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International students face challenges as they adjust to their living and learning ways in their new environment. The study aimed to examine the level of acculturative stress and social support Malawian international students in China experienced. The study further wanted to determine the role of social support on students' acculturation. A sample of 163 Malawian international graduates were recruited to participate in the study. The Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) was employed to assess graduates' perceived discrimination, homesickness, perceived hate, fear, cultural shock, guilt, and miscellaneous stressors. Further, the Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was used to measure graduates' level of social support from friends and family members. Data collected from this study was analysed using IBM® SPSS® statistics version 22. Findings indicated that Malawian graduates did not experience high acculturative stress. Nonetheless, homesickness, perceived discrimination, and cultural shock were their topmost reported sources of acculturative stress. Demographic characteristics such as length of stay, age, education, and marital status were also found to influence stress. Social support was also found to be associated with lower levels of acculturative stress. These findings have critical implications for educators and administrators of international students, and Malawian students in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emotional reactivity hypothesis holds that, over the course of phylogeny, the selection of animals with less reactive temperaments supported the development of sophisticated social-cognitive skills in several species, including humans (Hare, 2007). In the ontogenetic human case, an emotional reactivity hypothesis predicts that children with less reactive temperaments will reach certain milestones in theory-of-mind (ToM) development more quickly. We examined relations between temperament and false-belief understanding in 102 preschool-age children from China and the United States. Temperament was measured via parental ratings of behavior as well as with physiological measures of children's reactivity (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis reactivity gauged via salivary cortisol). In accord with an emotional reactivity hypothesis, children with certain reactive temperaments--specifically, those who were more aggressive and those who were both socially withdrawn and physiologically reactive--evidenced poorer social-cognition. However, our findings also force amendment to the ontogenetic emotional reactivity hypothesis. For the majority of children in both countries, physiological reactivity predicted more advanced ToM, perhaps by facilitating social engagement and attention to social stimuli. Moreover, children who were withdrawn from social interaction yet nonreactive, especially Chinese children of this temperament, evidenced advanced ToM. Thus, some forms of social disengagement may foster social-cognitive development in certain sociocultural contexts. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

To examine cultural contrasts in the ordered sequence of conceptual developments leading to theory of mind (ToM), we compared 135 3- to 6-year-olds (77 Australians; 58 Iranians) on an established 5-step ToM scale (Wellman & Liu, 2004). There was a cross-cultural difference in the sequencing of ToM steps but not in overall rates of ToM mastery. In line with our predictions, the children from Iran conformed to a distinctive sequence previously observed only in children in China. In contrast to the case with children from Australia (and the United States), knowledge access was understood earlier than opinion diversity in children from Iran, consistent with this collectivist culture's emphasis on filial respect, dispute avoidance, and acquiring knowledge. Having a sibling was linked with faster overall ToM progress in Australia only and was not related to scale sequences in either culture. (Contains 1 footnote and 1 table.)

Consecutive retestings of 92 U.S. preschoolers (n = 30), Chinese preschoolers (n = 31), and deaf children (n = 31) examined whether the sequences of development apparent in cross-sectional results with a theory-of-mind scale also appeared in longitudinal assessment. Longitudinal data confirmed that theory-of-mind progressions apparent in cross-sectional scaling data also characterized longitudinal sequences of understanding for individual children. The match between cross-sectional and longitudinal sequences appeared for children who exhibit different progressions across cultures (United States vs. China) and for children with substantial delays (deaf children of hearing parents). Moreover, greater scale distances reflected larger longitudinal age differences.

Theory of mind is claimed to develop universally among humans across cultures with vastly different folk psychologies. However, in the attempt to test and confirm a claim of universality, individual studies have been limited by small sample sizes, sample specificities, and an overwhelming focus on Anglo-European children. The current meta-analysis of children's false-belief performance provides the most comprehensive examination to date of theory-of-mind development in a population of non-Western children speaking non-Indo-European languages (i.e., Mandarin and Cantonese). The meta-analysis consisted of 196 Chinese conditions (127 from mainland China and 69 from Hong Kong), representing responses from more than 3,000 children, compared with 155 similar North American conditions (83 conditions from the United States and 72 conditions from Canada). The findings show parallel developmental trajectories of false-belief understanding for children in China and North America coupled with significant differences in the timing of development across communities--children's false-belief performance varied across different locales by as much as 2 or more years. These data support the importance of both universal trajectories and specific experiential factors in the development of theory of mind.

