Parental Involvement in Primary School Education: its Relationship with Children’s Academic Performance and Psychosocial Competence through Engaging Children with School

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the associations of parental educational involvement at home and in school with academic performance and psychological health of 507 Chinese Grade 3 schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Parents reported on their level of involvement in children’s schooling and their children’s psychosocial issues. Children were surveyed to determine their school engagement, and their Chinese language and mathematics attainment was assessed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by testing children’s engagement with school as a mediator of the relationships. Our results showed that home-based parental educational involvement was positively associated with children’s language competence and psychosocial wellbeing, and the associations were linked through engaging children with school. However, the benefits reached a plateau at higher level of parental involvement in children’s learning at home. School-based parental involvement had an indirect effect on children’s prosocial behavior through school engagement. These findings highlight the significance of optimal level of parental involvement in children’s education at home for children’s development.     

A Descriptive Examination of Prisonization through the Lens of Post-Exoneration Offending

Prisonization, which seeks to explain criminal behavior as a function of past prison experiences, has been examined through many lenses; however, more novel approaches to exploring prisonization have been lacking. This study uniquely explores the concept of prisonization by describing the post-release behavior of 118 wrongfully convicted individuals, known as exonerees.

Conclusions were drawn from a dataset of exonerees and criminal history background searches. Comparative analyses show that exonerees without priors serve longer sentences and demonstrate a shorter time to failure (as measured by post-release offending). Offending among this cohort may suggest that otherwise law-abiding citizens were negatively affected by their experience in prison and, furthermore, may indirectly support the notion that being imprisoned fosters criminality in individuals. These results can support conceptual and practical advancements.     

Cultural Adaptation and Sexual Harassment in the Lives of Asian American Women

ABSTRACT

Despite the prevalence of both historical and current race- and gender-based stereotyping of Asian American women, little is known about their experiences and attitudes regarding sexual harassment. In this study, 109 Asian American women enrolled in a state university or a 2-year community college responded to questionnaires about cultural orientation, experiences of sexual harassment, and sexual harassment attitudes. Asian cultural orientation was associated with sexual harassment attitudes. Specifically, among women with low White cultural orientation, there was a statistically significant positive association between Asian cultural orientation and acceptance of sexual harassment. Results from this study have important implications for clinical practice with Asian American women, including issues of migration, cultural orientation, and the intersection of racism and sexism in the United States.     

Iranian Psychotherapists’ Behaviors and Beliefs Toward Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The aim of this study is to investigate Iranian psychotherapists’ behaviors and beliefs toward sexual orientation and gender identity. The sample consisted of 358 Iranian psychotherapists, of whom 29.3% (n = 105) were male and 67% (n = 24) were female. Results from the chi-square analyses showed that more male participants reported accepting homosexual clients and treating them as having a pathological disorder than their female counterparts; and licensed respondents reported engaging more in accepting only male or female clients, accepting more homosexual and transgender clients for treatment, and treating them as having a pathological disorder when compared with their unlicensed counterparts. Furthermore supervised respondents reported accepting more homosexual clients than their unsupervised counterparts. However results from the multivariate analysis of variance has indicated that the female participants reported “accepting homosexuals or transgender clients for treatment” more often than the male participants; unsupervised participants reported “accepting homosexual or transgender clients for treatment” and “treating homosexuality per se as a pathological disorder” more often than their supervised counterparts.     

Antiegalitarians for affirmative action? When social dominance orientation is positively related to support for egalitarian social policies

Previous research has found that people high in social dominance orientation (i.e., antiegalitarians) generally oppose affirmative action policies. We propose that antiegalitarians may be less opposed to strong affirmative action policies because such policies may be perceived to ultimately strengthen racial hierarchies. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that antiegalitarian individuals are less opposed to affirmative action policies, as compared to egalitarian individuals, when such policies strongly weigh minority status in selection decisions. Study 3 provides evidence that antiegalitarians lessen their opposition to strong policies only when such policies are believed to enhance racial hierarchies through the recruitment of minorities that remain at the bottom of organizational hierarchies. Theoretical, political, and organizational implications are discussed.     

Is the Chinese number-naming system transparent? Evidence from Chinese-English bilingual children.

Chinese-speaking children have been shown to have an advantage over English-speaking children in a variety of mathematical areas, including counting. One possible explanation for the advantage in counting is that the Chinese number-naming system is relatively transparent, compared to English, in that number names typically are directly indicative of base-10 structure (e.g., 12 is named "ten-two" rather than "twelve"). To determine whether the transparency of the Chinese number-naming system influences counting in bilingual children, we tested 25 Chinese-English bilingual children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, both in English and in Chinese. Children were asked to count as high as they could (abstract counting) and also to count objects in small, medium, and large arrays (object counting). No evidence was found for transparency or for transfer from one language to the other. Instead, relative proficiency in the two languages influenced counting skill. These results are discussed in terms of linguistic and cultural variables that might account for cross-linguistic differences in counting.     

Mode of grasp, materials, and grooved chopstick tip on gripping performance and evaluation

This study evaluated the effects of the mode of grasping, chopstick materials, and the groove of the chopstick-tip on gripping performance of 32 participants, among whom 16 were accustomed to using chopsticks with a pliers-grasping mode and the other 16 with a scissors-grasping mode. Based on a random sequence, 8 kinds of chopsticks with different combinations (materials: bamboo, wood, plastic, and stainless steel, with and without grooves in the chopstick-tip) were used to carry out the action of gripping two different objects (peanuts and longan). The time to finish gripping 50 pieces of peanut and longan, the number which fell on the table when gripping, the subjective effort and the subjective preference were measures of efficiency of pinching for 8 kinds of chopsticks. Analysis showed that chopstick materials significantly affect time of gripping. The large object (such as longan) could be gripped more easily with the pliers-grasping mode or gripped with the grooved chopstick-tip. However, for small objects (such as peanuts), there was no significant difference in performance whether the chopstick-tip was grooved or not. A combination of bamboo chopsticks with grooved tips used with a pliers-grasping seem preferrable for more favorable gripping performance.