis in Dutch and immigrant third, fifth, and seventh graders, combining a cross-sectional and longitudinal design. Sensitivity and specificity increased with grade, but were non-significant for various subtests in the lowest grade, suggesting considerable non-convergence between the two measures. Effective subtests in all grades, presumably not strongly influenced by Cultural Background or Word Lexicon, were One-Minute Reading, Non-Word Reading, and Nonsense Passage Reading. In a multilevel analysis, cultural background, dyslexia diagnosis, parental education, and grade of first assessment were predictors of subtest performance. In a second analysis, Word Lexicon was added as a proxy of knowledge of the Dutch language and culture. After controlling for Word Lexicon, cultural background became significant for most subtests, suggesting the presence of cultural bias. Subtests assessing technical literacy, such as One-Minute-Reading, Non-Word-Reading, One-Minute-Writing, or Two-Minutes-Spelling, showed more convergence between the two assessments. Less-effective subtests were Naming Pictures, Backward Digit Span, and Verbal and Semantic Fluency. It is concluded that the DST-NL and the standard protocol do not show complete convergence, notably in the lower grades in the multilingual pupil group of our cohort, mainly because dyslexia and literacy difficulties are hard to disentangle.

We examined Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and the size of cross-cultural performance differences in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 mathematics data before and after application of propensity score matching. The mathematics performance of Indonesian, Turkish, Australian, and Dutch students on released items was compared. Matching variables were gender, an index of economic, social and cultural status, and opportunity to learn, in exact, nearest neighbor, and optimal matching. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling were used to identify DIF. If propensity scores were used in the DIF analyses as performance predictors, much less DIF was found than in the original data; similarly, when in tests of country differences in mathematics performance, propensity scores were used as covariates, effect sizes of tests of country differences were reduced substantially. We concluded that propensity scoring provided us with a new tool to better control sources of DIF and country differences in PISA mathematics performance.

Little—if anything—is known about the factors that contribute to the positive development and psychological functioning of adolescents of immigrant background in the African context. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the influence of parent and peer attachment, the sense of school belonging, and religious and ethnic identity on the psychological well-being of adolescents of Arab and Asian background in Kenya. The central research question is to what extent adolescent connectedness influences psychological well-being.

We discuss the bioecological model of Urie Bronfrenbreener and its application to diabetes care and the psychosocial well-being of children with diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa. Using empirical evidence, this article demonstrates that the bioecological model provides an important framework for understanding diabetes care needs and the interventional strategies required to enhance the well-being of children living with diabetes. It also discusses clinical and research implications. The advantage of applying the bioecological model in drawing up interventional strategies for those living with diabetes is that it targets large-scale public health interventions, unlike medical intervention, which focuses on a single individual.

This chapter advances research in understudied minority groups in Eastern Europe by providing empirical evidence on a novel approach that examines collective identity assets for optimal well-being of youth. We apply collective identity perspective conceptualized in terms of strong relationships among ethnic, familial, and religious group memberships in comparing adolescents from two stigmatized ethnic minority groups and their mainstream Bulgarian peers. Turkish-Bulgarians and Muslim-Bulgarians historically experienced continuous assimilation attempts and severe discrimination, effectively limiting their religious and ethnic minority rights (Vassilev R, Glob Rev Ethnopolitics 3:40-51, 2004). This chapter furthers our understanding of multiple identity resources as core component of well-being of ethnic minority youth with Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian background. These results further extend findings on identity and well-being conducted in Western European and American settings to the unique and scarcely researched context of long-term acculturating ethnic minority groups in Eastern Europe.

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross-cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias-free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert-scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country-level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures.

Background We study identity in the context of long-term sedentary groups in Eastern Europe in contrast to the frequently studied short-term immigrants in typical Western European or US American contexts. This paper provides a novel approach to youth identity in an Eastern European post-communist context for minority groups that are quite distinct from the mainstream group to advance the study of identity. Turkish-Bulgarians and Muslim-Bulgarians have been subjected to extensive assimilation campaigns, which prompted them to carefully negotiate their ethnic identity and sense of belonging. Participants and procedure Participants were 366 adolescents aged 16 to 18 years (M = 16.72, SD = 0.71) from South Central and South Western regions of Bulgaria. This sample included Turkish-Bulgarian (n = 145), Muslim-Bulgarian (n = 85), and (mainstream) Bulgarian (n = 136) youth who provided data on personal, ethnic, familial, and religious identity as well as psychological well-being. Results Turkish-Bulgarian youth scored higher on achievement, diffusion, and foreclosure but lower on moratorium and Bulgarian ethnic and familial identity than Muslim-Bulgarian and Bulgarian youth. Bulgarian mainstreamers scored significantly lower on religious identity compared to their Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian peers. Finally, Bulgarian mainstream identity significantly predicted well-being of youth from all groups, independent of their ethnic background. Conclusions A strong ethnic and familial identity results in beneficial psychological outcomes for youth, even in the face of adversity and assimilation.

