The present research employed a longitudinal, five-wave design to examine the developmental trajectories of future occupation planning. Furthermore, the current research examined the influence of just world belief. The sample comprised 1646 high school students, who were followed up for two years from their first to third year of high school. The just world belief was initially assessed at Time 1, and future occupation planning was evaluated from Time 1 to Time 5. The results of the unconditional latent growth model indicated that the high school student’s future occupation commitment was heterogeneous, with both decline and rise groups. Furthermore, the future occupation exploration among high school students exhibited a piecewise trend. A significant decline was observed during the first and second years of high school, while a significant increase was observed during the second and third years of high school. The results of the conditional latent growth model demonstrated that: 1) personal just world belief could predict the subgroup of future occupation commitment development trajectories among high school students; 2) general just world belief could both predict the initial levels and the rates of development of future occupation exploration among high school students. The present study has revealed the developmental trajectories of future occupation planning among high school students. The findings indicate that the just world belief plays an important role in the development of future occupation planning among high school students, which support the just world theory.
The study aimed to explore the mediating effect of coping style and resilience between peer attachment and adolescent internet addiction. A total of 936 adolescents were recruited in the study to complete the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents, and Chen Internet Addiction Scale. The results revealed that: 1) peer attachment significantly negatively predicted adolescent internet addiction; 2) negative coping style mediated the effect of peer attachment on adolescent internet addiction; 3) resilience mediated the impact of peer attachment on adolescent internet addiction; 4) coping style and resilience played a chain mediating effect between peer attachment and adolescent internet addiction. These findings hold significant practical implications for understanding the influencing factors of adolescent internet addiction and promoting their mental health.
To investigate the impact of voluntary choice on the subjective experience and autonomic nervous system responses to positive and negative emotions, this study employed a situational selection paradigm with 41 college students recruited via randomly recruiting. Participants were exposed to positive and negative images under both voluntary and forced choice. The findings revealed that in positive situations, the subjective experience of positive emotion under voluntary choice was significantly higher compared to forced choice condition, with HF-HRV being marginally greater than under forced choice, and LF/HF was significantly lower than under forced choice. In negative situations, the subjective experience of negative emotions under voluntary choice was marginally lower than under forced choice, with HF-HRV being marginally greater than under forced choice, and LF/HF was significantly lower than under forced choice. These findings indicate that voluntary choice enhances participants’ positive emotional experience, attenuates participants’ negative emotional experience, and simultaneously decreases participants’ physiological arousal levels, which, thereby, helps maintain an optimal emotional state.
A study was conducted on 1004 adolescents using the Family Socioeconomic Status Scale, Parent-Child Attachment Scale, Self-Esteem Scale, and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior Scale. The research examined the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and adolescent prosocial behavior, exploring its underlying mechanisms and differences between only children and those with siblings. The results showed that: 1) SES was significantly positively correlated with adolescents’ prosocial behavior; 2) the impact of SES on adolescents’ prosocial behavior was mediated by parent-child attachment and self-esteem through independent and chain mediation pathways; 3) mediation models varied by only-child status. Among adolescents with siblings, all three mediation pathways (parent-child attachment, self-esteem, and their combined chain mediation) were significant, with self-esteem being the strongest mediator. However, for only children, parent-child attachment was the sole significant mediator.
This study examined the relationship between childhood trauma and psychological distress among college freshmen and explored the mediating role of a sense of security and the moderating effect of friendship quality. A survey was conducted on 710 college freshmen by using measures such as the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, the Sense of Security Questionnaire, the Friendship Quality Inventory and the short-form version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. The results revealed that the severity of childhood trauma was significantly positively correlated with psychological distress. A sense of security mediated the impact of childhood trauma on psychological distress. Friendship quality moderated the relationships between childhood trauma and sense of security, as well as between childhood trauma and depression. The findings indicate that the loss of a sense of security is an important mediating mechanism through which childhood trauma leads to various psychological distress among college freshmen. High friendship quality can mitigate the impact of childhood trauma on depression but is insufficient to buffer the negative effects of childhood trauma on a sense of security.