Each year, increasing numbers of international students enroll in Chinese universities, yet no literature is available on their intercultural communication competences (ICC) and acculturation status. The study aimed at investigating these two key concepts at Central China Normal University. Two dimensions of intercultural communication competence (affect and behavior) and two dimensions of acculturation (attitude towards maintenance of one's culture and attitude towards contact with other cultures) were employed to measure and analyze the two research constructs. A representative sample of 302 international students shows that Asian international students are less motivated to adapt than other students from other continents. In addition, time and education level do not seem to be sufficient factors in facilitating adaptation. Furthermore, the most preferred acculturation strategy is found to be integration. Finally, attitude towards contact positively correlates with affect and behavior. However, there is no relationship between attitude towards cultural maintenance and the two dimensions of ICC. These findings suggest that a better understanding of intercultural communication competence and acculturation, as well as of factors that help facilitate adjustment to the new culture, are essential in assisting Chinese universities to come up with effective programs that enhance contact between cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These articles examine social networks in the context of Asia. Their pages contain numerous examples showcasing the primacy of social context in the patterning, accumulation, role, and value of social networks and social capital. Network characteristics follow from national and institutional characteristics: In China, kinship networks are prominent all throughout the life course. Meanwhile, guanxi continues to be an important factor in the labor market and academic success of Chinese individuals, despite the shift from socialism to capitalism. In Japan, mutual monitoring among kin and coworkers make for a society based on strong ties. In Korea, voluntary associations are important communal spaces for meeting diverse contacts. In China’s neighborhoods, cooperation between neighbors coexists with social control from above to reinforce social hierarchy. The issue ends with a note about the importance of cultivating guanxi in organizations and in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research with American preschool children has shown that in some core domains - such as naive biological reasoning - young children's explanations can sensitively reveal their understanding, at times more sensitively than do their predictions and judgments. However, little is known about children's explanatory reasoning in cultural contexts outside the U.S. The present study examined Chinese preschool children's (N = 26) explanations for contamination and illness, as well as comparing their performance on parallel explanations and prediction tasks. In addition, their explanations and prediction were directly compared to those from American children (N = 36) who responded to parallel and strictly comparable items. Chinese children provided both biological contamination and culturally-specific explanations that referred to unseen mechanisms and processes. Moreover, their explanations were as accurate as their predictions and compared favorably to performance by American children, providing evidence for sophisticated explanatory reasoning among Chinese children as well as cultural similarities and differences in early biological reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lower Devonian Xujiachong Formation from the vicinity of Qujing City, Yunnan, China is interpreted as a terrestrial-fluviatile-lacustrine sequence. It contains important nonmarine biotas including plants, fish and invertebrates. The plants are particularly interesting as they include many endemic taxa. Dispersed spore assemblages have been recovered from the upper part of this formation. The spores are well preserved and of moderate thermal maturity. They are systematically described and four new species erected: Aneurospora xujiachongensis sp. nov., Chelinospora ouyangii sp. nov., Camptozonotriletes? luii sp. nov. and Leiozonospora xichongensis sp. nov. One new combination is proposed: Aneurospora conica (Ouyang and Lu) comb. nov. This is a rare report of a Lower Devonian dispersed spore assemblage from the South China Plate. Indeed, few dispersed spore assemblages of this age are known outside of Euramerica and Northern Gondwana. It is suggested that the Xujiachong Formation spore assemblages can all be equated to the polygonalis- emsiensis Spore Assemblages Biozone (PE SAB) of Richardson and McGregor (1986) indicating an early (but not earliest) Pragian to ?earliest Emsian age. However, caution is urged, because biostratigraphical interpretation is difficult owing to distinct differences between dispersed spore assemblages from South China and Euramerica/Northern Gondwana. This almost certainly reflects palaeophytogeographical variation and regional endemism among early land plant floras on widely separated land masses. Palynofacies analysis supports a nonmarine origin for the deposits of the Xujiachong Formation, with the very rare marine palynomorphs that were encountered interpreted as reworked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the international human rights to have or adopt a religion or belief and to manifest one's religion or belief as liberties of individual human beings protected by duties of non-interference and immunities from extinction holding against State Parties. It identifies their moral grounds as analogous moral religious human rights and morally proper purposes of international law, including the promotion of international peace. It argues that although these human rights threaten peace to a limited extent, on balance they would, if universally respected, enhance both internal and international peace even more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the cross-cultural psychosocial effect of clef palate and lip in non-Anglo populations. The study made use of the data from four studies of controlled study and empirical designs to estimate the effect size using Cohen's D and confidence intervals. The result of the study shows that men with cleft palate and lip are more prone to psychosocial issues as compared to women.

Prior research demonstrates that understanding of theory of mind develops at different paces in children raised in different cultures. Are these differences simply differences in timing, or do they represent different patterns of cultural learning? That is, to what extent are sequences of theory-of-mind understanding universal, and to what extent are they culture-specific? We addressed these questions by using a theory-of-mind scale to examine performance of 140 Chinese children living in Beijing and to compare their performance with that of 135 English-speaking children living in the United States and Australia. Results reveal a common sequence of understanding, as well as sociocultural differences in children's developing theories of mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]