This study examines ethnic, national, familial, and religious identity and well-being of 632 Roma minority and 589 majority adolescents (age: M = 15.98 years, SD = 1.34) in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. Results indicated that Roma showed lower endorsement of national identity but stronger religious identity than their majority counterparts. Path models showed positive associations of familial and religious identities with well-being, whereas Roma identity was negatively associated with well-being, particularly for Roma in Bulgaria and Kosovo (countries with a less active policy toward improving conditions of Roma). In the latter countries, Roma ethnic identity is less relevant and weakly associated with psychological well-being of youth.

Background We study identity in the context of long-term sedentary groups in Eastern Europe in contrast to the frequently studied short-term immigrants in typical Western European or US American contexts. This paper provides a novel approach to youth identity in an Eastern European post-communist context for minority groups that are quite distinct from the mainstream group to advance the study of identity. Turkish-Bulgarians and Muslim-Bulgarians have been subjected to extensive assimilation campaigns, which prompted them to carefully negotiate their ethnic identity and sense of belonging. Participants and procedure Participants were 366 adolescents aged 16 to 18 years (M = 16.72, SD = 0.71) from South Central and South Western regions of Bulgaria. This sample included Turkish-Bulgarian (n = 145), Muslim-Bulgarian (n = 85), and (mainstream) Bulgarian (n = 136) youth who provided data on personal, ethnic, familial, and religious identity as well as psychological well-being. Results Turkish-Bulgarian youth scored higher on achievement, diffusion, and foreclosure but lower on moratorium and Bulgarian ethnic and familial identity than Muslim-Bulgarian and Bulgarian youth. Bulgarian mainstreamers scored significantly lower on religious identity compared to their Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian peers. Finally, Bulgarian mainstream identity significantly predicted well-being of youth from all groups, independent of their ethnic background. Conclusions A strong ethnic and familial identity results in beneficial psychological outcomes for youth, even in the face of adversity and assimilation.

Background: Depression is an established risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and mortality among individuals living with diabetes, and impaired self-care behaviors may play a mediating role. In Africa, this association is not very well known. In this study, we examined the associations between depressive symptoms and different aspects of diabetes self-care in Zambian individuals with diabetes mellitus.Methods: A total of 157 individuals with diabetes mellitus participated. The sample was drawn from four city hospitals in Zambia. Diabetes self-care was assessed using the diabetes self- care inventory, and depression was assessed using the major depression inventory.Results: Fifty-nine percent of the sample had type 1 diabetes mellitus. Variations in self-care activities and behaviors were reported as least adhered to by individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, in adolescent and adult patients. Regression analysis indicated that there was no association between total diabetes self-care and the depression total score. However, depression was associated with poor glucose testing and not eating meals on time by patients with diabetes.Conclusion: Some variance on poor self- care was explained by demographic characteristics, specifically age, body mass index, and to some extent, socioeconomic status. Recognition and successful treatment of depression in patients with diabetes might help to optimize self-care behaviors, especially glucose testing and eating meals on time. However, this hypothesis needs further testing.

Despite the multicultural nature of African societies, there is still very little knowledge about acculturation and its association with identity on this continent. Acculturation processes and outcomes are strongly associated with identity. The objective of this article is to relate different models of acculturation (unidimensional, bi-dimensional, multidimensional) with the tri-dimensional model of identity (personal, relational, and social). Social identity components, such as ethnicity, religion, and culture, suggest a need for modification of Western models of acculturation to embrace the multifaceted realities of non-Western multicultural societies. The social complexity and the continuous transition within African societies provides unique opportunities to examine and further develop the multidimensional acculturation models to take into account the social complexity which informs identity issues both within and across different African nations.