Phonological awareness plays an important role in children’s reading development. This study explored the development of English phonological awareness in Chinese elementary school students. We found that: 1) children performed significantly better in phonological perception, manipulation, and memory tasks on syllable units than on other phonological units such as phonemes; 2) they were in the midst of noticeable development in the partial tasks for initial/final sound and in tasks for up to three phonological units; 3) they showed difficulty and delayed development in elision task on consonant clusters and in manipulation and memory tasks for more than three phonological units. The results reveal the characteristics of asymmetrical development of English phonological awareness among elementary school students across phonological units, unit quantity, and phonological processing abilities.
The study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting stress and young children’s self-regulation, as well as the chain mediating effect of parental mediation and children’s screen exposure. Four hundred and thirty-one children aged 2~7 years and their parents were surveyed by using questionnaires. Results showed that: 1) parenting stress was negatively correlated with both children’s self-regulation and parental mediation, while parental mediation was positively correlated with children’s self-regulatory ability; 2) educational screen content was positively related to children’s self-regulation; 3) instructive mediation and educational screen content played a chain mediating role in the relationship between parenting stress and children’s self-regulation. The findings reveal the complex relationship between parenting stress and young children’s self-regulation, providing practical implications for guiding preschool family education in the digital age.
By using an experimental design and drawing on the EASI (emotion as social information) model, this study examined how the need for cognitive closure, objective time pressure, and appropriateness of teachers’ emotional expressions influence preschool children’s misbehavior in response to teachers’ expressions of angry emotions. The results showed that the main effects of need for cognitive closure, objective time pressure and appropriateness of teachers’ emotional expression on preschool children’s misbehavior were significant. Furthermore, the frequency of misbehavior was affected by the interaction of objective time pressure and appropriateness of teachers’ emotional expression. The results revealed that when objective time pressure was low, preschool children exhibited fewer misbehaviors in response to appropriate versus inappropriate teacher emotional expression; when objective time pressure was high, the difference of misbehavior frequency between appropriate and inappropriate expression conditions was not significant. Need for cognitive closure, objective time pressure, and appropriateness of teachers’ emotional expression each served as independent predictors of children’s feedback types as acceptance and acceptance after rejection.
People’s moral judgments of AI differ from those of humans, which may stem from AI’s algorithmic identity and the social cognition it elicits. The CNI model of moral judgment allows simultaneous consideration of both factors. Based on this model, the present study conducted three experiments to investigate the effects of identity (human vs. AI) and AI anthropomorphism (high vs. low) on moral dilemma judgments, as well as the mediating role of perceived warmth between anthropomorphism and moral judgment. The results revealed that: 1) compared to humans, people were more sensitive to outcome-based utilities and less sensitive to moral norms when evaluating AI’s moral choices; 2) AI anthropomorphism enhanced expectations for AI to adhere to moral norms by increasing perceived warmth. The results suggest that anthropomorphism can reduce people’s focus on AI’s algorithmic identity and prevent them from making moral judgments about AI based on instrumental rationality. This study holds positive implications for promoting the integration of AI into human society.
Adolescence is a critical period for the development of self-identity. Previous research has rarely focused on the temporal dimension of self-identity, specifically the impact of future self-continuity on subjective well-being. To address this gap, the present research explored the impact of future self-continuity on subjective well-being among middle and high school students by using a combination of survey method(Study1) and experimental method(Study2). The results indicated that future self-continuity not only enhanced subjective well-being, but also reduced value conflict. Moreover, value conflict mediated the relationship between future self-continuity and subjective well-being, with future self-continuity increasing subjective well-being by reducing value conflict. This research provides a theoretical basis for strengthening future self-continuity from the perspective of self-identity among middle and high school students, thereby guiding appropriate value choices and enhancing subjective well-being.
