Search

Collectivism remains a dominant force in the Chinese society and schooling is a process to instill collectivistic values in the students, although there has been a noticeable increase in individualistic orientation among Chinese youth. Because China's meritocratic educational system endorses high individualism to enhance academic competitiveness and performance, the Chinese educational system is contradictorily both collectivistic and individualistic. Within meritocratic educational systems, academic performance influences students' psychosocial adjustment. However, the role of students' individualistic orientation and collectivistic orientation on their psychosocial adjustment and the role of them on the link between academic performance and psychosocial adjustment are not well understood. To address this issue, we obtained survey data from 1003 6–12th grade Chinese students on their academic performance, individualistic orientation, collectivistic orientation, and psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, peer relations, and parent–child relationship quality). Results showed the students' academic performance scores predicted scores for all five psychosocial adjustment subscales in expected directions; higher collectivistic orientation scores predicted lower depression scores, higher parent–child relationship quality scores and peer relation scores, while higher individualistic orientation scores predicted higher self-esteem scores and higher depression scores. Finally, the influence of academic performance on anxiety symptoms was moderated by the students' individualistic orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study tested the hypothesis that drastic social-cultural change has an impact on girls' pre-menarche pubertal development. We focused on a unique group of Chinese immigrants who migrated out of China in infancy through international adoption. Our sample included 298 Chinese girls who were 7.3-11.1 years in 2011 ( Mean = 8.8, SD = 0.9) and were adopted at 7-24 months ( Mean = 12.6, SD = 3.4). We found that 34 % showed at least one of four signs of pubertal development: Growth spurt, body fat increase, breast development, and body hair. Logistic regression analyses showed that the odds of growth spurt was raised by the girls' age in 2011, behavior problems in 2005, but lowered by the adoptive families' household income; the odds of body fat increase in 2011 was raised by the adopted Chinese girls' weight in 2007 and behavior problems in 2005, but was lowered by the adoptive mother's education level; the odds for breast development in 2011 was raised by the girls' age in 2011, weight in 2007, and behavior problems in 2009. For body hair, none of the factors predicted the odds. Prevalence of precocious puberty, based on the criterion of breast development before 8 years, was 3.5 %. Overall, our study suggests that the pre-menarche pubertal development of adopted Chinese girls may be slightly advanced but also is affected by factors that affect non-adopted girls' pubertal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared Mainland Chinese, Chinese American and European American mothers' selfreported emotional expression within the family. Mothers of 3-year-old European American (n = 40), Chinese American (n = 39) and Mainland Chinese (n = 36) children (n = 20 girls per group) completed the Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire (SEFQ), a measure that includes 40 items describing the expression of positive and negative emotion (20 items each). Respondents indicate how frequently they engage in each expressive practice. Mothers also completed a questionnaire regarding family ecology variables. European American mothers reported significantly more positive emotional expression than Mainland Chinese mothers, although no significant differences were found for expression of negative emotion. While family ecology differed across groups, these variables were not related to the emotional expression scores. No child-gender differences were obtained. Results of this study confirm the presence of cultural differences in mothers' emotional expressivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do infants show distinct negative facial expressions for different negative emotions? To address this question, European American, Chinese, and Japanese 11-montholds were videotaped during procedures designed to elicit mild anger or frustration and fear. Facial behavior was coded using Baby FACS, an anatomically based scoring system. Infants' nonfacial behavior differed across procedures, suggesting that the target emotions were successfully elicited. However evidence for distinct emotion-specific facial configurations corresponding to fear versus anger was not obtained. Although facial responses were largely similar across cultures, some differences also were observed. Results are discussed in terms of functionalist and dynamical systems approaches to emotion and emotional expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-institutionalized Chinese and Eastern European children participated in two emotion under- standing tasks. In one task, children selected facial expressions corresponding to four emotion labels (happy, sad, angry, scared). The second task required children to match facial expressions to stories describing situations for these emotions. While both post-institutionalized groups scored lower than the never-institutionalized children, those from China performed better than those from Eastern Europe. Post-institutionalized children's performance was predicted by their age at adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]