Chaos,danger, and maternal parenting in families: Links with adolescent adjustment in low‐ and middle‐income countries

The current longitudinal study is the first comparative investigation across low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) to test the hypothesis that harsher and less affectionate maternal parenting (child age 14 years, on average) statistically mediates the prediction from prior household chaos and neighborhood danger (at 13 years) to subsequent adolescent maladjustment (externalizing, internalizing, and school performance problems at 15 years). The sample included 511 urban families in six LMICs: China, Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand. Multigroup structural equation modeling showed consistent associations between chaos, danger, affectionate and harsh parenting, and adolescent adjustment problems. There was some support for the hypothesis, with nearly all countries showing a modest indirect effect of maternal hostility (but not affection) for adolescent externalizing, internalizing, and scholastic problems. Results provide further evidence that chaotic home and dangerous neighborhood environments increase risk for adolescent maladjustment in LMIC contexts, via harsher maternal parenting.     

Effect of Poverty on Mental Health of Children in Rural China: The Mediating Role of Social Capital

Underprivileged children are a relatively special vulnerable group in rural China, but the relationship between poverty and children’s mental health has been rarely examined. This study aimed to investigate the effect of poverty on children’s mental health and the mediating role of social capital in their family, peer, school, and community level. Data used in this study were collected in 2015 from a school-based survey of 1314 children in grades 4–9 through a multi-stage cluster random sampling method in Xiushui, a poverty-stricken city in Mainland China. The result of structural equation modeling indicated that poverty elicited a significant predictive effect on children’s negative and positive mental health. Family social capital and peer social capital played intermediary effects between poverty and children’s mental health. However, the mediating effects of school and community social capital are not significant. The implications of these findings on theory, social policy, and social work services were also discussed.

     

Study on a Christian Chinese sample: sense of self-worth,well-being and locus of control

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese Christians’ sense of self-worth, well-being, locus of control and the correlations between these variables. One hundred and two Chinese Christians with a range of 18–40 years old were surveyed by the Scale of Self-worth, Chinese version of General Well-Being Scale and internal–external Locus of Control Scale. A control group of 134 Chinese non-Christians participated in the same survey. Christians scored lower on locus of control and higher on self-worth than the non-Christians. No significant general well-being difference was between the Christian and non-Christian samples. The correlations were significant between locus of control and self-worth/general well-being (negative) and between self-worth and general well-being (positive). Results suggest that Christians experience better self-worth and tend to be internals on locus of control.     

Perfectionism mediated the relationship between brain structure variation and negative emotion in a nonclinical sample

In maladaptive respects, perfectionism reflects an individual’s concern over making mistakes and doubting the quality of his or her own actions excessively, which would affect one’s emotion. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms associated with the perfectionism and negative affect. In this study, voxel-based morphometry was performed to identify the brain regions underlying individual differences in perfectionism, which was measured by the Chinese Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (CFMPS), in a large sample of nonclinical young adults. Our results showed that the two subdimensions of the perfectionism, concern over mistakes (CM) and doubts about actions (DA), were both positively correlated with the self-reported anxiety and depression as well as the gray matter volume (GMV) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a pivotal brain region in cognitive control, affective state, and regulation. Moreover, CM, DA, and organization scores were respectively correlated with distributed brain regions involved in multiple cognitive and emotion processes. Our results furthermore revealed that the score of DA acted a mediational mechanism underlying the relationship between the GMV of ACC and self-rating negative affect (anxiety and depression). Taken together, these results might suggest the neuroanatomical basis of perfectionism and the association among the perfectionism, negative emotion, and brain architecture. This study emphasized that perfectionism could play a crucial role in the arousal of negative affect.     

Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span

Older adults are disproportionately targeted by fraud schemes that advertise unlikely but large returns (positively skewed risks). We examined adult age differences in choice and neural activity as individuals considered risky gambles. Gambles were symmetric (50% chance of modest win or loss), positively skewed (25% chance of large gain), or negatively skewed (25% chance of large loss). The willingness to accept positively skewed relative to symmetric gambles increased with age, and this effect replicated in an independent behavioral study. Whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses comparing positively (vs. negatively) skewed trials revealed that relative to younger adults, older adults showed increased anticipatory activity for negatively skewed gambles but reduced activity for positively skewed gambles in the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal regions. Individuals who were more biased toward positively skewed gambles showed increased activity in a network of regions including the nucleus accumbens. These results reveal age biases toward positively skewed gambles and age differences in corticostriatal regions during skewed risk-taking, and have implications for identifying financial decision biases across adulthood.     

