The nature and consequences of topic avoidance in Chinese and Taiwanese close relationships

Two studies examined topic avoidance in Chinese and Taiwanese opposite‐sex friendships and romantic relationships. Five areas of topic avoidance emerged through analytic induction and cluster analysis: negative appraisal, relational issues, sexual issues, politics, and personal experience. Partner protection, negative relational impact, and self inefficacy emerged as the most common reasons for avoidance. Results revealed that friends, relative to romantic partners, engaged in higher levels of topic avoidance. Taiwanese participants, moreover, avoided discussing politics to a greater extent than did mainland Chinese participants. Lacking closeness was the main reason behind avoidance of political discussion. Topic avoidance was also linked to relationship quality, as relational satisfaction negatively predicted relational issue avoidance and topic avoidance breadth (i.e. the number of topics regularly avoided in the relationship). The authors explain these and other findings based on Chinese cultural codes and historically‐embedded concepts that shape interpersonal interaction.     

Toward the Scientific Study of Polytheism: Beyond Forced‐Choice Measures of Religious Belief

This article argues that zero‐sum, forced‐choice approaches to measuring religious belief do not work well outside of the Abrahamic world. Positive‐sum approaches to measuring religious beliefs (in the plural) are better suited to the study of polytheistic societies. Using results from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2011 Taiwan, we demonstrate that in a polytheistic society like Taiwan, religious belief is not zero sum. We also contrast our results with those of the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS), and seek to show that our positive‐sum approach to measuring religious beliefs can help us better understand the disparate causes and consequences of different religious beliefs in polytheistic societies. The challenge of Christocentrism in quantitative studies of religion is also discussed.     

Review and reflections on 40 years of family therapy development in Taiwan

Although the systemic approach is considered to fit Chinese culture, the development of family therapy in Taiwan is recent, starting in 1969, and growing as a treatment modality in Taiwan for the past two decades. To examine this development, this article reviewed 127 locally published family therapy studies published during the years 1969–2009. Content analysis was used to examine these articles and the results clearly showed an increase in the amount of publications during this period. The focus of the studies also shifted from theoretical issues to practical concerns. An analysis of 15 of these articles, which were case reports, suggested a preference for local common practice, for example, a focus on therapist manoeuvres rather than the clients' perspectives, which might have hindered the development of successful practice. The availability of only certain forms of training might also have contributed to the clinical focus of family therapy in Taiwan. The article suggests that greater interest in the therapy process in future will enhance local practitioners' clinical efficacy.     

Liberal–conservative dimension of moral concerns underlying political faction formation in Taiwan

Moral foundations theory provides a framework for understanding the traditional liberal–conservative dichotomy in political factions. Typically, factions on the liberal side are more concerned with individualizing foundations—including care/harm and fairness/cheating—for the protection of individual rights and welfare whereas factions on the conservative side are concerned with both individualizing and binding foundations—including loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation—for the maintenance of existing social ethics. Our research extended this framework to the analysis of Taiwanese political factions, which are not distributed conspicuously along the liberal–conservative line but instead on whether Taiwan should become a legally independent state or unify with the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). Our results indicate that despite the scarce use of the terms liberal or left and conservative or right in common communication, a liberal–conservative dimension underlies the Taiwanese political spectrum. Specifically, supporters of Taiwan independence exhibit liberal‐like moral concerns whereas supporters of China unification and the status quo demonstrate conservative‐like moral concerns. Moreover, indirect effects exist through moral foundations from political factions to stances on social issues; this is especially prevalent in the case of Taiwan independence camp's clear support for the legalization of same‐sex marriage, a stance resulting from anti‐authoritarian moral and political characteristics.     

Longitudinal changes in marital satisfaction during middle age in Taiwan

The current 8‐year panel study explored changes in marital satisfaction among 614 married middle‐aged persons with seventh‐grade children. It also examined how individual health (physical health and depressive moods) and role changes (parenting transitions and life stress) were related to trajectories of marital satisfaction and investigated the buffering effect of family cohesion on these associations. Growth curve analyses show an inverted‐U shape in marital satisfaction during middle age. This indicates that regardless of the gender or age of the respondents, marital satisfaction among middle‐aged adults increased when their children were in the 9^th and 12^th grade, and then declined when their children were in their sophomore year of college. Declining physical health and an increase in depressive moods were related to a drop in marital satisfaction. Stressful events in midlife had negative effects on marital satisfaction, and family cohesion served as a buffer to mitigate the adverse impact of life stress on marital satisfaction. Overall, these results highlight the role of adolescent children in understanding why marital satisfaction changes among middle‐aged parents and emphasize the importance of health and life stress in relation to midlife marital satisfaction. These findings are discussed with life course perspectives and Taiwanese cultural values in relation to familism and academic achievement among children.     

