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Background: Media guidelines for suicide reporting are available in many countries. However, to what extent the mass media comply with the guidelines is unknown. Few studies are available that investigate systematically whether the mass media reflect the epidemiological reality of suicide deaths in their articles. Methods: Based on the WHO media guidelines, this study investigated the characteristics of newspaper articles of suicides in three Chinese communities, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and Guangzhou. Epidemiological comparisons were conducted to identify the age and gender differences between the suicide victims as reported in the newspapers and the official records of suicide deaths in all three places. Results: The results found that one media characteristic complied with the WHO media guidelines (ie, only about 2% of the articles were printed on the front page), but there were a number of instances of non-compliance (ie, only 4--14% provided sources for help-seeking and 27--90% printed with photos). The epidemiological comparisons revealed an over-representation of younger suicides and an under-representation of late-life suicides in the newspapers of all three places. Furthermore, female suicides were found to be under-reported in Taiwan and Guangzhou newspapers, but not in Hong Kong papers. Conclusion: Non-compliant suicide articles are prevalent in the newspapers of these three Chinese settings. The observed media misrepresentations may potentially mislead the public and the policy makers about the actual risk for suicide in some demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines generalized trust and trust in institutions in Confucian Asia, covering six countries namely, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, and one dependent region, Hong Kong. Using data from the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey, our study affirms the reliability and validity of using a two-item scale to measure generalized trust. Our analysis suggests that due to demographic differences, there are variations in the level of generalized trust of countries in Confucian Asia, despite the fact that these societies share a similar background in Confucian philosophy. The relationships between generalized trust and political trust, and between generalized trust and trust in public institutions, are weak but positive. The positive relationship between generalized trust and trust in economic institutions is only significant for some of the economies, while trust in international institutions has the weakest relationship with generalized trust for all societies. We conclude the paper with research implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The study aimed to explore and compare stress, coping, professional identity and work locus of control of new graduate nurses among Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. Background: The transition from a student to a staff nurse role is recognized as a stressful experience and can be a rough journey. Many newly graduated nurses find it challenging to cope with their new roles in their first few months. Methods: A cross‐sectional research was used in the study. This study was completed in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei with newly graduated nurses working in hospitals. A total of 591 graduate nurses who had worked within 1 year in hospitals were recruited using convenient sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, including demographics, the occupational stress scale, the Chinese trait coping style questionnaire, the nurse professional identity scale and the work locus of control scale (Chinese version). Results: The newly graduated nurses in Shanghai had significantly lower (p < 0.05) work stress score (2.65 ± 0.67) compared with their counterparts in Hong Kong (2.99 ± 0.69) and Taipei (2.94 ± 0.60). Newly graduated nurses in Shanghai tended to choose positive coping to deal with stressful situations, whereas those in Hong Kong would be more likely to adopt negative attitudes (p < 0.05). The newly graduated nurses in Taipei had the lowest level of professional identity (3.25 ± 0.55, p < 0.05), and their work control tended to be external (46.13 ± 6.20). In contrast, those in Shanghai (52.75 ± 6.04) and Hong Kong (59.41 ± 7.29) tended to be controlled internally. Conclusions: The study findings revealed the differences among newly graduated nurses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei with their level of stress, coping, professional identity and work locus of control. Proper leadership, mentoring for newly graduated nurses, and emphasis on first aid nursing training, emotional management and management of stress in newly graduated nurse transition programmes were suggested. Implications for Nursing Management: By comparing the results in the three regions, we recommend that nursing managers promote the right leadership style. In addition to coaching, nursing managers can assign additional mentors to newly graduated nurses to help them supplement their clinical knowledge and skills with psychological support. These mentors can come from senior nurses or nursing managers working on less demanding tasks. In addition to the existing post transfer training programmes, new graduate nurses should also focus on emergency nursing training, emotional management training and stress management training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners and researchers from China, the largest user of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), have been publishing an increasing number of scientific articles in world-famous CAM journals in recent years. However, the status of CAM research in the three major regions of China, the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong has, until now, not been reported. In this study, we compared articles from these three regions published in international CAM journals from 2000 to 2009 using PubMed database and the Journal Citation Reports. The study results showed that the number of published articles from Mainland China increased significantly from 2000 to 2009, particularly since 2005. Meanwhile, the number of published articles from Taiwan also increased, whereas those from Hong Kong remained steady. Clinical trials and randomized controlled trials from Chinese authors both took a small percentage of the total. The impact factors of the journals in which these articles were published suggested similar academic levels whereas the average number of citation of articles from the Mainland was less than those from the other two regions. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, American Journal of Chinese Medicine, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine were the most popular journals for Chinese authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curvilinear relationships between role stress and innovative performance were explored in a study conducted in Taiwan and mainland China. Results showed that when perceived support for innovation was low, role conflict showed a U-shaped relationship with both self-rated and supervisor-rated innovative performance, which contrasts sharply with the well known inverted U-shaped relationship between challenge stress and performance. Role ambiguity showed a similar but weaker pattern with regard to supervisor-rated innovative performance. When perceived support for innovation was high, role conflict showed a generally positive relationship with both self-rated and supervisor-rated innovative performance, but role ambiguity showed no significant relationship with supervisor-rated innovative performance. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on durational cues (i.e., syllable duration, pause duration, and syllable onset intervals (SOIs)) at discourse boundaries in two dialects of Mandarin, Taiwan and Mainland varieties. Speech was elicited by having 18 participants describe events in The Pear Story film. Recorded data were transcribed, labeled, and segmented into clauses. Discourse boundary indices were used to label discourse disjuncture levels. Results showed that the scope of lengthening included both the final and the penultimate syllables. Pause was a robust but optional indicator for discourse boundaries, and Taiwan Mandarin preferred unfilled over filled ones, while the Mainland variety did not show such strong preferences. Discourse hierarchy corresponded consistently with occurrences of pauses and duration of SOIs, within which pause was the main contributor. Higher discourse levels were more likely to be accompanied by pauses, and were indicated by longer pauses and SOIs. Syllable duration only played a secondary role in indicating discourse disjuncture size when pause was absent. When there was an accompanying pause, Mainland Mandarin relied solely on it to indicate discourse hierarchy, while Taiwan Mandarin used both syllable and pause duration, a dialectal difference that seemed to be rhythm-related. By shortening the degree of lengthening in the boundary syllable and lengthening the following pause at the same time, Taiwan Mandarin increased the absolute and relative duration of pause and maximized its role in indicating discourse hierarchy. The results of this study implied that the use of pause in discourse disjuncture demarcation was more of a language-specific choice while its role in discourse hierarchy encoding is more language-universal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Macroeconomic interdependence between China and Taiwan is assessed in terms of an array of output, price, money, and stock price measures for each economy. Sizeable simple correlations between these variables are accompanied by significant bidirectional Granger causality in many cases. Further evidence of interdependence arises from impulse response and variance decomposition analysis. As expected, the effects of mainland China variables on Taiwan appear to be stronger than the reverse. The indicated responses of the Taiwanese M2 money supply to developments in China are particularly noteworthy as M2 was generally the central bank target variable over the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]