Family Functioning,Parental Psychological Distress and Child Behaviours: Evidence from the Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study

We examined, using data from the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study (VCHWS), whether family functioning is associated with parental psychological distress and children's behavioural difficulties. The VCHWS was a statewide cross‐sectional telephone survey to 5,000 randomly selected primary caregivers of 0‐ to 12‐year‐old children between October 2005 and March 2006. Only parents or guardians of children aged 4–12 years (n = 3,370) were included in this study. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity, parents or guardians scoring higher on the family functioning scale (i.e., from poorly functioning households) were at greater risk of psychological distress and had children with lower levels of prosocial behaviour and higher levels of behavioural difficulties relative to those from healthily functioning households. Mental health prevention programmes addressing child mental and conduct problems should consider the family environment and target those families functioning poorly.     

语音短时记忆与词汇知识对第二语言词汇学习的影响

选取两种语音熟悉程度不同的非词为实验材料,把语音短时记忆区分为项目短时记忆和序列短时记忆,考察语音短时记忆与词汇知识对汉英双语者第二语言（英语）词汇学习的影响。实验1采用产出性的方式进行学习,结果发现,词汇知识与项目短时记忆对语音熟悉非词的学习起预测作用;词汇知识与序列短时记忆对语音不熟悉非词学习起预测作用。实验2采用接受性的方式进行学习,结果发现,项目短时记忆、序列短时记忆和词汇知识都对语音熟悉非词学习起独立的预测作用;项目短时记忆和序列短时记忆对语音不熟悉非词学习起独立的预测作用。实验结果表明,语音短时记忆和词汇知识都是影响英语词汇学习的重要因素。具体而言,学习语音熟悉的词汇,词汇知识起着更为重要的作用;学习语音不熟悉的词汇,语音短时记忆、特别是序列短时记忆起着更为重要的作用,而且两者作用的大小随着词汇学习方式的不同而发生变化。     

Effects of parental expectations and cultural-values orientation on career decision-making difficulties of Chinese University students

This study examined the effects of cultural-values conflict and parental expectations on the career decision-making difficulties of university students in three cities in China (Beijing, Wuhan, and Hong Kong, N = 1342). The Multidimensional Scales of Individual Traditionality and Modernity (Yang, Yu, & Ye, 1989) were used as a measure of cultural-values conflict and cultural orientation. The Living-Up-to Parental Expectation Inventory (Wang & Heppner, 2002) was used to measure parental expectations. The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (Gati & Saka, 2001) was used as a dependent measure. It was found that levels of cultural-value conflict were associated with higher levels of career decision-making difficulties for students in the Chinese Mainland cities but not for students in Hong Kong. Perceived parental expectations and perceived self-performance in the expected areas were found to be predictive of career decision-making difficulties. Cultural-value orientation, especially endorsement of Chinese traditional values, was found to moderate the relationship between parental expectation and career decision-making difficulties. Theoretical, research and practical implications of findings were discussed.     

Cross‐Linguistic Differences in Digit Memory Span

This study investigated whether the better performance of the Chinese in digit memory span tasks was due only to the shorter pronunciation duration of Chinese digit names, or to enhanced visuospatial sketchpad abilities, or to both. Results of the experiment showed that the Chinese outperformed their Malay counterparts in digit memory span tasks because Chinese digit names had shorter pronunciation durations than Malay digit names and not because the Chinese had better visuospatial sketchpad abilities than the Malays. The results thus support Baddeley's phonological loop hypothesis as an account for cross‐linguistic differences in digit memory spans. Because memory traces are subject to decay and the phonological store is temporally limited, the shorter the pronunciation duration of digit names in a language, the more digits one can rehearse within a limited time period, and therefore the larger is one's short‐term digit span in that language.     

Fortune favors the bold (and the Italicized): effects of disfluency on educational outcomes

Previous research has shown that disfluency – the subjective experience of difficulty associated with cognitive operations – leads to deeper processing. Two studies explore the extent to which this deeper processing engendered by disfluency interventions can lead to improved memory performance. Study 1 found that information in hard-to-read fonts was better remembered than easier to read information in a controlled laboratory setting. Study 2 extended this finding to high school classrooms. The results suggest that superficial changes to learning materials could yield significant improvements in educational outcomes.     

