The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (SF-40): Adaptation and Validation of the Spanish Version

Multicultural personality traits of Chinese university students and their effects on the psychological adjustment in the aftermath of COVID-19 in Shanghai: a scale validation

Objective

This study aims to explore Chinese university students' multicultural personalities and examine how they predict the psychological adjustment of students in Shanghai. In addition, the validation of Multicultural Personality Questionnaire Short Form (MPQ-SF) scale developed to assess the multicultural personality traits of individuals is also aimed in Chinese context. Data were collected after the psychological stresses from restrictions imposed by COVID-19 in China that influenced life adjustments for nearly three years.

Method

A total of 1,099 university students participated in this multi-stage study. First, the Chinese version of MPQ-SF (MPQ-SF-C) was developed and validated. The impact of MPQ-SF-C dimensions was then tested through path analysis to establish the effects of Chinese university students' multicultural personality traits on their psychological adjustment using the Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS-10).

Results

The MPQ-SF-C yielded a five-factor solution which accounted for 60.14% of the common variance. The findings indicated that cultural empathy (β = 0.23, p < 0.05), certainty seeking (β = 0.13, p < 0.05), open-mindedness (β = 0.48, p < 0.05), and emotional stability (β = 0.24, p < 0.05) had significant influences on adjustment. Only flexibility was found to have a statistically insignificant impact on adjustment at this time in this context. MPQ-SF-C and SOS-10 scales represented very good psychometric properties in terms of their reliability and validity.

Conclusion

The MPQ-SF-C shows good psychometric properties and appropriateness for evaluating multicultural personalities in Chinese contexts. The multicultural personality characteristics of university students using this scale well predicted their psychological adjustment.

A comparative study on culture-specific and cross-cultural aspects of intercultural relations in Hungary, Serbia, Czech Republic, and Germany

The ability, will, and belief that it is possible to deal effectively with members of other cultural/ethnic groups are still gaining importance all over the world. However, the majority of studies on intercultural relations focus on Western Europe and the USA, applying constructs and theories that replicate a western-centered worldview. As a consequence, it is unclear whether established measures for intergroup attitudes and intercultural competence may be applied in Eastern European countries and to what extent they display comparable ideas, thoughts, and feelings. The current study thus explores cross-cultural commonalities and differences in established measures of ethnic identity, prejudice, acculturation strategies, intercultural intelligence, and multicultural personality. Therefore, we compare the scale structure, difficulty, and sensitivity in samples from Germany and the Eastern European countries Hungary, Serbia, and the Czech Republic (etic-perspective), as well as the culture-specific conceptions of said concepts (emic-perspective). Results show that the investigated scales do not work comparably across German and Eastern European samples. Differences might be rooted in variations of underlying thinking patterns and connotations of single expressions. Those variations are likely to be related to the constant individual societal and historical developments of cultures, shaping the way individuals think and talk about cultural diversity. Future studies are encouraged to consider culture-specific and generalizable aspects of constructs when conducting cross-cultural research on intercultural relations.

Intercultural Competence Predicts Intercultural Effectiveness: Test of an Integrative Framework

Why does someone thrive in intercultural situations; while others seem to struggle? In 2014, Leung and colleagues summarized the literature on intercultural competence and intercultural effectiveness into a theoretical framework. This integrative framework hypothesizes that the interrelations between intercultural traits, intercultural attitudes and worldviews, and intercultural capabilities predict the effectiveness with which individuals respond to intercultural situations. An empirically verified framework can contribute to understanding intercultural competence and effectiveness in health care workers, thus contributing to more equity in health care. The present study sets out to test this integrative framework in a specific health care context. Future health care practitioners (N = 842) in Flanders (Belgium) were questioned on all multidimensional components of the framework. Structural equation modeling showed that our data were adequate to even a good fit with the theoretical framework, while providing at least partial evidence for all hypothesized relations. Results further showed that intercultural capabilities remain the major gateway toward more effective intercultural behavior. Especially the motivation and cognition dimensions of cultural intelligence seem to be key factors, making these dimensions an excellent target for training, practical interventions, and identifying best practices, ultimately supporting greater intercultural effectiveness and more equity in health care.