Numbers for Boys and Words for Girls? Academic Gender Stereotypes among Chinese Parents

Academic gender stereotypes contribute to observed gender differences in educational enrollment and attainment. Investigating parents’ stereotypes among 907 families in China, this study used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to uncover four latent factors: boys-Math, boys-Sciences, girls-Chinese, and girls-Liberal Arts stereotypes. The former two depicted boys as more gifted, enthusiastic, and higher-achieving learners in Math and Sciences, and the latter two favored girls in Chinese and Liberal Arts. This four-factor structure was invariant across parents with sons and daughters after accounting for the nonindependence of parents within families. The boys-Math and boys-Sciences stereotypes were found to be stronger than the other two stereotypes. Further analyses revealed nuances concerning the boys-Math stereotype: it was more pronounced among mothers than fathers in families with daughters, fathers with sons than daughters, and girls’ mothers without college degrees than those with degrees. Within the same family, mothers more commonly held stereotype-consistent perceptions concerning Math and Chinese than fathers, but there was a general agreement over gendered perceptions of all four achievement domains regardless of child gender. The findings highlight the need for family-based awareness-raising programs targeting parents’ gender stereotypes to create gender-fair and gender-inclusive learning environments.

     

Indigenous Psychotherapies and Religion: Moral Vision and Embodied Communities

Over the past century, the dominant model for addressing mental illness has been the treatment of individuals, largely by individual therapists who assume the availability of individual psychological resources. That form of therapy is a scarce commodity in capitalist societies, and social models of healing have been largely marginalized and forgotten. From the point of view of an indigenous psychology of religion, this essay (1) reports on local cultural and community models of healing that honor the common good, draw on local, communal narratives, and involve a given community in the process of healing. However, because it is not simply community in itself that is therapeutic, the authors argue (2) that healing cultures have communities that are guided by their moral vision and are committed to justice, moral integrity, and the sharing of resources. They draw on intergenerational studies that detail the effects in Inuit communities where a moral vision and a sense of community was present but then was eroded. Therapists whose interventions draw on the moral resources of the community may facilitate healing, as demonstrated by the use of allocentric imaging in more communal traditions. Finally, it is not simply communities with moral ideals that are therapeutic but (3) indigenous communities whose structures and whose role models embody their ethic that is critical for healing. The authors examine ecological communities in China committed to Confucian values and protection of the earth. The L’Arche communities begun in France by Jean Vanier and Alcoholics Anonymous groups around the world serve as examples of embodied moral communities.     

Couple Therapy with Veterans: Early Improvements and Predictors of Early Dropout

Family services within Veterans Affairs Medical Centers fulfill an important role in addressing relationship distress among Veterans, which is highly prevalent and comorbid with psychopathology. However, even for evidence‐based couple therapies, effectiveness is weaker compared to controlled studies, maybe because many Veteran couples drop out early and do not reach the “active” treatment stage after the 3–4 session assessment. In order to improve outcomes, it is critical to identify couples at high risk for early dropout, and understand whether couples may benefit from the assessment as an intervention. The current study examined (a) demographics, treatment delivery mode, relationship satisfaction, and psychological symptoms as predictors of dropout during and immediately following the assessment phase, and (b) changes in relationship satisfaction during assessment. 174 couples completed questionnaires during routine intake procedures. The main analyses focused on 140 male Veterans and their female civilian partners; 36.43% dropped out during the assessment phase and 24.74% of the remaining couples immediately following the first treatment session. More severe depressive symptoms in non‐Veteran partners were associated with dropout during assessment. Relationship satisfaction improved significantly during the assessment phase for couples who did not drop out, with larger gains for non‐Veteran partners. No demographics or treatment delivery mode were associated with dropout. Although more research is needed on engaging couples at risk for early dropout and maximizing early benefits, the findings suggest that clinicians should attend to the civilian partner's and Veteran's depressive symptoms at intake and consider the assessment part of active treatment.     

Organizational media choice in performance feedback: a multifaceted approach

This study was designed to examine media choice in performance feedback, an organizational communication process that has been overlooked in the literature. Specifically, we adopted a multifaceted approach and examined how contextual variables in feedback, variables identified from media choice theories, and individual differences in media perception influenced selection of a medium to communicate performance information. A policy‐capturing survey was administered to 178 full‐time employees in Hong Kong. Participants read feedback scenarios and provided media preference ratings of face‐to‐face, telephone, electronic mail, and written communication. Results showed that the three facets jointly influenced media choice. Given that communication quality is partly determined by the medium selected, the present work sheds light on the understanding of initiation process in performance feedback.     

Documentation: Islam and civil society

Following is the text of a lecture given to The Charlemagne Institute at Westminster School, London, on 26 June 1996. The text is reproduced with the kind permission of His Royal Highness and The Charlemagne Institute.     

Reading First kindergarten classroom instruction and students' growth in phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency

This study investigated the role of the amount, content, and implementation of reading instruction provided by 17 kindergarten teachers in eight Reading First elementary schools as it related to students' progress (n = 286 students) on early reading assessments of phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency. Children's phonological awareness and letter naming–decoding fluency grew significantly from fall to spring. On average, across the three 60 min observations, teachers provided over 30 min a day of phonological awareness and phonics instruction and 15 min a day of vocabulary and comprehension instruction. Global ratings of instructional quality revealed two implementation factors: explicit and individualized implementation and meaningful interactions around text. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that the amounts of specific instructional content, as well as how this instruction was implemented, was related to students' letter knowledge and phonological awareness skill growth.     

Voices of Islamic Authorities: Friday Khutba in Malaysian Mosques

Malaysia has been introducing Islamization policies since the 1980s and has used Friday khutbas (sermons) to convey government and religious authorities’ ideas and interpretations of Islam. We used content analysis of the texts of khutbas delivered in 2013 and 2014 in six states in Malaysia, all of which were obtained from those states’ Islamic authorities’ websites. This research found that weekly Friday khutbas have been used to announce the Islamic authorities’ commitment to safeguard the integrity of Sunni Islam, to monopolize the interpretation of Islam, to establish the collective mistreatment of minority Muslim groups and to promote the implementation of hudud law. Our analysis demonstrates that the control exercised by the government and religious authorities over mosques, covering aspects ranging from a mosque’s administration and appointment of the imam to the preparation of the khutba text has created an ideal opportunity for the government to influence the Muslim society’s understanding and stance on a variety of social, religious and political issues in a multi-ethnic community.