Perceived discrimination, social connectedness, and other predictors of adjustment difficulties among Turkish international students

This study examined the role of perceived discrimination, social connectedness, age, gender, years of study in the US, English language competency, and social contact patterns on adjustment difficulties among a sample of 229 Turkish international students studying in the United States. Findings indicated that students who reported higher levels of social connectedness, lower levels of perceived discrimination, more years of study in the US, and higher levels of English language competency reported lower levels of adjustment difficulties. Other results showed that (lack of) social connectedness and perceived discrimination were predictors of adjustment difficulties. In addition, results indicated that students who socialized with individuals from the US had lower levels of adjustment difficulties than did those who socialized with coculture members. Implications are discussed and suggestions for interventions are provided.     

The effects of prosodic features and wordlikeness on nonword repetition performance among young Japanese children1

This study investigated how prosodic aspects and wordlikeness of nonwords affect young Japanese children's repetition of nonwords. We contrasted two conditions in which a nonword comprised of two morae was pronounced with and without a small pause between the two morae. We also manipulated accent patterns of presentation of nonwords. The results indicated that the presence of a small pause in a nonword had a facilitating effect on the repetition of nonwords. The advantage of high‐wordlike sequences over low‐wordlike sequences was observed only when the sequence was presented without a pause. In contrast, the effect of accent patterns of presentation interacted with vocabulary sizes of children. These results were interpreted in terms of the framework of phonological working memory and the segmentation of the spoken Japanese language.     

Defective number module or impaired access? Numerical magnitude processing in first graders with mathematical difficulties

This study examined numerical magnitude processing in first graders with severe and mild forms of mathematical difficulties, children with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) and children with low achievement (LA) in mathematics, respectively. In total, 20 children with MLD, 21 children with LA, and 41 regular achievers completed a numerical magnitude comparison task and an approximate addition task, which were presented in a symbolic and a nonsymbolic (dot arrays) format. Children with MLD and LA were impaired on tasks that involved the access of numerical magnitude information from symbolic representations, with the LA children showing a less severe performance pattern than children with MLD. They showed no deficits in accessing magnitude from underlying nonsymbolic magnitude representations. Our findings indicate that this performance pattern occurs in children from first grade onward and generalizes beyond numerical magnitude comparison tasks. These findings shed light on the types of intervention that may help children who struggle with learning mathematics.     

Procedural differences in the calculation of the prevalence of reading difficulties in Spanish-speaking school children / Diferencias procedimentales en el cálculo de la prevalencia del retraso lector en escolares hispanoparlantes

The prevalence of reading difficulties (RD) reflects controversial data ranging from 3.1–3.2% to 17.5%. Possible explanations are partly based on the incidence of orthography-specific factors influencing the reading process, but also on methodological differences that hinder comparison of the reported results. For this reason, the present study aims to analyse the prevalence of RD in a sample of 1,408 Spanish-speaking school children by comparing different ways of calculating the prevalence rate. The results reflect a prevalence of 2.2?5.3%, consistent with data reported for predominantly transparent orthographies. Some of the procedures used to identify RD are more accurate in early school years than at more advanced moments of schooling. Furthermore, the consideration of students’ sex when calculating the prevalence of RD seems to represent a more sensitive way of identifying students with RD.     

汉语语音范畴性知觉在儿童早期阅读中的作用

本研究以172名幼儿园中、大班和小学一年级的5~7岁儿童为研究对象, 测查了语音范畴性知觉、语音意识、短时记忆和汉字识别, 并通过群体差异比较、分层回归和结构方程建模的方法, 探讨了语音范畴性知觉、语音意识和早期阅读的关系。结果发现:(1)5~7岁儿童的语音范畴性知觉、语音意识能力随年龄的增加而显著提高;(2)语音范畴性知觉能力与语音意识, 特别是韵母意识和音节意识显著相关;(3)在语音与早期汉字识别能力的发展模型中, 语音范畴性知觉不直接影响汉字识别, 其对早期阅读的影响是通过语音意识的中介来实现的。