This study explored the impact of emotional neglect on short video addiction in rural adolescents and the mediating role of negative emotions, examining differences between left-behind and non-left-behind groups. By using a three-month longitudinal survey of 417 rural adolescents, the results showed that: 1) Emotional neglect significantly predicted short video addiction after three months. 2) Negative emotions mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and short video addiction. 3) The relationship varied significantly between left-behind and non-left-behind situations. Specifically, negative emotions fully mediated the relationship in left-behind children, while partially mediating it in non-left-behind children.
Research indicates that a prolonged period of time is needed for a new word to become integrated with the existing lexicon and generate stable and long-lasting memory representations, with sleep playing an important role in the offline consolidation of this process (known as sleep-associated memory consolidation). This study explored the effects of immediate and delayed sleep on the semantic learning of new Chinese words using rare, real ancient Chinese animal names. Forty-one university students were divided into two groups: a sleep-wake group that learned at night and a wake-sleep group that learned in the morning. Participants were tested immediately after learning, and again after 12 and 24 hours. Results showed that in the explicit word representation tasks, the sleep-wake group had greater performance improvement at the 12-hour mark (compared to immediately after learning) than the wake-sleep group, indicating that immediate sleep aids memory consolidation, with the advantage persisting for 24 hours in the definition task. However, the wake-sleep group showed greater improvement at 24 hours (compared to 12 hours), indicating that delayed sleep can also effectively consolidate memory, performing comparably to immediate sleep in the picture-naming task. In the implicit size judgment task, both immediate and delayed sleep promoted the semantic integration of new words, though in different ways. These findings support the dual role of sleep in both active consolidation and passive protection of memory.
Children and adolescents’ mental health has become a global challenge in recent years. The development of children and adolescents’ mental health services in China started relatively late and there is a need to draw on international advanced experience. Through literature review, this study comprehensively combed through the current status of children and adolescents’ mental health services in 12 countries including but not limited to the United States of America, Finland, and Singapore, from three perspectives: the management mechanism of mental health services, the system of school mental health services, and the digital empowerment of school mental health services. Subsequently, this study put forward a set of recommendations including strengthening the policy system guarantees and management mechanisms for mental health services, building an evidence-based mental health service system centered on serving all students, and accelerating the exploration of multiple pathways for digitally empowering mental health services.
In the modern era, with the extensive use of social media, individuals are constantly evaluating their own or others’ appearances. This phenomenon is even more prevalent among adolescent middle school students. Based on the objectification theory, the present study adopted a longitudinal study design to explore the longitudinal relationship and internal mechanisms between body surveillance and depressive symptoms among junior school students. Two-wave follow-up surveys on a sample of 756 junior school students over a period of six months were conducted. The results showed that: 1) T1 body surveillance significantly predicted T2 depressive symptoms. 2) There were significant gender differences in the cross-lagged model between body surveillance and depressive symptoms. Specifically, T1 body surveillance did not significantly predict T2 depressive symptoms in boys, while T1 body surveillance positively predicted T2 depressive symptoms in girls. 3) Regression analysis showed that subjective well-being played a longitudinal mediating role between body surveillance and depressive symptoms. These findings reveal the relationship and internal mechanism between body surveillance and depressive symptoms among junior school students, providing suggestions for enhancing the mental health status of junior school students.
To explore the influence and mechanism of school climate on adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury, a total of 1894 students in three middle schools in Fujian were investigated by using the Perceived School Climate Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire and Adolescents Self-Harm Scale. The results showed that: 1) school climate had a negative predictive effect on adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury; 2) self-compassion played a partial mediating role between school climate and non-suicidal self-injury; 3) mental health literacy moderated the relationship between school climate and non-suicidal self-injury in the direct effect of mediation model; 4) mental health literacy moderated the relationship between the self-compassion and non-suicidal self-injury in the indirect effect of mediation model. This study uncovered the mechanism of the influence of school climate on adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury, and highlighting the need to prioritize school climate development and create a supportive environment for students that promote self-compassion and reduce self-injury.