Background:In the last ten years, the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) has been developed as an indigenous measurement of personality for the multi-cultural environment of South Africa. The aim of the SAPI is to assess personality in an unbiased and equivalent way. For the purpose of this study, we used an 82-item version of the SAPI which measures nine factors (Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Facilitating, Integrity, Intellect, Openness, Relationship Harmony and Soft-heartedness).Participants and procedure:A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the SAPI, the General Health Questionnaire and the Brief Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale. A purposive sample was drawn from Black and White emerging adults (N = 990). We assessed the relationship between personality aspects and well-being across groups in a multiple group structural equation model (SEM) using the SPSS and AMOS programs.Results:Black emerging adults showed evidence of more individualistic- inclined personality features, while the White emerging adults seem to demonstrate more collectivistic features. In terms of health, the White emerging adults experience more life satisfaction than their Black counterparts. Conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, facilitating and openness predict well-being among emerging adults.Conclusions:This study contributes to expanding the nomological network of the SAPI, and it enhances knowledge pertaining to the link between personality and well-being of emerging adults in South Africa. Understanding which factors contribute to poor mental health and lack of life satisfaction may lead to innovation programmes for emerging adults to assist them in dealing with negative health outcomes possibly associated with living in multicultural contexts.

BACKGROUND Little is known of mental health outcomes among vertically HIV-infected or HIVaffected adolescents in Africa. OBJECTIVES The current study set out to describe depressive symptoms and their correlates among vertically HIV-infected and HIV-affected adolescents at the Kenyan Coast. METHODS 130 adolescents (vertically HIV-infected [n = 44], HIV-affected [n = 53], and unexposed [n = 33]) and their caregivers participated in this cross-sectional study. An adapted version of the Beck Depression Inventory-11 (BDI) was administered to examine depressive symptoms in both adolescents and caregivers, together with measures of sociodemographic, medical, and anthropometric characteristics. FINDINGS Our analysis indicated a main effect of HIV status on mean BDI scores in HIV-infected (18.4 [SD = 8.3) and HIV-affected (16.8 [SD = 7.3]) adolescents compared to the community controls (12.0 [SD = 7.9]), F (2, 127) = 6.704, P =.002, eta(2) =.095. Post hoc analysis showed that BDI scores of HIV-infected adolescents were higher than those of community controls (P CONCLUSIONS Both HIV-infected and HIV-affected adolescents are at a high risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, largely due to the multiple psychosocial risk factors in their environment. The provision of adequate psychosocial support and counseling needs to become an integral part of the care program for adolescents from families living with HIV/AIDS at the Kenyan coast and other similar settings.

Background: The impracticality of using the confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) approach in testing measurement invariance across many groups is now well known. A concerted effort to addressing these encumbrances over the last decade has resulted in a new generation of alternative methodological procedures that allow for approximate, rather than exact measurement invariance across groups. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to describe and illustrate common difficulties encountered when tests for multigroup invariance are based on traditional CFA procedures and the number of groups is large, and (b) to walk readers through the maximum likelihood (ML) alignment approach in testing for approximate measurement invariance. Methods: Data for this example application derive from an earlier study of family functioning across 30 cultures that include responses to the Family Values Scale for 5,482 university students drawn from 27 of these30 countries. Analyses were based on the Mplus 7.4 program. Results: Whereas CFA tests for invariance revealed 108 misspecified parameters that precluded tests for latent mean differences, noninvariant results were well within the acceptable range for the alignment approach thereby substantiating the trustworthiness of the latent mean estimates and their comparison across groups. Conclusion: The alignment approach in testing for approximate measurement invariance provides an automated procedure that can overcome important limitations of traditional CFA procedures in large-scale comparisons.

The flourishing of cross-cultural personality research requires a keen eye for rigorous methodology in such research. With decades of experience in cross-cultural research methods, we have come to appreciate that methodological aspects of such studies are critical for obtaining valid findings. Ill-designed or -conducted studies may produce results that are difficult to interpret. A careful design and analysis can help to deal with various methodological problems in cross-cultural personality studies. Drawing on the extensive knowledge that has been accumulated in cross-cultural and personality research in the past decades, we describe a framework of bias and equivalence that enables the choice of adequate research methods and the avoidance of pitfalls that endanger valid conclusions in cross-cultural personality research. Specifically, we focus on sampling issues, test adaptations, and the combination of emic and etic approaches in this short review article. We encourage researchers to use the tools and experience that are available to considerably enlarge our insights in cross-cultural differences and similarities in personality research.

