U.S. Gujarati Attitudes toward Gender, Intimate Partner Violence, and Their Own Cultural Groups: The Influence of Country of Adolescence

Background and Purpose: As an ecological framework suggests, individuals' attitudes are continuously shaped by, and shaping, socio-cultural contexts. Thus, studies of immigrants and their offspring must attend to the influence of socio-cultural factors of their country of origin (and any other countries they lived in). Previous studies of immigrants' attitudes focused on gender and/or racial/ethnic differences, with few investigating within-group variations. Even when within-group differences were examined, researchers tended to focus on country of birth (e.g., U.S. vs. other). In an attempt to better understand immigrants' attitudes, this study of Gujaratis (one of the largest Asian Indian ethnic groups) in a Midwestern state examined variations in attitudes toward women, intimate partner violence (IPV), and their own cultural groups, by both gender and country in which respondents spent their adolescent years (country of adolescence).

Methods: Data were collected via Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews in English and Gujarati with a probability sample of 431 Gujarati men and women aged 18-64 (M=42.6; SD=11.9).

We assessed a) attitudes toward women, using the modified Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence & Helmreich, 1973); b) attitudes toward IPV, using the endorsement of male privilege subscale of the Revised Attitudes Toward Wife Abuse Scale (Yoshioka, DiNoia, & Ullah, 2001); c) attitudes toward maintaining Gujarati traditions; and d) the degree to which respondents perceived Asian Indians as a U.S. “model minority.”

Using 2-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), we examined variations in these attitudes by gender and country of adolescence. For this analysis, country of adolescence was dichotomized: West and non-West. The Western-raised group (n=103) included 34 US-born respondents, as well as those who immigrated to the U.S. before age 17 and those who spent their adolescence in western countries such as the U.S. U.K. and Canada. In addition to India, the non-Western-raised group (n=328) spent their adolescence in such countries as Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, reflecting the migratory patterns of Gujaratis.

Results: Controlling for age, gender was not directly associated with attitudes in any of the four areas examined. Those who spent their adolescence in non-Western countries were significantly less likely to endorse egalitarian gender roles (p=.001), more tolerant of IPV (p<.001), and more affirming of maintaining Gujarati traditions (p<.001). Neither gender nor country of adolescence was associated with attitudes toward Indians as a model minority. There was a significant interaction of gender and country of adolescence for attitudes toward women and IPV, respectively (F(1, 411)=3.90, p=.049; F(1,411)=7.00, p=.008); differences due to country of adolescence were stronger for women.

Conclusions and Implications: Although the dichotomy of West and non-West may be simplistic, this study uncovered significant attitudinal variations by country of adolescence, which interacted with gender in two out of four areas of attitudes examined. Studies of immigrants (and any population groups) should assess within-group variations and pay attention to the role of social milieu in which individuals develop their attitudes.