To prepare students to be effective practitioners in an increasingly diverse United States, medical educators must design cross-cultural curricula, including curricula in women's health. One goal of such education is cultural competence, defined as a set of skills that allow individuals to increase their understanding of cultural differences and similarities within, among, and between groups. I...

This paper deals with studies of fixed design, where comparability is feasible either for culture or for time and culture. For the time dimension, studies are divided into cross-sectional and longitudinal, and for the cultural dimension they are divided into monocultural and cross-cultural. Since modern societies are mainly organised into nation-states, cross-cultural studies are carried out mo...

Bias and equivalence are key concepts in the methodology of cross-cultural studies. Bias is a generic term for any challenge of the comparability of cross-cultural data; bias leads to invalid conclusions. The demonstration of equivalence (lack of bias) is a prerequisite for any cross-cultural comparison. we first describe considerations that are relevant when choosing instruments in a cross-cul...

In this cross-cultural study, we primarily aim to present research-based evidence to examine the main gender characteristics associated with socialization. Using the symbolic interaction theory and the socialization theory, this cross-cultuural analysis particularly explores the construction and representation of gender identity through educational systems. The fields of this stu...

Cross-cultural factors are important in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). In the setting of FGIDs, the aims of this review were to: 1) engender interest in global aspects; 2) gain a clearer understanding of culture, race and ethnicity and their effect on patient care and research; 3) facilitate cross-cultural clinical and research competency; and 4) improve and foster the quality a...

A specific faculty development program for tutors to teach cross-cultural care in a preclinical gastrointestinal pathophysiology course with weekly longitudinal followup sessions was designed in 2007 and conducted in the same manner over a 6-yr period. Anonymous student evaluations of how "frequently" the course and the tutor were actively teaching cross-cultural care were performed. The statem...

From a methodological perspective cross-cultural studies in psychology differ in three dimensions. First, cross-cultural psychological studies can be exploratory or test specific hypotheses. Second, some cross-cultural studies compare countries or ethnic groups while other cross-cultural studies relate specific characteristics of a country or ethnicity (e.g., socialization patterns or religiosi...