Objective We set out to adapt the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-II in Kenya and examine its factorial structure. Methods In the first phase we carried out in-depth interviews involving 29 adult members of the community to elicit their understanding of depression and identify aspects of the BDI-II that required adaptation. In the second phase, a modified version of BDI-II was administered to221 adults randomly selected from the community to allow for the evaluation of its psychometric properties. In the third phase of the study we evaluated the discriminative validity of BDI-11 by comparing a randomly chosen community sample (n = 29) with caregivers of adolescents affected by HIV (n = 77).Results A considerable overlap between the BDI symptoms and those generated in the interviews was observed. Relevant idioms and symptoms such as 'thinking too much' and 'Kuchoka moyo (having a tired heart)' were identified. The administration of the BDI had to be modified to make it suitable for the low literacy levels of our participants. Fit indices for several models (one factorial, two-factor model and a three factor model) were all within acceptable range. Evidence indicated that while multidimensional models could be fitted, the strong correlations between the factors implied that a single factor model may be the best suited solution (alpha [0.89], and a significant correlation with locally identified items [r = 0.51]) confirmed the good psychometric properties of the adapted BDI-II. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that somatization was more prevalent. Lastly, caregivers of HIV affected adolescents had significantly higher scores compared to adults randomly selected from the community F(1, 121) = 23.31, p < .001 indicating the discriminative validity of the adapted BDI = II. Conclusions With an adapted administration procedure, the BDI-II provides an adequate measure of depressive symptoms which can be used alongside other measures for proper diagnosis

Despite its popularity, the factorial structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) Questionnaire remains controversial. The current study set out to clarify its structure across different cultural contexts. The study was carried out among 1,928 adolescents aged 11 to 20 years in the Netherlands, Kenya, Indonesia, and Spain. Item-based measurement models with a single factor did not show a good fit. A bifactor method (defining a method factor for negatively worded items) did not show a good fit either. However, when items were combined per target to be rated (school, student, teacher, other people, and self), measurement invariance of a one-factorial model was found. Internal consistencies observed across the cultural groups studied were high. In addition, an evaluation of functional equivalence indicated that the relationship between PSSM and life satisfaction was invariant across countries. Implications for assessment and future directions are discussed.

Background: The upsurge in the uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to a significant increase in the survival of vertically acquired HIV infected children, many of whom are currently living into adolescence and early adulthood. However little if anything is known of the lived experiences and the challenges faced by HIV positive adolescents in the African context. We set out to investigate psychosocial challenges faced by HIV infected adolescents on the Kenyan coast. Methods: A total of 44 participants (12 HIV-infected adolescents, 7 HIV uninfected adolescents, and 25 key informants) took part in this qualitative study, using individually administered in-depth interviews. A framework approach was used to analyze the data using NVIVO software. Results: We observed that the challenges faced by adolescents in rural Kenya could be placed into six major themes: poverty, poor mental and physical health, the lack of a school system that is responsive to their needs, challenges in how to disclose to peers and family members, high levels of stigma in its various forms, and challenges of medical adherence leading to the need for close monitoring. Conclusion: In this African community, vertically acquired HIV-infected adolescents face a complex set of social, economic and medical challenges. Our study points to the urgent need to develop multisectorial intervention support programmes to fully address these challenges.

There is hardly any cross-cultural research on the measurement invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS). The current article evaluates the measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study sampled 7,739 adolescents and emerging adults in 23 countries. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of configural and partial measurement weights invariance models, indicating similar patterns and strengths in factor loading for both adolescents and emerging adults across various countries. We found insufficient evidence for scalar invariance in both the adolescents’ and the emerging adults’ samples. A multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated configural invariance of the structure at country and individual level. Internal consistency, evaluated by alpha and omega coefficients per country, yielded acceptable results. The translated BMSLSS across different cultural contexts presents good psychometric characteristics similar to what has been reported in the original scale, though scalar invariance remains problematic. Our results indicate that the BMSLSS forms a brief measure of life satisfaction, which has accrued substantial evidence of construct validity, thus suitable for use in cross-cultural surveys with adolescents and emerging adults, although evaluation of degree of invariance must be carried out to ensure its suitability for mean comparisons.