To explore the relationship between core self-evaluation, perceived stress, short video addiction and perceived time poverty, this study used the Core Self-Evaluation Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, Short Video Addiction Scale and Perceived Time Poverty Scale to conduct a questionnaire survey on 810 college students in China. The results showed that: 1) core self-evaluation significantly negatively predicted time poverty; 2) perceived stress played a mediating role in core self-evaluation and perceived time poverty; 3) perceived stress and short video addiction played a chain mediating role in core self-evaluation and perceived time poverty. This study suggests that improving core self-evaluation may be an effective way to reduce perceived time poverty.
The self-reference effect refers to the fact that establishing a connection between specific information and oneself can promote processing. For middle-aged Chinese adults, the self-concept typically encompasses not only themselves but also their children and their mothers. However, whether the newly established connections related to children and mothers can rapidly influence perceptual processing has not been studied. By using a modified perceptual matching paradigm with a 4 (identity labels: self, child, mother, stranger) × 2 (matching status: match, no match) within-subjects design, the present study examined the above question by selecting middle-aged adults between the ages of 43 and 57 as participants. The results showed that the accuracy in the self- and mother-reference condition was significantly higher than that in the stranger-reference condition. The d’ in the self-reference condition was significantly higher than that in the stranger-reference condition. Additionally, reaction times in the self- and child-reference conditions were significantly shorter than that in the stranger-reference condition. These findings indicate that self, child, and mother can quickly establish associations with geometric shapes and facilitate perceptual processing, which result in self, mother, and child referencing effects. This study provides empirical evidence for the inclusion of “mother” and “child” components in the self-structure of middle-aged Chinese adults from the perceptual processing perspective.
In the context of cyberbullying, online bystanders play a crucial role in the evolution of the incident. In this study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of cyberbullying victims’ response on bystanders’ willingness to constructively intervene and the moderating effect of state empathy. Experiment 1 examined the effects of counterattack, help-seeking and neglect on bystanders’ willingness to constructively intervene to help others by manipulating the different responses of cyberbullying victims. Experiment 2 examined the moderating effect of state empathy through the adapted classic situation priming paradigm. The results showed that: 1) Compared with the victim’s neglect behavior, their help-seeking and counterattack behaviors aroused the bystander’s stronger willingness to intervene constructively. 2) In the relationship between the victim’s response and the bystander’s willingness to constructively intervene, state empathy played a positive moderating role. The results not only reveal the influence mechanism of bystanders’ constructive intervention intention, but also provide enlightenment and reference for preventing and alleviating cyberbullying.
Using the Five-Factor Model (FFM), the HEXACO model of personality, and the Dark Triad (DT) as theoretical frameworks, this study conducted a meta-analysis of 150 domestic and international articles published over the past two decades to investigate the relation between personality traits and aggression among the student population. The results showed that, firstly, FFM-neuroticism and DT traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism) were positively correlated with aggression. Secondly, FFM-agreeableness, honesty-humility, HEXACO-agreeableness, and conscientiousness were negatively correlated with aggression. Thirdly, extraversion, openness, and HEXACO-emotionality were not related to aggression. Finally, age and gender did not moderate the relationship between personality traits and aggression, while culture moderated the relationship between the two personality traits (i.e., FFM-agreeableness and openness) and aggression. These findings provide implications for preventing aggression and violence in school setting.
To investigate the relationship between awe and wise reasoning, as well as the differential mechanism of their positive and negative valences, this study employed both questionnaire survey and experimental designs. By examining these relationships and mechanisms from the perspectives of trait and state, we found that trait positive awe (Study 1) and induced state positive awe (Study 2a) positively predicted wise reasoning and also enhanced wise reasoning through a balanced time perspective. In contrast, trait negative awe (Study 1) and induced state negative awe (Study 2b) neither predicted nor enhanced wise reasoning via a balanced time perspective, which suggests limited effects of negative awe on wise reasoning. The findings reveal a distinct mechanism through which awe influences wise reasoning. Specifically, positive awe can directly promote wise reasoning, or indirectly do so through a balanced time perspective. However, negative awe does not exhibit the same pattern. In doing so, the present study offers a comprehensive understanding of how awe can foster wise reasoning.
