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Learning to read involves discriminating between different written forms and establishing connections with phonology and semantics. This process may be partially built upon visual perceptual learning, during which the ability to process the attributes of visual stimuli progressively improves with practice. The present study investigated to what extent Chinese children with developmental dyslexia have deficits in perceptual learning by using a texture discrimination task, in which participants were asked to discriminate the orientation of target bars. Experiment l demonstrated that, when all of the participants started with the same initial stimulus-to-mask onset asynchrony (SOA) at 300ms, the threshold SOA, adjusted according to response accuracy for reaching 80% accuracy, did not show a decrement over 5days of training for children with dyslexia, whereas this threshold SOA steadily decreased over the training for the control group. Experiment 2 used an adaptive procedure to determine the threshold SOA for each participant during training. Results showed that both the group of dyslexia and the control group attained perceptual learning over the sessions in 5days, although the threshold SOAs were significantly higher for the group of dyslexia than for the control group; moreover, over individual participants, the threshold SOA negatively correlated with their performance in Chinese character recognition. These findings suggest that deficits in visual perceptual processing and learning might, in part, underpin difficulty in reading Chinese. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between writing to dictation, handwriting, orthographic, and perceptual-motor skills among Chinese children with dyslexia. A cross-sectional design was used. A total of 45 third graders with dyslexia were assessed. Results of stepwise multiple regression models showed that Chinese character naming was the only predictor associated with word dictation (β=.32); handwriting speed was related to deficits in rapid automatic naming (β=-.36) and saccadic efficiency (β=-.29), and visual-motor integration predicted both of the number of characters exceeded grid (β=-.41) and variability of character size (β=-.38). The findings provided support to a multi-stage working memory model of writing for explaining the possible underlying mechanism of writing to dictation and handwriting difficulties.

In this research, nonengagement is conceived as a manifestation of spiritual emptiness characterized by alienation and despair. Three scales with satisfactory reliabilities, alienation, despair and hope, were developed and used as predictors of health, coping, and social and family nonengagement among 428 nonengaged youths (309 males and 119 females) aged 15–24 years in Hong Kong. The results show that alienation and despair are associated with (a) poorer health, (b) more frequent use of negative coping, especially by hiding oneself and, to a lesser extent, (c) nonengagement. Hope is associated with better health and more frequent use of positive coping. These results support the contention that nonengagement is a loss of hope, meaning and purpose in life.

The development of reading skills may depend to a certain extent on the development of basic visual perception. The magnocellular theory of developmental dyslexia assumes that deficits in the magnocellular pathway, indicated by less sensitivity in perceiving dynamic sensory stimuli, are responsible for a proportion of reading difficulties experienced by dyslexics. Using a task that measures coherent motion detection threshold, this study examined the relationship between dynamic visual perception and reading development in Chinese children. Experiment 1 compared the performance of 27 dyslexics and their age- and IQ-matched controls in the coherent motion detection task and in a static pattern perception task. Results showed that only in the former task did the dyslexics have a significantly higher threshold than the controls, suggesting that Chinese dyslexics, like some of their Western counterparts, may have deficits in magnocellular pathway. Experiment 2 examined whether dynamic visual processing affects specific cognitive processes in reading. One hundred fifth-grade children were tested on visual perception and reading-related tasks. Regression analyses found that the motion detection threshold accounted for 11% and 12%, respectively, variance in the speed of orthographic similarity judgment and in the accuracy of picture naming after IQ and vocabulary size were controlled. The static pattern detection threshold could not account for any variance. It is concluded that reading development in Chinese depends to a certain extent on the development of dynamic visual perception and its underlying neural pathway and that the impact of visual development can be specifically related to orthographic processing in reading Chinese.

Since the criteria for diagnosis of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) include that the symptoms present in at least two situations, usually home and school, the role of teachers in the identification and diagnosis of this condition is crucial. There is, however, evidence of inter-cultural differences in ratings of AD/HD in children and young people, by teachers and others, though it is not possible to make comparisons between the various studies, because the conditions were not comparable. The focus of this article is the cultural influences on ratings of AD/HD-type behaviour. Evidence is presented of culturally related differences in such ratings, under conditions designed to ensure directly comparable conditions, involving teachers and student teachers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. There was some evidence that the teachers from mainland China rated the behaviour of a "target" child, presented on video, higher on a number of items than either the teacher...

