Predicting school achievement from cognitive and non-cognitive variables in a Chinese sample of elementary school children

The present study had two aims: First, to investigate the joint and specific roles of working memory (WM) and intelligence as predictors of school achievement. And second, to replicate and extend earlier findings (Spinath, Spinath, Harlaar, & Plomin, 2006) on the incremental validity of non-cognitive over cognitive abilities in the prediction of school achievement. The present sample consisted of N = 179 Chinese primary school children in the fourth grade. All measures including working memory (WM), intelligence and motivational items were assessed in class. Teachers provided test scores for the domains of Chinese and Math. We found that WM was a good predictor of school achievement and comparable in predictive power to intelligence. Together, cognitive ability including both WM and intelligence explained 17.8% and 36.4% of the variance in children's Chinese and Math scores, respectively. The relative importance of WM and intelligence varied with school domains with greater predictive power of WM for Math while intelligence explained a greater proportion of the variance in Chinese although the magnitude of this difference was only moderate. Domain-specific motivational constructs contributed only marginally to the prediction of school achievement for both Chinese and Math.     

应对校园欺凌:社会情绪能力的干预研究

校园欺凌现象在全球范围普遍存在,为有效解决校园欺凌问题,研究一采用《特拉华校园受欺凌量表》、《简易应对方式量表》以及《社会情绪健康量表》对416名5～6年级小学生进行了调查,结果发现,小学生消极应对方式可以显著预测校园受欺凌,社会情绪能力在消极应对方式与校园受欺凌中起调节作用。此基础上,研究二开展基于社会情绪能力的校园受欺凌团体辅导干预研究。结果表明,社会情绪能力的提升可以显著降低校园受欺凌水平。     

When the “Charm of Three” Fades: Mental Imagery Moderates the Impact of the Number of Ad Claims on Persuasion

Given the prevalence of imagery appeals in today’s marketplace, the current research studies the role of mental imagery in how consumers process and react to advertisements with different numbers of ad claims. Past research has proposed “three” as the magical number of ad claims that maximizes persuasion, with more than three ad claims increasing skepticism and reducing evaluation. In the current research, we replicate this so-called “charm of three” effect, but only when consumers do not engage in mental imagery; when they do, however, we find that the effect is moderated, in that more ad claims beyond three produces more favorable product evaluation. Additionally, we provide evidence that the moderating effect of mental imagery is driven by transportation and skepticism toward the ad claims, with mental imagery increasing transportation and decreasing skepticism when there are more than three ad claims. Our research contributes to a better understanding of the “charm of three” effect, its boundary conditions, and underlying mechanism.     

居危思变?工作不安全感对创新行为的差异化影响?

企业往往在员工管理和组织创新上处于“两难困境”——难以提供稳定工作但又不得不依赖员工实现组织创新, 这就使得研究员工工作不安全感对创新行为的影响至关重要。企业员工遭遇不同环境威胁带来的工作不安全感时, 创新行为存在差异。本文在威胁焦点下深化工作不安全感概念, 并基于“以变量为中心”和“以人为中心”的研究思路, 探讨其对创新行为的差异化影响过程。首先, 结合环境威胁来源与主观感知, 把工作不安全感分为岗位焦点工作不安全感和人员焦点工作不安全感两个维度, 并将编制测量量表。其次, 期望运用纵向研究设计, 通过分析多时点的员工-主管配对数据, 基于情境调节焦点和工作激情的链式中介作用, 来揭示岗位焦点工作不安全感对创新行为的负向影响, 以及人员焦点工作不安全感对创新行为的倒U型影响。最后, 将采取“以人为中心”的研究思路, 运用潜在剖面分析方法探讨工作不安全感潜在类型及其对创新行为的影响。研究结果将有助于推进工作不安全感的概念和效用研究, 也为企业如何有效促进创新提供对策建议。     

Do Parent–Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Functioning Increase the Risk of Hispanic Adolescent HIV Risk Behaviors?

In the family‐based prevention science literature, family functioning, defined as positive parenting, parental involvement, family cohesion, family communication, parental monitoring of peers, and parent–adolescent communication, has been shown to ameliorate HIV risk behaviors in Hispanic youth. However, the majority of studies have relied solely on parent or adolescent reports and we know very little about parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether and to what extent parent–adolescent discrepancies in family functioning increased the risk of HIV risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual risk behaviors, and whether these associations vary as a function of acculturation and youth gender. A total of 746 Hispanic 8th grade youth and their primary caregivers were included in the study. Structural equation modeling findings indicate that parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies are associated with an increased risk of Hispanic adolescent HIV risk behaviors, including lifetime and past 90‐day alcohol and illicit drug use, and early sex initiation. In addition, study findings indicate that results vary by acculturation and youth gender. Findings are discussed in the context of existing family‐based research and practice in preventing and reducing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth and their families.     

