Exploration of the prevalence and correlates of substance use among sheltered adolescents in South Korea

Substance use among sheltered adolescents is very serious in South Korea--a nation in the process of rapid industrialization and urbanization. However, few studies have investigated substance use among the adolescents which is a growing concern of the changing society of this nation. This study examined the prevalence of substance use and explored risk factors that predict substance abuse by sheltered adolescents. Through a questionnaire survey of sheltered adolescents, data on substance use and the risk factors were collected. The sample of the adolescents included 44 (33.3%) males and 88 (67.2%) females; their mean age was 15.8 years (SD = 1.62). The results of a logistic regression analysis showed that alcohol expectancy, physical abuse, and peer pressure were all statistically significantly associated with substance abuse. Findings on the critical issues are expected to lead to the development of urgently needed prevention programs for the high-risk adolescents in South Korea.     

Contrasting intellectual patterns predict creativity in the arts and sciences: tracking intellectually precocious youth over 25 years

A sample of 2,409 intellectually talented adolescents (top 1%) who were assessed on the SAT by age 13 was tracked longitudinally for more than 25 years. Their creative accomplishments, with particular emphasis on literary achievement and scientific-technical innovation, were examined as a function of ability level (sum of math and verbal SAT scores) and tilt (math SAT score minus verbal SAT score). Results showed that distinct ability patterns uncovered by age 13 portend contrasting forms of creative expression by middle age. Whereas ability level contributes significantly to creative accomplishments, ability tilt is critical for predicting the specific domain in which they occur (e.g., securing a tenure-track position in the humanities vs. science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; publishing a novel vs. securing a patent).     

Study of education disparities and health information seeking behavior.

This exploratory technology assessment examines how educational characteristics of health information seekers are associated with access to computers, the Internet, and online health information. Specifically, we examine (1) if there exists significant variation across identified health technology user groups regarding access to online health information, and (2) if differences between education levels have narrowed, remained constant, or widened over recent years, following national educational initiatives to narrow the technology gap for low-education user groups. Using a stratified sample from national tracking survey data, we find that recent policy initiatives under national technology access and other programs have demonstrated little effect in narrowing the digital divide for low-education users of web-based technologies.     

Virtual environment training system for rehabilitation of stroke patients with unilateral neglect: crossing the virtual street.

In this paper, we propose a system for training of stroke patients with unilateral neglect by using technology of virtual reality (VR). The proposed system is designed to compensate for unilateral neglect. This system contains the calibration of unilateral neglect and the training of this disease. The calibration procedure is implemented by aligning the virtual object at a subjective middle line. The training procedure is implemented by completing the missions that are used to keep the virtual avatar safe during crossing the street in a virtual environment. The results of this study show that the proposed system is effective to train unilateral neglect. The left to right ratio scores extracted from this system gradually decrease as the sessions of training are repeated. To validate the VR system parameters, the parameters are analyzed by correlation with those of traditional unilateral neglect assessment methods (such as the line bisection test and the cancellation test).     

Psychological mechanisms underlying the Köhler motivation gain

Sometimes group work conditions lead to motivation gains rather than to social loafing. Two theoretical explanations for the K?hler motivation gain effect are identified, one stressing social comparison and a second stressing the indispensability of one's effort to the group. The results of three new experiments are reported. Experiment 1 suggested that both explanations are valid and contribute to the K?hler effect. Prior studies suggested that there might be gender differences in the relative importance of these two explanatory processes. Experiment 2 confirmed this suggestion. In Experiment 3, the gender difference was eliminated by priming women with a goal (viz., competition) presumed to be chronically more important to men. It is argued that the relative importance of these two motivational processes will depend on the immediate and chronic importance attached to more personal (viz., to achieve a favorable social comparison) versus collective (viz., to contribute to one's group) goals.     