A brief intellectual history of the indigenization movement in Asia leads to the thesis that the generation of psychological knowledge is culture dependent. Indigenous psychologies go further and insist on viewing a target group from the natives' own standpoint. Psychological decentering underlies conceptions of human existence rooted in Asian intellectual traditions, in particular, relatedness between persons predominates in Confucianism. These conceptions demand new approaches to knowledge generation that signify a paradigmatic shift from methodological individualism to methodological relationalism. An implication is that relationships precede situations in the study of personality and social behavior. We define personality as the sum total of common attributes manifest in, and abstracted from, a person's behavior directly or indirectly observed across interpersonal relationships and situations over time. We rely on the notion that there are identifiable levels of cognition to develop a metatheoretical framework for reconstructing selfhood. Confronting the subject-object dichotomy opens the door to investigations of transcendent consciousness; confronting the self-other demarcation underlying Western theories leads to the construction of self-in-relations.

The present study aimed to examine the child-rearing practices in Chinese families in Beijing and Hong Kong. The sample consisted of 89 mothers in Beijing and 45 mothers in Hong Kong. The mothers were instructed to respond to the Childrearing Practice Report (CRPR) in Q-sort format. Some of the item clusters were combined to produce the authoritarian and authoritative disciplinary styles. The results indicated that mothers in Hong Kong were more likely to adopt an authoritarian child-rearing pattern than mothers in Beijing; however, the two groups did not differ in authoritative child-rearing style. The results also showed that mothers in Hong Kong controlled their children more than their counterparts in Beijing, and they were less inclined to show affection towards their children; mothers in Beijing emphasized their children's achievement much more than their Hong Kong counterparts. The findings suggest that Chinese parental disciplinary styles may be quite different in various regions of Chinese societ...

Parental Attitudes Toward Their Parenting Styles and Children's Competence in Families Whose Children are Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Carriers in Guangzhou China* More than 20,000 children in Guangzhou were carriers of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and one out of every six children between the ages of three to six were victims of HBV (Guangzhou AGAPE newsletter 1990; Guangzhou Daily News, Mar. 26 1991). In order to protect the non-carriers from infection, HBV children have not been admitted to ordinary kindergartens since 1980. In 1992 there were only three special kindergartens reserved for children with health problems and especially for HBV children, compared with 500 ordinary kindergartens in 1992. Hence only about 2.8% of the total HBV children between the ages of three to six attended special health kindergartens, while 97.2% stayed at home. HBV children are perceived as " Little Second-Class Citizens" in the community. Parents report experiencing stress because of this labelling. Since 90% of the parents are working and 70% of the families are nuclear families in Guangzhou, many HBV children stay at home without a dependable person to take care of them, which also creates a great burden and stress on the parents. This stress was reported to have a deleterious effect on the mother-child relationship, on maternal warmth and responsiveness, and on child cognitive and social competence (Vaughn et al,1979; Belsky, 1984; Garmezy, 1989). A number of researchers found evidence that maternal responsiveness and parenting styles are the most important and sensitive aspects to the development of children's competence (Belsky, Rovine, & Fish, 1989., Easterbrooks & Emde, 1988; Howes & Markman, 1989; Parke & Tinsely, 1987). The aims of the study were :1) to explore parental attitudes regarding their HBV children through focus group discussion, and compare them with the attitudes of mothers of healthy children; 2) to explore and compare the similarities and differences of mothers' self reports of their parenting styles and children's competence in children with HBV disease and healthy children. Another aim was to see if mothers of HBV children's responses revealed a set of underlying factors different from the healthy control group. It was hoped that the results of this study would provide a basis for identifying the risk factors of parental attitude regarding HBV children. The study used a paper-and-pencil instrument to examine parental attitudes that expressed during three focus discussion groups, involving three different groups of mothers. The rationale of this study was that there had been an extensive body of studies documenting Hepatitis B clinically, but none or few of these studies had considered the psychological impact of Hepatitis B on children and their mothers. Though Hepatitis B is only an infectious disease affecting child health, the experiences that Hepatitis B children in their home environment (such as parental stress as well as attitudes & parenting styles) might affect their total development. The Effect of Parenting Styles on Child Development The scope of most Western studies of parenting style generally lie along two fundamental dimensions (Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Roberts, 1986). The first is warmth, which includes both affection and behavioural responsiveness. For a wide range of families, parental responsiveness has been linked to secure attachment in infancy and to social and task competencies in preschool years (Ainsworth & Bell, 1974; Arend, Gove, & Sroufe, 1979; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978). Warmth and affection have also been associated with children's competence in early and middle childhood (Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Roberts, 1986). The second dimension of parenting style includes both demands and the assertion of power to obtain compliance. Control has also been identified as an important determinant of children's competence (Baumrind, 1971). …