走神对中文阅读绩效的影响

选取36名大学生被试,采用探针检测的方法和逐句阅读范式,考察被试阅读中文材料时走神对阅读正确率和阅读时间的影响。结果发现:(1)中文阅读中出现走神的时间占34.80%;(2)走神会影响阅读理解,降低阅读理解正确率;(3)走神会导致阅读时间变慢。这些发现均证实走神对中文阅读绩效有影响,降低阅读理解正确率和减缓阅读时间。     

网络学习中学习者个人特征对学习投入的影响:一个有调节的中介效应模型

以参与网络课堂的387名大学生为被试,考察自我效能感、内隐智力信念和动机调节等学习者特征对网络学习环境中学习投入的影响及其作用机制。结果表明:(1)网络学习者的自我效能感、动机调节、内隐智力信念均能正向预测学习投入;(2)动机调节在自我效能感和学习投入的关系中起部分中介作用;(3)"自我效能感→动机调节→学习投入"这一中介效应的后半路径受到学习者内隐智力信念的调节。相较于智力实体论者,动机调节的中介效应在智力增长论者中更强。     

网站临场感能否增强女性购买意愿?

为了克服网络虚拟性的影响,网络商铺往往通过提升网站临场感以弥补购物体验不足的问题。那么,网站临场感是否会对女性消费者这一细分群体产生影响呢?本研究从网站临场感的视角出发,以女大学生为研究对象、服装网站为实验材料,采用实验法研究了网站临场感对女性网络购买意愿的影响及其发生机制。研究发现:网站临场感对女性网络购买意愿具有显著的正向影响;网站临场感可以通过风险感知和沉醉感的中介作用对女性网络购买意愿产生影响,且该中介作用包含了三条路径,即风险感知的中介作用、沉醉感的中介作用以及风险感知和沉醉感的链式中介作用。     

Resistance to Cultural Intervention: Formation of Inhibitory Collective and children’s Self-Defensive Regulation in a Chinese School

A sequel to the previous article “Roots of Excellence: The Releasing Effect of Individual Potentials through Educational Cultural Intervention in a Chinese School” (in press), the present study is on the unexpected reversal phenomena in the process of cultural intervention. The goal of the intervention is to construct the dynamics of Jiti (well-organized collective in Chinese) through creative activities to promote students’ development. In the intervention, the releasing effect (Wu et al. 2016) emerged as well, but the teacher’s concern about worsening discipline and academic performance evoked and reinforced his habitual notions and practices of education, turning the joint activities into a way of strengthening discipline. The energy that had been discharging at the beginning of the intervention was inhibited, so that many more problematic behaviors took shape. The whole class formed an inhibitory atmosphere, within which pupils formed self-defensive regulation strategies. By comparing with the productive collective in which intervention was effective and analyzing this unexpected reversal process, we can not only see pupils’ self-construction status in the inhibitory culture but illuminate the formation of the teacher’s resistance to educational and cultural transformation as well. Resistance is originated from teachers not being able to interpret pupils’ inner developmental needs but instead anxious about the ongoing problems.     

What is beautiful brings out what is good in you: The effect of facial attractiveness on individuals' honesty

This study tested whether the presence of an attractive face would influence individuals' honesty. In 2 experiments, 225 participants were asked to predict the outcome of computerised coin‐flips and to self‐report the accuracy of their predictions. Self‐reports were made in the presence of a facial photo of a female who had been rated before the experiment as high attractive, middle attractive or low attractive by other volunteers. Participants were rewarded based on their self‐reported (not actual) accuracy. The results showed that subjects tended to give more dishonest self‐reports when presented with middle or low attractive facial images than when presented with high attractive images, with self‐reported accuracy being significantly higher than the random level. The results of this study show that presented with an attractive face, subjects tend to engage in behaviours that conform to moral codes.