Parental and Child Characteristics Predicting Asian immigrants’ Feeding Practices

To explore parenting style, child effortful control, parenting stress, and their associations with maternal use of pressure to eat among Asian U.S. immigrant families with preschoolers. One hundred and nine Asian immigrant mothers with 3-to-5-year-old children in Maryland, United States rated their authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, frequency of pressuring their child to eat, perceived parenting stress, and child’s effortful control. Two proposed moderated mediation models were tested using conditional process modeling. Effortful control mediated the association between authoritative parenting style and pressure to eat practices, αβ?=??0.07, p?<?0.05, and the association between authoritarian style and pressure to eat, αβ?=?0.12, p?<?0.05. Moreover, parenting stress moderated the association between child effortful control and maternal pressure to eat in the authoritarian style model, but not in the authoritative style model. Specifically, higher effortful control was associated with less use of pressure to eat at low and mean levels of parenting stress. Our findings revealed potential mechanisms underlying the associations between parenting styles and controlling feeding practices. Importantly, information learned from the present study may guide transdisciplinary efforts to design and implement culturally sensitive and family-based interventions targeting Asian immigrants’ wellbeing and obesity in the United States.

     

The Association between Home Environment and Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents in Hangzhou City,China

To investigate the influence of the home environment, defined as family socioeconomic status (SES) (parent education level, household income), student resource-mediated SES (access to nutritional resources and cognitively stimulating experiences), reading ability, and difficulty with homework on quality of life in children and adolescents residing in urban and suburban areas in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. This study included 3200 Grade 3–6 students from 8 elementary schools in Hangzhou City. Assessments included questionnaires that evaluated student quality of life, family SES, resource-mediated SES (dietary behavior and the home literacy environment), reading ability, and difficulty with homework. The effects of the home environment on student quality of life were analyzed by univariate analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Overall, 80.6% of students had a medium or better quality of life. Young age (Grade 3 or 4), female sex, household income of 10000–15000 RMB, high breakfast consumption, daily intake of fruit, a balanced diet, and good reading habits were positively correlated with student quality of life (P?<?0.05), while overuse of electronic devices was negatively correlated with quality of life (P?<?0.05). Dietary behaviors, home literacy environment, and student reading ability and difficulty with homework directly affected quality of life. Family SES indirectly affected student quality of life. Children and adolescents in China should have access to good nutrition and cognitively stimulating experiences to enhance their well-being and provide them with social and academic advantages.

     

Contribution of social support to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of online learning self-efficacy and moderating role of anxiety

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of quarantine policy led to an unprecedented home-quarantined living and online learning context for Chinese college students. This study aimed to investigate whether and how social support contributed to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this study examined the mediating role of online learning self-efficacy in explaining how social support contributed to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being. The study also examined the moderating effect of anxiety, which may buffer the effectiveness of social support and online learning self-efficacy in home-quarantined online learning contexts. Data include 2481 responses to an online questionnaire survey from home-quarantined Chinese college undergraduates. Data were analyzed by performing Partial Least Squares regression. Results showed that social support associated positively with home-quarantined Chinese college students’ online learning self-efficacy and well-being. The results revealed a partial mediating effect of online-learning self-efficacy on the positive effect of social support on well-being. The moderating effect analysis found that the positive association of online learning self-efficacy with social support and well-being was stronger in home-quarantined Chinese college students who perceived no anxiety.

     

Traditional Gender Ideology,Work Family Conflict,and Marital Quality among Chinese Dual-Earner Couples: A Moderated Mediation Model

Sex Roles - Dating initiation is a challenging phase of heterosexual romantic relationship development, with men and women often having different expectations and interpretations of communicative...     

Infertility-Related Stress and Life Satisfaction among Chinese Infertile Women: A Moderated Mediation Model of Marital Satisfaction and Resilience

The present study investigated the effects of infertility on Chinese women’s life satisfaction. Infertile women (n?=?466) who were seeking medical help completed a survey that included the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI), the Dyadic Adjustment Questionnaire (DAS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and demographic variables. We used a moderated mediation model to test our hypotheses, with life satisfaction as the dependent variable, representations about the importance of parenthood as the independent variable, the impact of infertility on life domains as a mediator, and marital satisfaction and resilience as moderators. Results showed that representations about the importance of parenthood and the impact of infertility on life domains are two main types of infertility-related stress, which could play independent roles in predicting life satisfaction. Representations about the importance of parenthood had a negative indirect effect on life satisfaction through the impact of infertility on life domains, and the indirect effect of the impact of infertility on life domains was moderated by marital satisfaction and resilience. Specially, representations about the importance of parenthood had a weaker indirect effect (through the impact of infertility on life domains) on life satisfaction in individuals with higher marital satisfaction or resilience. Therefore, the type of infertility-related stress and both marital satisfaction and resilience should be addressed in psychological interventions for women coping with infertility in mainland China.

     

How do giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) respond to varying properties of enrichments? A comparison of behavioral profiles among five enrichment items

This study investigated the responses of 14 giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to 5 enrichment items (3 manipulable objects, 2 feeding devices) that possess different properties affording varying behavioral opportunities. Enrichment items were quantitatively described by using 12 properties. Pandas displayed no preferences among the 5 enrichment treatments, all of which had similar positive effects on behavioral measures of well-being (behavioral diversity, stereotypy). However, each item promoted a distinct behavioral profile, readily mapped onto the enrichment's properties. These results suggest that it may be important to stimulate behavioral diversity but that specific behaviors or enrichment properties are not required. The unique behavioral topography seen with these enrichments also suggests that providing multiple enrichments with varying properties will maximize overall behavioral diversity.     

Cross- and within-cultural variations in children's understanding of distance, time, and speed interrelationships: a follow-up study

A problem with interpretations of differences in mathematic achievement between students from Asian countries and those from the United States is the seemingly implicit assumption of the cultural homogeneity of Asian societies. Researchers rarely measure the effects of variables within cultures that are hypothesized to be related to differences across cultures. In the present study, the authors examined the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and quality of instruction on Chinese students' (1st, 3rd, and 5th grades) understanding of distance, time, and speed. The results indicated that (a) low SES in China can impede the development of children's mathematical cognition and (b) higher SES does not guarantee better performance. The implication is that the gap in mathematical performance between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged children can be narrowed or even eliminated through instructional practices that focus on the systematic training of children's mathematical thinking.     

New lessons from knockout mice: The role of serotonin during development and its possible contribution to the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders

Serotonin (5-HT) modulates numerous processes in the central nervous system that are relevant to neuropsychiatric function and dysfunction. It exerts significant effects on anxiety, mood, impulsivity, sleep, ingestive behavior, reward systems, and psychosis. Serotonergic dysfunction has been implicated in several psychiatric conditions but efforts to more clearly understand the mechanisms of this influence have been hampered by the complexity of this system at the receptor level. There are at least 14 distinct receptors that mediate the effects of 5-HT as well as several enzymes that control its synthesis and metabolism. Pharmacologic agents that target specific receptors have provided clues regarding the function of these receptors in the human brain. 5-HT is also an important modulator of neural development and several groups have employed a genetic strategy relevant to behavior. Several inactivation mutations of specific 5-HT receptors have been generated producing interesting behavioral phenotypes related to anxiety, depression, drug abuse, psychosis, and cognition. In many cases, knockout mice have been used to confirm what has already been suspected based on pharmacologic studies. In other instances, mutations have demonstrated new functions of serotonergic genes in development and behavior.