This study was conducted in Guangzhou, China. The study compared the stress coping styles of three groups of parents: (1) parents of children who are carriers of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) who attend a special health kindergarten; (2) parents of children with HBV who stay at home; and (3) parents of healthy children attending ordinary kindergarten. Parents of HBV children who stayed at home reported greater problems due to stress. The groups did not differ in reports of stress arising from life events other than their child's illness and the fact that their HBV-carrying children were prohibited from the kindergarten. Content analyses of the mothers' reported styles revealed five patterns of coping styles, which are explained with reference to the Chinese cultural context.

The purpose of the study was to examine the hypothesis that parents’ psychological well-being can be affected by a child’s illness and their social situations. In this study, we discuss the roles of coping, social support and situational context related to stress. These factors cannot only affect stress levels but can also influence whether the individual adopts a certain type of coping style for stressful events. Parental stress, coping styles and social support were compared between groups of parents of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) carrier children or healthy children. Results showed that parents of affected children were significantly more stressed and psychologically at risk, and tended to mobilize personal resources and to rely more on themselves to solve stressful life events. They also sought help from social resources more often than did parents of healthy children. Parents of healthy children had a higher number of close friends and relatives available to them. Ninety Chinese parents and their HBV or healthy children participated in this study. These families were all living in the city of Guangzhou, China.

The present study compared the moderating effect of social support on parental stress variables and mental health among three groups of parents: parents of HBV (Hepatitis B Virus) children who attended the special health kindergarten, parents of HBV children who stayed at home, and parents of healthy children who attended the ordinary kindergarten. These families resided in the city of Guangzhou. A set of questionnaires measuring parental stress and social support were given to the mothers after a one-hour interview. Results showed that parents of HBV children were significantly more stressed and psychologically at risk than parents of healthy children. They also sought help from social resources more often than the parents of healthy children. Parents of healthy children who attended the ordinary kindergarten reported the highest levels of overall social support, i.e. the number of very close friends and relatives with whom they could form close emotional attachments. Although they reported a lower numbe...

Learning to read involves discriminating between different written forms and establishing connections with phonology and semantics. This process may be partially built upon visual perceptual learning, during which the ability to process the attributes of visual stimuli progressively improves with practice. The present study investigated to what extent Chinese children with developmental dyslexia have deficits in perceptual learning by using a texture discrimination task, in which participants were asked to discriminate the orientation of target bars. Experiment l demonstrated that, when all of the participants started with the same initial stimulus-to-mask onset asynchrony (SOA) at 300 ms, the threshold SOA, adjusted according to response accuracy for reaching 80% accuracy, did not show a decrement over 5 days of training for children with dyslexia, whereas this threshold SOA steadily decreased over the training for the control group. Experiment 2 used an adaptive procedure to determine the threshold SOA for each participant during training. Results showed that both the group of dyslexia and the control group attained perceptual learning over the sessions in 5 days, although the threshold SOAs were significantly higher for the group of dyslexia than for the control group; moreover, over individual participants, the threshold SOA negatively correlated with their performance in Chinese character recognition. These findings suggest that deficits in visual perceptual processing and learning might, in part, underpin difficulty in reading Chinese.