Psychosocial Predictors of Psychological Distress in Taiwanese Secondary School Boys and Girls

This study was designed to investigate predictors of psychological distress in secondary school boys (n =779) and girls (n = 893) in Taiwan. Participants completed anxiety and depression scales as part of a larger study. Gender, GPA, parenting practices, self-esteem, and personality/satisfaction were significantly correlated with psychological distress. Significant gender differences were found in students' psychological distress, GPA, stereotyped thinking, academic self-expectations, parental expectations, parenting practices, and mother's education level. Stepwise regressions revealed that self-esteem was the only significant predictor for boys; it accounted for 40.9% of the variance in their psychological distress. GPA, family income, self-esteem, and parenting practices were significant predictors for girls; they accounted for 42.6% of the variance in girls' psychological distress. Research recommendations and educational implications are discussed.     

冲突的指南的解决

当越来越多的学术机构开始制定诊疗指南时,因为相同的病人会得到不同的诊疗建议,其中一部分必然会陷入到冲突之中.在学术组织内解决这些冲突非常关键,具体理由如下:第一,被建议的医疗行为有差异可以导致健康结果的差异;有冲突的学术组织的存在,意味着至少有部分病人被误治(除非被推荐的医疗都有效);第二,规范的差异可引起混乱.     

我国大陆、台湾地区《人体器官移植条例》的比较研究

采用条文比较与法理分析方法,对我国大陆和台湾地区的《人体器官移植条例》进行比较,主要就立法目的、立法调整范围、人体器官自愿捐献、禁止人体器官商业交易、医疗机构与人员的准入和退出、违反人体器官移植之规定的法律责任等问题作了探讨与分析。本研究将为我国大陆地区的具体立法探索一些有价值的意见与建议。     

Christian protesters for democracy in Taiwan: a study of two American missionaries under Taiwanese martial law

Christians played a significant role in the course of Taiwan’s self-determination movements and the pro-democratic Tangwai movement during the 1960s and 1970s. While most researchers laid their focus on the Presbyterian Church ministers, the stories of Methodist pastor Milo Thornberry and Catholic priest Ronald Boccieri have rarely been mentioned. Thornberry helped Peng Ming-min to escape the country and Boccieri sheltered Chen Chu in his parish church. Consequently, the two American missionaries were listed as personae non gratae and expelled from the island by the Kuomintang (nationalist) regime. Although they were involved in the respective political incidents to different degrees, they had some things in common: compassion for native Taiwanese, concern for social justice and human rights, and conviction in witnessing to the gospel by non-violent action and fighting against injustice. This article uses interviews, autobiographies, memoirs, Foreign Ministry archives and newspapers to recount their stories that have not appeared in the historiography of their churches. It discusses how the Catholic and Methodist Churches maintained harmonious relations with the government for the benefit of their evangelistic work during the period of martial law. Finally it looks into the reasons why the two missionaries dared to disobey their churches’ official positions and the Washington government’s instruction that expatriates in Taiwan should not interfere in local politics.     

Mapping Chinese Folk Religion in Mainland China and Taiwan

The revival of folk (popular) religion in China in the last three decades has been noted in many publications and documented in ethnographic studies. However, until now there has been no quantitative study that provides an overall picture of Chinese folk‐religion practices. This article is a first attempt to draw the contours of Chinese folk religion based on three recent surveys conducted in mainland China and Taiwan. Three types of folk religion are conceptualized: communal, sectarian, and individual. Different types of folk religion may have different social functions and divergent trajectories of change in the modernization process. At present, in spite of the dramatic social, political, and cultural changes in modern times, the adherents of folk religion still substantially outnumber the believers of institutional religions in Chinese societies.