Associations Among Asian Americans' Enculturation,Emotional Experiences,and Depressive Symptoms

Using a computer‐based text analysis of 218 Asian Americans' writing samples, the authors found that enculturation as well as use of negative emotion and positive emotion words were associated with depressive symptoms. Enculturation was also found to moderate the relation between use of negative emotion words and cognitive‐affective depressive symptoms. Utilizando un análisis de texto computerizado de muestras escritas por 218 individuos Asiático‐americanos, los autores hallaron que la asimilación cultural y el uso de palabras de emoción positivas y negativas están asociadas con síntomas depresivos. También se halló que la asimilación cultural modera la relación entre el uso de palabras de emoción negativas y los síntomas depresivos cognitivo‐afectivos.     

Nonword repetition stimuli for Vietnamese-speaking children

Nonword repetition (NWR) has been a widely used measure of language-learning ability in children with and without language disorders. Although NWR tasks have been created for a variety of languages, minimal attention has been given to Asian tonal languages. This study introduces a new set of NWR stimuli for Vietnamese. The stimuli include 20 items ranging in length from one to four syllables. The items consist of dialect-neutral phonemes in consonant–vowel (CV) and CVC sequences that follow the phonotactic constraints of the language. They were rated high on wordlikeness and have comparable position segments and biphone probabilities across stimulus lengths. We validated the stimuli with a sample of 59 typically developing Vietnamese–English bilingual children, ages 5 to 8. The stimuli exhibited the expected age and length effects commonly found in NWR tasks: Older children performed better on the task than younger children, and longer items were more difficult to repeat than shorter items. We also compared different scoring systems in order to examine the individual phoneme types (consonants, vowels, and tones) and composite scores (proportions of phonemes correct, with and without tone). The study demonstrates careful construction and validation of the stimuli, and future directions are discussed.     

Representation and Reasoning about Evolutions of the World in the Context of Reasoning about Actions

The first step in reasoning about actions and change involves reasoning about how the world would evolve if a certain action is executed in a certain state. Most research on this assumes the evolution to be only a single step and focus on formulating the transition function that defines changes between states due to actions. In this paper we consider cases where the evolution is more than just a single change between one state and another. This is manifested when the execution of an action may trigger execution of other actions, or when multiple agents act on the environment following certain strategies.     

Adult attachment,the transition to parenthood,and depressive symptoms

Testing a model suggested by J. Bowlby (1988), this study investigated how a personal vulnerability (attachment ambivalence) interacts with perceptions of deficient spousal support before and during a major life stressor (the transition to parenthood) to predict pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms. Highly ambivalent women who entered parenthood perceiving either less support or greater anger from their husbands experienced pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms at 6 months postpartum. The associations between these 2 prenatal interaction terms and pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms were mediated by perceptions of declining spousal support across the transition period. Moreover, for highly ambivalent women, the association between prenatal and postnatal depression scores was mediated by perceptions of the amount of support available from their husbands.     

Self-compassion reduces parental burnout: Mediation roles of parental psychological control and support

This study investigated the mediating role of parental psychological control (PPC) and support in the relationship between self-compassion and parental burnout syndrome. The study participants included 1185 Vietnamese parents who completed questionnaires regarding demographic information, parental burnout, self-compassion, parental support of the child, and PPC. We used data analyses, including structural equation modeling, to test the mediation roles of PPC and parental support of the child. Our main findings include: (1) self-compassion had a significant negative effect on parental burnout; (2) the mediation roles of PPC and parental support of the child were also significant. These results suggest that parents with high self-compassion tend to provide more support for children in daily parenting, which helps reduce parental burnout. In contrast, parents with low self-compassion were more likely to use PPC, which exacerbated their burnout. The results from this study provide suggestions for creating effective interventions in the family context to reduce parental burnout and improve parenting effectiveness.     

A shared-transportation mobile app continuance model: The moderating effects of brand awareness

In light of the increasing development of technological innovation and information and communication technologies, features of mobile apps functions are also increasingly developed to meet people's needs and wants. Amongst the variety, shared transportation apps (STA) have emerged to optimize people's daily transportation needs. This study modified the expectation-confirmation theory and the post-acceptance model of information system continuance to examine the effects of customers' perceived STA performance (service performance, content provision, and system performance) and benefits (function, money worthiness, pleasure, and social interaction) on customer satisfaction with the usage of STA, which is expected to have a positive effect on customer retention on STA in a new theoretical framework, called the performance-benefit of the STA continuance model (PBCM). Moreover, brand awareness was expected to be an essential moderator on the effect of perceived performance and perceived benefits on customer satisfaction. 397 respondents were recruited online through a convenient sampling technique in the Vietnam market. Results show that service performance, money worthiness, pleasure, and social interaction are four important determinants of customer satisfaction with STA. Moreover, brand awareness significantly moderates the effects of service performance, system performance, money worthiness, and social interaction on customer satisfaction. Findings also contribute rational strategies for e-commerce managers in general and STA managers in particular.     

Parents,friends and immigrant youths' academic engagement: A mediation analysis

Parents and friends can help facilitate the academic engagement of newcomer immigrant youth during the early post-migration years. Using an accelerated longitudinal design and the integrative risk and resilience framework, we examined how parent home involvement and friendships were directly and indirectly associated with the development of newcomer immigrant youths' academic engagement. We used data from three waves (Years 3–5) of the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation study where a culturally diverse group of immigrant youth (N = 354, ages 10–17, M_timeinUS = 3.98 years, SD = 1.39) in the United States reported on their perceptions of parent home involvement (educational values and communication) and friendship (educational values and academic support) in Year 3 and on their academic engagement (behavioural and emotional) across 3 years. Findings showed high-stable behavioural and emotional engagement and direct positive associations between perceptions of parent home involvement and initial levels of behavioural and emotional engagement and between perceptions of friend educational values and initial levels of emotional engagement. Additionally, perceptions of parents' educational values indirectly contributed to initial levels of emotional engagement through positive associations with perceptions of friends' educational values. These findings can inform family–school partnerships and school-interventions targeting newcomer immigrant youths' engagement.     

MMPI-2 typology of pregnant drug-dependent women in treatment

The present study examined the validity of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) typology for pregnant drug-dependent women. A 3-cluster solution based on 7 MMPI-2 clinical scales emerged as the best model and was replicated across split-half samples and different primary substance-use diagnoses and treatment modalities. The 3 subtypes identified included Type I (n = 40, 24%) with no clinical elevation, Type II (n = 72, 42%) with elevated psychopathic deviate scale, and Type III (n = 58, 34%) with elevations on all 7 scales. Analyses with interview and self-report measures showed good concurrent validity. Type II had higher retention than Type I and Type III across methadone and medication-free treatments, showing some predictive validity. An a priori method for classifying new cases on the basis of the proposed typology was developed and validated. Study findings support MMPI-2's use with pregnant drug-dependent women for assessment and possibly treatment planning.     

Attachment and information seeking in romantic relationships

Testing predictions derived from attachment theory, this research investigated how adult attachment orientations are associated with selective exposure to information about the self, one's partner, and one's relationship. The results of two studies revealed that (a) more avoidantly attached individuals have limited interest in knowing their partner's intimate thoughts and feelings, (b) more anxiously attached individuals selectively prefer information on intimate topics pertaining to their partner and relationship and focus on information that highlights their own as well as their partner's shortcomings, and (c) regardless of attachment orientation, individuals express interest in learning about the negative relationship behaviors and characteristics of their insecurely attached partners. These findings suggest that selective information seeking may have important effects on relationships and may help explain how attachment orientations affect important relationship outcomes.