Psychosocial mediation of religious coping styles: a study of short-term psychological distress following cardiac surgery

Although religiousness and religious coping styles are well-documented predictors of well-being, research on the mechanisms through which religious coping styles operate is sparse. This prospective study examined religious coping styles, hope, and social support as pathways of the influence of general religiousness (religious importance and involvement) on the reduced postoperative psychological distress of 309 cardiac patients. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that controlling for preoperative distress, gender, and education, religiousness contributed to positive religious coping, which in turn was associated with less distress via a path fully mediated by the secular factors of social support and hope. Furthermore, negative religious coping styles, although correlated at the bivariate level with preoperative distress but not with religiousness, were associated both directly and indirectly with greater post-operative distress via the same mediators.     

Contingencies of self-worth, academic failure, and goal pursuit

Two studies examine the effects of failure on explicit and implicit self-esteem, affect, and self-presentation goals as a function of people's trait self-esteem and academic contingency of self-worth. Study 1 shows that participants with low self-esteem (LSE) who receive failure feedback experience lower state self-esteem, less positive affect, and less desire to be perceived as competent the more they base self-worth on academics. In contrast, participants with high self-esteem (HSE) who strongly base self-worth on academics show a slight boost in state self-esteem and desire to be perceived as competent following failure. Study 2 shows that following failure, academically contingent LSE participants downplay the importance of appearing competent to others and associate themselves with failure on an implicit level. Taken together, these findings suggest that academically contingent HSE people show resilience following failure, whereas academically contingent LSE people experience negative outcomes and disengage from the pursuit of competence self-presentation goals.     

Appraisal-coping goodness of fit: a daily internet study

Using an Internet daily diary methodology, this study tested the goodness of fit hypothesis, which highlights the importance of the match between controllability appraisals and coping efforts in adjustment to stressful events. For 28 days, 190 undergraduates described their most stressful event and its controllability, how they coped, and their daily positive and negative mood. Individuals demonstrated fit across situations, with control appraisals associated positively with problem-focused coping and negatively with emotional approach coping and avoidance coping. A pooled within-person interaction indicated that problem-focused coping had a stronger positive association with positive mood when dealing with high versus low control stressors. Significant variation also was found in several other within-person interactions between control appraisals and coping, and some evidence was found for the notion that individual differences in the degree of matching coping to control appraisals were associated with person-level adjustment.     

A cross-culturally standardized set of pictures for younger and older adults: American and Chinese norms for name agreement,concept agreement,and familiarity

The present study presents normative measures for 260 line drawings of everyday objects, found in Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980), viewed by individuals in China and the United States. Within each cultural group, name agreement, concept agreement, and familiarity measures were obtained separately for younger adults and older adults. For a subset of 57 pictures (22%), there was equivalence in both name agreement and concept agreement, and for an additional subset of 29 pictures (11%), there was nonequivalent name agreement but equivalent concept agreement, across all culture-by-age groups. The data indicate substantial differences across culture-by-age groups in name agreement percentages and number of distinct name responses provided. We discovered significant differences between older and younger American adults in both name agreement percentages (67 pictures, or 26%) and concept agreement percentages (44 pictures, or 17%). Written naming responses collected for the entire set of Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures showed shifts in both naming and concept agreement percentages over the intervening decades: Although correlations in name agreement were strong (r = .71,p < .001) between our younger American samples and those of Snodgrass and Vanderwart, name agreement percentages have changed for a substantial proportion (33%) of the 260 pictures; moreover, 63% of the stimuli for which Snodgrass and Vanderwart reported concept agreement now appear to differ. We provide comprehensive comparison statistics and tests for both the present study and prior ones, finding differences across numerous item-level measures. The corpus of data suggests that substantial differences in all measures can be found across age as well as culture, so that unequivocal conclusions with respect to cross-cultural or age-related differences in cognition can be made only when appropriate stimuli are selected for studies. Data for all 260 pictures, for each of the four groups, and all supporting materials and tests are freely archived athttp://agingmind.cns.uiuc.edu/Pict Norms. The full set of these norms may be downloaded fromwwwpsychonomic.org/archive/.