自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策的影响

以大学生为被试,探讨自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策的影响。采用2×2×2的混合实验设计,组内变量为自我损耗,组间变量为情绪动机方向和强度,使用双任务范式操作自我损耗,使用情绪动机图片启动被试的情绪动机,使用延迟折扣任务的指标k值测量冲动决策。结果发现,高趋近动机的k值大于低趋近动机,高回避动机的k值大于低回避动机。结果表明,自我损耗、情绪动机对冲动决策有明显影响。     

Grammatical Aspect in Early Child Mandarin: Evidence from a Preferential Looking Experiment

The study assessed 30-month-old Mandarin-speaking children’s awareness of aspectual distinctions involving the perfective marker le and the imperfective marker zhe in a preferential looking experiment. In the experiment, we presented our child subjects with a choice between two video clips (one depicting a closed event and the other depicting an on-going event), in the presence of an auditory stimulus (either the le sentence, the zhe sentence or the control sentence without any aspect marker). Children’s looking behavior in the task was recorded and analyzed. The results revealed 30-month-old children’s emerging sensitivity to the aspectual contrast between le and zhe. This was manifest by an increase in looking to the closed event when hearing the le sentence and an increase in looking to the on-going event when hearing the zhe sentence. The absence of le or zhe in the control sentence did not result in any increase or decrease in looking to either event. We also found that the effect of le on children’s looking behavior was immediate whereas the effect of zhe was late. We attributed this difference to the facilitative role of le in children’s sentence processing as well as their preference for the event boundary. The results lend support to the continuity view that functional morphemes like aspect markers are available to children early in language development.     

家庭功能与青少年消极冒险行为的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

为探讨家庭功能影响青少年消极冒险行为的作用机制及条件,采用青少年冒险行为问卷、家庭功能问卷、自尊问卷、同伴群体特征问卷对山东省日照市940名初高中学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)家庭功能不良不仅可直接预测青少年更多的消极冒险行为,而且也可通过使青少年交往更多不良同伴进而使其冒险行为进一步增多;(2)不良同伴交往对青少年消极冒险行为的预测受到个体自尊的调节。低自尊个体更容易受到不良同伴交往的影响而发生更多的消极冒险行为,表现出两风险因素的叠加效应。研究结果提示,家庭是青少年健康成长的基础,家庭功能不良可使青少年适应不良,塑造良好的同伴环境、培养良好的自我素质或可降低这一风险。     

How Possessive Relations are Mapped onto Child Language: A View from Mandarin Chinese

The present studies sought to investigate the mapping relations between language and cognition by focusing on how Mandarin-speaking children acquire the mapping between their conceptual knowledge of possession and their linguistic expressions of possession. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 used a comprehension task to explore whether young children are able to map their knowledge of possessive constructions onto their interpretation of possessive relations. Experiment 2 employed a production task to examine whether they are able to map their knowledge of possessive relations onto their linguistic expressions of possession. The findings were that 4-year-olds exhibited correct comprehension and production of possessive DE constructions, indicating that by age 4, Mandarin-speaking children have already established the mapping between their conceptual knowledge of possession and their linguistic expressions of possession. By contrast, 3-year-olds exhibited response patterns that suggest a developmental stage where they use noun–noun compounds to represent possessive relations before they map possessive relations onto possessive constructions.     

Longitudinal trajectories of bicultural identity integration in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with mental health and family functioning

This study examined, in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles, the extent to which bicultural identity integration (BII; involving the ability to synthesise one's heritage and receiving cultural streams and to identify as a member of both cultures) is best understood as a developmental construct that changes over time or as an individual‐difference construct that is largely stable over time. We were also interested in the extent to which these trajectories predicted mental health and family functioning. Recent‐immigrant 9th graders (N = 302) were assessed 6 times from 9th to 12th grade. Latent class growth analyses using the first 5 timepoints identified 2 trajectory classes—one with lower BII scores over time and another with higher BII scores over time. Higher heritage and US identity at baseline predicted membership in the higher BII class. At the 6th study timepoint, lower BII adolescents reported significantly poorer self‐esteem, optimism, prosocial behaviour and family relationships compared with their higher BII counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of further research on the over‐time trajectory of biculturalism, and on the need to develop interventions to promote BII as a way of facilitating well‐being and positive family functioning.