Abstract
The effects of a community's culture on children's and adolescents' normative beliefs about the appropriateness of aggression were examined. One hundred forty-seven high school students and 103 fourth graders participated in a survey of normative beliefs; 69 high school and 44 elementary school students were of Middle-Eastern background. Although there were no differences in the beliefs of immigrant and nonimmigrant fourth graders, adolescents born in the United States were more accepting of aggression than those who immigrated from the Middle East. Moreover, adolescents who immigrated to the U.S. at age 12 or later were less accepting of aggression than those who immigrated prior to age 12.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aswad, B. (1993). Arab Americans: Those who followed Columbus. Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, 27, 5-22.
Aswad, B. (1994). Attitudes of immigrant women and men in the Dearborn area toward women's employment and welfare. In Y. Haddad & J. Smith (Eds.), Muslim communities in North America (pp. 501-520). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Aswad, B. (1997). Arab American families. In M. DeGenova (Ed.), Families in cultural context: Strengths and challenges in diversity (pp. 213-237). California: Mayfield.
Barakat, H. (1993). The Arab world; Society culture and state. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bates, D., & Rassam, A. (1983). People and Cultures of the Middle East. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall.
Betancourt, H., & Lopez, S. R. (1993). The study of culture, ethnicity, and race in American psychology. American Psychologist, 48, 629-637.
Bierbrauer, G. (1992). Reactions to violation of normative standards: A cross-cultural analysis of shame and guilt. International Journal of Psychology, 27, 181-193.
Cuellar, I., Arnold, B., & Maldonado, R. (1995). Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II: A Revision of the original ARSMA scale. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 17, 275-304.
Denny-Dweik, N. (1988). The Islamic Center of New England: A study of communications of Islamic values. Beirut, Lebanon: American University of Beirut.
Dodd, P. (1973). Family honor and the forces of change in Arab society. Internationl Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 4, 40-54.
Dodge, K. A. (1993). Social cognitive mechanisms in the development of conduct disorder and depression. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 559-584.
Eron, L. D., Huesmann, L. R., & Zelli (1991). The role of parental variables in the learning of aggression. In D. J. Pepler & K. Rubin (Eds.), The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression (pp. 169-188). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Feldman, S., Mont-Reynaud, R., & Rosenthal, D. (1992). When East moves West: The acculturation of values of Chinese adolescents in the U.S. and Australia. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2, 147-173.
Georgas, J., Berry, J.W., Shaw, A., Christakopoulou, S., & Mylonas, K. (1996). Acculturation of Greek family values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 329-338.
Gorman-Smith, D., Tolan, P. H., Huesmann, L. R., & Zelli, A. (1996). The relation of family functioning to violence among inner-city minority youths. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 115-129.
Guerra, N. G., Huesmann, L. R., & Hanish, L. (1994). The role of normative beliefs in children's social behavior. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology, development, and social psychology: The interface. (pp. 140-158). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Guerra, N. G., Huesmann, L. R., Hanish, L., Font, E., & Henry, D. (1993). Normative beliefs about the aggression as a function of acculturation status among Hispanic children. Toronto, Canada: American Psychological Association.
Guerra, N. G., Huesmann, L. R., Tolan, P. H., VanAcker, R., & Eron, L. D. (1995). Stressful events and individual beliefs as correlates of economic disadvantage and aggression among urban children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 518-528.
Haddad, Y. (1979). The Muslim experience in the United States. The Link, 2(4), 1-11.
Hudley, C., & Graham, S. (1993). An Attributional intervention to reduce peer-directed aggression among African-American boys. Child Development, 64, 124-138.
Huesmann, L. R. (1988). An information processing model for the development of aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 14, 13-24.
Huesmann, L. R. (1998). The role of social information processing and cognitive schema in the acquisition and maintenance of habitual aggressive behavior. In R. G. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Human aggression: Theories, research, and implication for policy. (pp. 73-109). New York: Academic Press.
Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). The stability of aggression over time and generations. Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120-1134.
Huesmann, L. R., & Guerra, N. G. (1997). Children's normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 408-419.
Huesmann, L. R., Guerra, N. G., Miller, L., & Zelli, A. (1992). The role of social norms in the development of aggression. In A. Fraczek & H. Zumkley (Eds.), Socialization and aggression (pp. 139-152). New York: Springer.
Huesmann, L. R., Moise, J., Podolski, C., & Eron, L. D. (1997). Childhood exposure to television violence and young adult aggression. Presented at meetings of Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC.
Huesmann, L. R., Zelli, A., Fraczek, A., & Upmeyer, A. (1993). Normative attitudes about aggression in American, German and Polish college students. Presented at Third European Congress of Psychology, Tampere, Finland.
Kimhi, S., & Bliwise, N. G. (1992). Perceived change of values and intention to return among Kibbutz people who emigrated from Israel. Journal of Psychology, 126, 661-670.
Markus, H., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
Naff, A. (1983). Arabs in America: A historical overview. In S. Abraham & N. Abraham (Eds.), Arabs in the New World (pp. 8-29). Detroit, MI: Wayne State University, Center for Urban Studies.
Ogbu, J. U. (1981). Origins of human competence: A cultural ecological perspective. Child Development, 52, 413-429.
Papps, F., Walker, M., Trimboli, A., & Trimboli, C. (1995). Parental discipline in Anglo, Greek, Lebanese, and Vietnamese cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 49-64.
Patterson, G. R. (1986). Performance models for antisocial boys. American Psychologist, 41, 432-444.
Rohner, R. R. (1984). Toward a conception of culture for cross-cultural psychology. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychologist, 15, 111-138.
Rosenthal, D. A., Demetriou, A., & Efklides, A. (1989). A cross-national study of the influence of culture on conflict between parents and adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 12, 207-219.
Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. (1991). The social psychology of culture. In L. Ross, & R. Nisbett, The person and the situation, (pp. 169-201). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Staub, E. (1996). Altruism and aggression in children and youth: origins and cures. In R. S. Feldman (Ed.), The Psychology of Adversity (pp. 115-144). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Tafarodi, R., & Swann, W. (1996). Individualism-collectivism and global self-esteem: Evidence for a cultural trade-off. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 651-672.
Trubisky, P., Ting-Toomey, S., & Lin, S. (1991). The influence of individualism-collectivism and self-monitoring on conflict styles. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 15, 65-84.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Souweidane, V., Huesmann, L.R. The Influence of American Urban Culture on the Development of Normative Beliefs About Aggression in Middle-Eastern Immigrants. Am J Community Psychol 27, 239–254 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022887702034
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022887702034