Wai Shing Tse

Individualistic achievement personality has been found to increase personal resources and reduce negative emotions. Whether individualistic achievement is protective against stress or negative emotion or indeed stress generating remains uncertain. The present study examined three models proposed to explain the interrelationship between individualistic achievement, personal resources, daily stress, and negative emotion. One hundred eighteen volunteers (aged 18–59 years; 39 males) were recruited from the community. On the first day of the study, they received copies of a questionnaire measuring daily stress to complete for the next 14 days. On the last day of the study, they filled in questionnaires measuring positive and negative affect, depression, social functioning and individualistic achievement personality. Individualistic achievement was significantly associated with positive affect and social functioning but not with negative affect, depression, and average daily stress. Structural equation modeling analysis showed a significant fit for a model indicating that individualistic achievement personality scores would be positively associated with both personal resources and daily stress, and subsequently personal resources would be negatively associated with negative emotion and daily stress positively associated with negative emotion. Individualistic achievement may be related to both advantages and disadvantages. Further investigation of the nature of individualistic achievement is warranted.

The interrelationship between hope, psychological resources and depression needs clarification. The current study aimed to examine the interrelationship using empirical data. A total of 139 Chinese adults living in the community were invited to fill in questionnaires measuring dispositional hope, psychological resources (i.e. optimism, self-efficacy, social support and positive affect) and negative emotion (i.e. negative affect and depression). Structural equation modelling showed that negative emotion is partially mediated between hope and psychological resources. A bootstrap-estimated analysis corrected for bias showed that negative emotion plays a mediation role between hope and psychological resources. Hope is directly and indirectly related to psychological resources via negative emotion. The potential of hope as an intervention to assist patients with depression to achieve their treatment goals is discussed.

Extensive research has demonstrated the positive relationship between parental expectations and adolescents’ academic performance. However, little attention has been paid to the negative influence of parental expectations on adolescents’ emotion well-being. The present study investigated the effects of high parental expectations on both academic performance and depression of adolescents. In addition, it also explored whether these relationships could be mediated through adolescents’ value of academic success, self-efficacy, and supports from parents and school. The sample consisted of 872 adolescents from secondary schools in Hong Kong and the results revealed that high parental expectations were positively associated with adolescents’ academic performance and also positively associated with their depression. The mediating roles of adolescents’ value of academic success and school support frequency were also confirmed. This study provides some implications for parenting practice by clarifying the complex roles of parental expectations and the need for social support for adolescents.

Video‐based flipped class instruction can strengthen the learning motivation of students. The effectiveness of flipped class instruction on teaching effectiveness and subject satisfaction has been evaluated previously. The present study aims to examine the impact of two aspects of subject reading motivation. A total of 100 secondary school students were recruited from 4 classes of 25 students (ie, video‐based flipped Mathematics class, traditional Mathematics class, video‐based flipped Liberal Studies (LS) class and traditional LS class) in two local secondary schools. The same teachers taught both the traditional and video‐based flipped classes in their subject. The students filled in questionnaires which measured: motivation for general reading; motivation for subject reading; academic subject satisfaction and perceived teaching effectiveness of the teachers. Analysis of covariance controlling for motivation for general reading revealed that students in the flipped classes reported significantly lower motivation for subject reading including reading curiosity, reading importance and reading compliance ( t (1,98) = 10.52, p < 0.001; t (1,98) = 7.68, p < 0.001; t (1,98) = 20.39, p < 0.001, respectively). However, students in the flipped classes reported significantly higher satisfaction and teaching effectiveness than those in the traditional classes ( t (1,98) = −15.61. p < 0.001; t (1,98) = −11.98, p p < 0.001). Video‐based flipped class instruction was not only related to increased academic subject satisfaction and teaching effectiveness but also associated with lower motivation for subject reading. These findings suggest that video‐based flipped class instruction had limited capability to strengthen the learning motivation of students.

Background: Adolescent Internet addiction ( IA ) is prevalent. No study, however, has applied the health belief model ( HBM ) to investigate issues on IA nor investigated factors associated with intention to correct one's perceived IA problem (self‐corrective intention). Such information facilitates design of related interventions, which are warranted. Methods: This cross‐sectional study surveyed 9,618 Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong; 4,111 (42.7%) self‐assessed that they had IA (self‐assessed IA cases); 1,145 of these self‐assessed IA cases (27.9%) were also classified as IA cases (concordant IA cases), as their Chen Internet Addiction Scale score exceeded 63. Results: The prevalence of self‐corrective intention among these two subsamples was only 28.2% and 34.1%, respectively. In the self‐assessed IA subsample, the HBM constructs including perceived susceptibility to IA [adjusted odds ratio ( OR a) = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.16, 1.34], perceived severity of IA ( OR a = 2.28, 95% CI = 2.09, 2.48), perceived benefits for reducing Internet use ( OR a = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.18, 1.24), self‐efficacy to reduce Internet use ( OR a = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.11), and cues to action to reduce Internet use ( OR a = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.11, 1.20) were positively, while perceived barriers for reducing Internet use ( OR a = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.94, 0.97) were negatively, associated with self‐corrective intention. Similar factors were identified in the concordant IA subsample. Conclusions: A large proportion of the students perceived that they had IA but only about one‐third intended to correct the problem. Future interventions may consider altering students’ HBM constructs, and focus on the segment of concordant IA with self‐corrective intention, as they show readiness for changes.

The digit ratio is a putative biomarker for evaluating the organizational effects of prenatal testosterone. This evaluation was performed by relating postnatal traits to digit ratio. We examined the relationship among digit ratio, depression, and positive/negative affect. A total of 335 university students who completed a set of questionnaires had both of their hands scanned, and the digit ratios were measured using a computer program. All the studied variables were insignificantly related to the right-hand digit ratio. The variables remained insignificant even when the data for males and females were analyzed separately. Furthermore, a meta-analysis, including a previous study combined with current data, showed no association between digit ratio and depression, although the current sample size of 355 could detect r = 0.2 at α = 0.05, and β = 0.2. The lack of association between digit ratio and depression was common, and the present results corroborated those of previous studies, which showed no association between digit ratio and depression. This nil result would be least likely attributable to an inadequate sample size, considering that the current sample size of 335 allowed the detection of r = 0.2 at α = 0.05 and β = 0.2, nor idiosyncratic results, given that the meta-analysis with previous relevant studies also concluded the same results. We extensively reviewed the relevant literature and evaluated the use of digit ratio as a biomarker for prenatal testosterone exposure in seven different perspectives. Nearly all the analysis showed the problems of using digit ratio as a biomarker for evaluating the organizational effect of prenatal hormones.