“长白云国度”海外传教运动视野下的对华传教——新西兰赴华传教士(1877-1952)

新西兰对华传教史至今尚被忽略,本文尝试在国际差传体系的大视野下检视新西兰赴华传教的个案,先就人数、差会、性别比例、阶段性发展等因素作通史性勾勒,再以"英属殖民地差传国"、"小型次传教国"和"对华传教对新西兰本土的反向影响"为理论进路挖掘一些易为"外史型"学者所忽略的问题。在海内外中国教会史研究日臻细化的趋势下,新西兰兼具"中心"与"边缘"、"接收"与"差派"的双重属性,加上国土之"小"、人口之"少"、教会史之"短"、宗派之"简"等特点,皆增添了这一课题所潜藏的学术价值。     

The effects of widowhood on physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes: The Women's Health Initiative.

This study examined whether widowhood was associated with physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes using a cross-sectional (N=72,247) and prospective (N=55,724) design in women aged 50-79 years participating in the Women's Health Initiative observational study (85.4% White). At baseline, married women reported better physical and mental health and generally better health behaviors than widowed women. Whereas women who remained married over the 3-year period showed stability in mental health, recent widows experienced marked impairments and longer term widows showed stability or slight improvements. Both groups of widows reported more unintentional weight loss over the 3-year period. Changes in physical health and health behaviors were inconsistent, with generally small effect sizes. Findings underscore the resilience of older women and their capacity to reestablish connections, but point to the need for services that strengthen social support among women who have difficulty during this transition.     

Depression in adults with type 2 diabetes: the role of adherence, body mass index, and self-efficacy.

Considerable evidence links depression with the development and worsening of diabetes, but the factors contributing to this link have not been established. The authors examined the role of adherence, body mass index (BMI), and self-efficacy. Adult patients with Type 2 diabetes (N = 56) completed self-report measures of diet and exercise adherence, diet and exercise self-efficacy, and depression. BMI was obtained from medical records. Path and mediation analyses indicated that both adherence and BMI independently contributed to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy mediated both the association between adherence and depression and the association between BMI and depression. These findings are consistent with the proposal that lower self-efficacy in reaction to adherence failure and higher BMI contributes to depression in adults with diabetes.     

Celtic ways between worlds

I am all for walking in two worlds at once since we are gifted with two legs. C. G. Jung Letters, Vol. 2, para. 459     

Drive and Direction: Empathy with Intended Targets Moderates the Proactive Personality–Job Performance Relationship via Work Engagement

Proactive employees are self-starting and driven. Thus, they typically exhibit high levels of work engagement. While work engagement reflects the degree to which employees are attentive and absorbed when performing their work tasks, it does not guarantee effective job performance unless their actions are strategic. We draw on Grant and Ashford’s (2008) proactivity framework to develop a drive and direction contingency model that expands our understanding of how and when proactive personality predicts job performance via work engagement. We argue that employee’s drive (represented by the positive relation of proactive personality with work engagement) predicts job performance only when the employee also has high (vs. low) empathy with their intended targets, such as customers. Empathy with intended targets allows employees to understand and feel their targets’ concerns and feelings, thus providing a direction that guides their work engagement to address their targets’ interests and predict job performance. Results from a multiple-source (employees, supervisors, and organizational records) lagged (T1–T2) field study and a lab experiment support our model. We discuss the implications, limitations, and future directions of our findings.