Cultural Orientation, Ethnic Affiliation, and Negative Daily Occurrences: A Multidimensional Cross-Cultural Analysis

The present research focuses on cultural variations in the experience of daily stresses and strains. It simultaneously examines the experiences of daily hassles among people holding different cultural orientations (individualistic vs. collectivist) and different socioethnic groups (Jews and Arabs). Data were gathered from 662 Jewish and 300 Arab Israeli respondents by means of a random telephone number dialing. Differences were found in self-related hassles between individuals holding different cultural orientations and in family-related hassles between members of different ethnic affiliations. Multidimensional scaling analysis revealed a different configuration of relations among hassle domains in four groups of Ethnic Affiliation × Cultural Orientation, yielding a continuum from most typical individualists to most typical collectivists, with groups in cultural transition found in between.