Mind over Body? The Combined Effect of Objective Body Weight, Perceived Body Weight, and Gender on Illness-Related Absenteeism

This study examined the combined effect of objective and subjective body weight, as well as gender, on illness-related absenteeism. A sample of 162 Hong Kong white-collar employees was surveyed. Using hierarchical regression analysis, we were able to confirm our hypotheses, derived from the objectified body consciousness (OBC) theory, that the positive relationship between objective body weight and illness-related absenteeism is significant among women, not men; and only among those women who consider themselves obese (as opposed to those who do not). This finding supports the concept that a woman’s perception of weight affects whether obesity is more strongly related to illness-related absenteeism.     

Worldviews and individual vulnerability to suicide: The role of social axioms

Research investigating the role of generalized beliefs about the world or worldviews is relatively scarce in the suicide literature. Two studies, using Hong Kong Chinese samples, examined how worldviews, as assessed by the Social Axioms Survey (SAS), were linked with individual vulnerability to suicide. In Study 1, we investigated the relationships of social axioms with various suicide indicators in cognitive, emotional and interpersonal domains, viz., suicidal ideation, negative self‐esteem, psychache, burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Results from canonical correlation analysis showed that beliefs along the axiom dimensions of social cynicism, reward for application, and social complexity were linked to these suicide indicators. In Study 2, we tested the interplay of worldviews and personality traits in the prediction of suicidal thoughts. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated the predictive power of social axioms over and above that provided by the Big Five personality dimensions. Moreover, a significant interaction was observed between belief in reward for application and negative life events in predicting suicidal ideation, showing that reward for application buffered the effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation. Based on these results, we discussed the significance of worldviews as a consideration in suicide research and their implications for clinical assessment and intervention. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing intergroup attitudes among Hong Kong adolescents: Effects of social category inclusiveness and time pressure

Previous research has shown a widespread bias among Hong Kong adolescents against Chinese Mainlanders. Based on social identity and social cognitive theories, we examined the effects of identity frame switching (situational induction of social category inclusiveness) and time pressure (environmental constraints on social information processing) on Hong Kong adolescents' attitudes toward Chinese Mainlanders. Results indicated that Hong Kong adolescents had acquired a habitual tendency to make social comparisons within an exclusive regional framework of reference. This habitual tendency might lead to negative judgment biases toward Chinese Mainlanders, particularly when the adolescents made social judgments under time pressure. In addition, switching to an inclusive national frame of reference for social comparison attenuated negative intergroup attitudes. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Factor structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in Hong Kong adolescents

We present data from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) for 2 samples of Hong Kong community adolescents (combined N = 1,385). The 4 positive affect items related poorly to the remainder of the scale. Using 16 items, the data were consistent with 2 models with highly correlated factors: (a) a 2-factor model, 1 of which merged somatic and affective items, and (b) a 3-factor model separating somatic, depressed, and interpersonal items. Correlations with related constructs provide preliminary support of validity. Hong Kong adolescents are influenced both by traditional concepts of mind-body holism and Western psychological models separating psychological and somatic symptoms.     

Esteem maintenance among groups: Laboratory and field studies of group performance cognitions

Across 48 experimental groups, those that scored higher on group self-esteem attributed perceived positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors. Groups provided more elaborate rationalizations about perceived negative outcomes and less elaborate rationalizations about perceived positive outcomes. They also espoused greater confidence in improved performance after negative outcomes and less confidence following positive outcomes. Similar findings were observed among 252 intact work groups in an employment setting. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding how group self-esteem influences how groups evaluate and respond to performance feedback.     

Classroom discourse analysis and educational outcomes in the era of education reform

Background In the era of education reform when new teaching approaches are being advocated, it is important to investigate how different classroom discourse patterns are related to different educational outcomes. Aim The purpose of the study was to analyse the whole classroom discourse of two teacher interns' writing classes. It was conducted against a background of education reform in which teachers were being encouraged to make major changes in their teaching approaches. We investigated what approaches were adopted and what discourse patterns were related to better educational outcomes. Sample The participants were two teacher interns and their 61 students in Hong Kong. The students (35 boys, 26 girls) were seventh graders from two classes in the same secondary school. Method An instruction unit of each teacher intern on expository writing (120 min) was video‐recorded and analysed. Discourse analysis of the whole classroom interaction was supplemented by the students' perceptions and independent observers' evaluations of the instruction. Results The results indicated that both teacher interns adopted a traditional direct instruction although student‐centred approaches were being recommended in the education reform. The effectiveness of the instruction was associated with certain features of the classroom discourse patterns. Better educational outcomes were associated positively with utterances of high cognitive demand but negatively with utterances related to discipline. Students tended to have better performances in writing when they and the independent observers perceived that the teachers used more motivating strategies. Conclusions The effectiveness of instruction is a complicated phenomenon that involves a myriad of interrelated factors. Teacher‐ or student‐centred approaches are only part of these diverse factors.     

Adolescents' family obligation and activities in rural and urban Vietnam: Implications for social change

This study examined how urbanisation may modify adolescents' values and activities concerning family obligation by surveying 572 adolescents (M_age = 15.75, SD = .73) in rural and urban Vietnam. Compared with their rural peers, urban adolescents reported a stronger sense of family obligation but spent less time actually engaging in family assistance, findings that were partly explained by urban households' less financial hardship and higher parental education levels. As expected, stronger family obligation values were associated with greater family assistance activities across rural and urban Vietnam. However, stronger family obligation values were associated with more study hours only in urban Vietnam, indicating that urbanisation may broaden the meaning of family obligation to encompass the academic domain. Additionally, weaker family obligation values were associated with more employment hours only in rural Vietnam, suggesting that rural adolescents with little attachment to the traditional value of family obligation may pursue autonomy through employment outside the home. In traditionally familistic societies undergoing urbanisation, family obligation may take on different meaning depending on adolescents' ecological settings that construct cultural values and behavioural norms.     

Cultural differences in gender role attitudes between Chinese and American students

A total of 665 Chinese college students in Taiwan and Caucasian college students in eastern North Carolina were administered several sex role attitude scales developed by Spence et al. (1978, 1980). The scales were translated into Chinese for Chinese subjects. Results indicated cultural differences in attitudes toward Marital Roles, Expressivity, Social Interaction, and Preference for males. In both cultures, females were found to be significantly more liberal, as shown in Attitudes Toward Women, Marital Roles, and Social Interaction. These results are consistent with previous research. Cultural differences were also as expected, with Chinese holding more conservative views.An earlier version of this paper was presented in part at the 63rd Annual Convention of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts, April 3, 1992.     

The relationship between daily stress and health: Replicating and extending previous findings

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of daily stress, or hassles, on the physical and psychological health status of 112 adolescents over 10 consecutive days. Measures of hassles, daily somatic symptoms and mood, overall health status, and perceived social support were taken. A principal components analysis of the newly designed Secondary School Students' Hassles Scale generated four factors of which “management of time and work” accounted for 41 percent of the variance. Results supported previous findings that hassles levels were related inversely to daily health, daily mood, and overall health status. Perceived social support was found to be associated with general health but not with daily health and mood, and results from partial correlation analyses challenged the buffering role of social support between hassles and adaptational outcomes. The cross-cultural applicability of the hassles concept was discussed.