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Although previous research showed that discrete social-emotional skills such as empathy, motivation, and social relationships in school significantly predict achievement, students tend to use various social-emotional skills in combination. As such previous investigations cannot comment on how different combinations or profiles of students' social-emotional skills predict achievement relative to discrete skills. Likewise, little is known about cross-national comparisons of social-emotional skill profiles (SESP), and the extent to which SESP differ on their academic achievement. The purposes of this study were three-folded: 1) to determine whether a four-factor social-emotional skills model could be used for cross-national comparisons; 2) to identify social-emotional profiles in 15-year-old students from four different countries -- Canada, the United States, China, and Singapore; and 3) to evaluate how different profiles predict students' reading, maths, and collaborative problem-solving (CPS) test scores. Our results showed multigroup measurement invariant in the structure, loadings, and thresholds of the four-factor social-emotional skills model. We identified three profiles labelled Sociable, Reserved and Withdrawn in Canada, Singapore, and the United States; whereas, we found three profiles labelled Solitary, Team-oriented, and Reserved in students in China. Finally, the way each profile associated with reading, maths and CPS in each country appeared to align with the cultural expectations of learning.

This study describes the development and validation of the Higher Education Student Engagement Scale (HESES). The psychometric evaluations of the scale included: (i) factor structure, (ii) internal consistency, and (iii) criterion validity. The HESES was developed based on our proposed five-factor model of student engagement, which was evolved from Finn and Zimmer's (In: Christenson SL, Reschly AL, Wylie C (eds) Handbook of research on student engagement. Springer, New York, 2012) student engagement model taken into account the distinctive characteristics in higher education. The five main facets of student engagement include: (1) academic engagement, (2) cognitive engagement, (3) social engagement with peers, (4) social engagement with teachers, and (5) affective engagement. The HESES was developed from the 61-item First Year Engagement Scales (FYES). For brevity, it was trimmed into a 28-item scale having regard to the content validity, factor loadings and error variances of the items. The CFA results supported the correlated five-dimensional model with all the dimensions showing high internal consistency based on Cronbach's alpha coefficients. A multi-group CFA also rendered the structure as gender invariant. Its criterion validity was evidenced by its correlations with different student learning outcomes and more importantly, its predictive power in explaining variances of GPA (15%) and satisfaction of the university experience (29%). Different from the dominant behavioral perspective of student engagement in higher education, the HESES is based on a psychological perspective, streamlining student engagement as students' level of involvement in the learning process and a multi-faceted construct with academic, cognitive, social and affective dimensions. The implications and merits of the HESES are discussed.

Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) is a popular EI measure. Yet, it has been criticized for an unclear factor structure, and its psychometric properties were mainly examined in the Western context. This study was to evaluate its psychometric properties based on 1,724 Hong Kong undergraduate students, including its (a) factor structure, (b) internal consistency, and (c) criterion validity. We compared different factor structures reported in the literature. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results supported a six-factor structure, which is tallied with Salovey and Mayer's EI conceptualization. A multigroup CFA also rendered the structure as gender invariant. The scale was internally consistent with high McDonald's omega coefficients. Significant association between EI and grade point average (GPA) was revealed in the faculties with people-oriented studies. Furthermore, EI was correlated with social, cognitive, and self-growth outcomes and satisfaction of university experience. The study contributes to clarify the factor structure and provides new reliability and validity evidence of the EIS in the Eastern context.

The Hong Kong Education Bureau recommends that primary school pupils' mathematical achievement be enhanced via collaborative discussions engendered by group work. This pedagogic change may be hindered by Confucian heritage classroom practices and Western-dominated group work approaches that predominate in Hong Kong. To overcome these obstacles, we introduced a relational approach to group work in a quasi-experimental study. Our sample included 20 teachers randomly allocated to experimental (12) and control (8) conditions and their 504 mathematics pupils (aged 9-10). The relational approach focused on the development of peer relationships in a culturally appropriate manner and was implemented over 7 months. Pupils were pre-/post-tested for mathematical achievement and systematically observed, and the teachers were assessed for subject knowledge and pre-/post-tested for pedagogic efficacy. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results show enhanced mathematical achievement, supported by improved peer-based communication skills and time-on-task for the experimental pupils. Experimental teachers raised their pedagogic efficacy. Results indicate the potential of the relational approach for boosting academic achievement via enhanced child-peer-teacher interaction and the need to reassess the role of peer-based latent collectivist learning in Confucian heritage classrooms.

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Learning-Related Boredom Scale (LRBS) from the Academic Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ; Pekrun, Goetz, & Perry, 2005; Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002) in a sample of 405 university students from Canada and China. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure and measurement invariance of the LRBS across cultural settings, after which the relationships between the LRBS, boredom frequency in class, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning (SESRL) were examined. Results showed evidence of reliability and measurement invariance of the LRBS, and the relationships between the LRBS, boredom frequency, and SESRL were similar across settings. The study thus provided evidence that learning-related boredom is a valid construct across culturally diverse school settings and supported the use of the LRBS in both Canadian and Chinese student populations. (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

Although past research has shown the benefits of using approach coping in dealing with negative emotions, little is known about how students cope with a common negative achievement emotion, boredom, across cultures. Therefore, the goals of this study were to validate the Boredom Coping Scale (BCS) in Canada (n = 151, mean age = 23.29) and China (n = 254, mean age = 21.03), to identify boredom coping profiles within individual settings, and to examine the effectiveness of the profiles in decreasing boredom, and increasing self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, motivation, and achievement. The factor structure of the BCS was comparable across the two samples; however, the two groups responded to five items differently, contributing to the overall variation. We identified two coping profiles among Canadian students and three profiles among Chinese students. Our results indicated that Canadian students predominantly endorsed cognitive-approach coping, whereas the majority of Chinese students endorsed avoidance coping. Additionally, our results found significant differences in coping effectiveness among different profiles. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Substance abuse, especially among adolescents, has long been an important issue in society. In light of the adverse impact of substance abuse, scholars, educators, and policy-makers have proposed different approaches to prevent and reduce such abuse. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the two prominent approaches--educational and deterrent--in preventing and reducing adolescent substance abuse. The educational approach (e.g., school-based prevention programming) tends to be more comprehensive and better grounded in theories than the deterrent approach (e.g., drug testing). The educational approach not only targets multiple psychosocial factors contributing to substance abuse, but it is also supported by empirical studies showing that school-based prevention programming is effective in preventing substance abuse and has long-lasting positive influences on adolescent development. Practical implications of implementing school-based prevention programming are also discussed.