Couple Relationship Standards and Migration: Comparing Hong Kong Chinese with Australian Chinese.

Rates of international migration are increasing, which raises the question of how migration might influence couple relationship standards and impact on the standards of migrants forming intercultural relationships. We compared relationship standards in n = 286 Chinese living in Hong Kong, China, with standards in n = 401 Chinese migrants to a Western country (Australia) by administering the Chinese-Western Intercultural Couple Standards Scale (CWICSS). We also compared these two groups to n = 312 Westerners living in Australia. We first tested the structural invariance of the CWICSS across the three samples with a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. There was marginal but acceptable fit of a model of two positively correlated latent factors: Couple Bond (with four indicators, such as demonstration of love and caring) and Family Responsibility (also with four indicators, such as extended family relations and preserving face). Within the limitations of the study, results suggest migration is associated predominantly with differences in women's, but not men's, relationship standards. Migrant Chinese women show alignment of Couple Bond standards with Western standards, and divergence of Family Responsibility standards from Western standards. Discussion focused on how migration and intercultural relationship experiences might differentially influence various domains of relationship standards, gender differences in migration effects on standards, and the implications for working with culturally diverse couples.

Does time reduce resistance to out-group critics? An investigation of the persistence of the intergroup sensitivity effect over time.

Group-directed criticism typically arouses greater defensiveness when it stems from an out-group member as opposed to an in-group member (the intergroup sensitivity effect). In light of work on the sleeper effect, the current research examines whether this defensiveness persists over time. Students received criticism of their faculty area from either a member of the same faculty area (in-group condition), or a member of a different faculty area (out-group condition), or they received no criticism (control condition). Despite relatively poor recall of the content of the criticism, the intergroup sensitivity effect (ISE) found immediately after presentation of the criticism had not significantly decreased 3-4 weeks later. However, the heightened intergroup bias found immediately after the out-group criticism did dissipate with time. Implications of these results for those who wish to initiate social change as outsiders are discussed.

Communication and relationship satisfaction in Chinese, Western, and intercultural Chinese-Western couples.

The current study compared Chinese, Western, and intercultural Chinese-Western couples' communication and examined how culture moderates the association of communication with relationship satisfaction. We coded the communication of 33 Western couples, 36 Chinese couples, and 54 intercultural Chinese-Western couples when discussing a relationship problem and when reminiscing about positive relationship events. Couples with Chinese female partners showed fewer positive behaviors and more negative behaviors (as classified in existing Western coding systems) than couples with Western female partners. The male partner's culture had few associations with couples' rates of communication behavior. Relationship satisfaction was associated with low rates of negative behaviors and high rates of most of the positive behaviors across cultural groups, and these associations were more evident in problem discussions than positive reminiscences.

The Chinese-Western Intercultural Couple Standards Scale.

We developed the Chinese-Western Intercultural Couple Standards Scale (CWICSS) to assess relationship standards that may differ between Chinese and Western partners and may challenge intercultural couples. The scale assesses 4 Western-derived relationship standards (demonstrations of love, demonstrations of caring, intimacy expression, and intimacy responsiveness) and 4 Chinese-derived relationship standards (relations with the extended family, relational harmony, face, and gender roles). We administered the CWICSS to 983 Chinese and Western participants living in Australia to assess the psychometric properties of the scores as measures of respondents' relationship standards. The CWICSS has a 2-level factor structure with the items reflecting the 8 predicted standards. The 4 Western derived standards loaded onto a higher order factor of couple bond, and the 4 Chinese derived standards loaded onto a higher order factor of family responsibility. The scale scores were structurally equivalent across cultures, genders, and 2 independent samples, and good convergent and discriminant validity was found for the interpretation of scale scores as respondents' endorsement of the predicted standards. Scores on the 8 scales and 2 superordinate scales showed high internal consistency and test-retest coefficients. Chinese endorsed all 4 family responsibility standards more strongly than did Westerners, but Chinese and Western participants were similar in endorsement of couple bond standards. Across both cultures, couple bond standards were endorsed more highly than were family responsibility standards. The CWICSS assesses potential areas of conflict in Chinese-Western relationships.