中美中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑认知研究

目的：比较中国和美国的中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑的认知情况。方法：采用“失败结果预期（FOE）”问卷中的由父母原因引起的考试焦虑12项，测量中美两国公立学校14、15岁的1215名中学生对考试焦虑原因的认知。结果：1．相似认知：两国学生在由父母原因引起的考试焦虑方面有类似的认知，包括父母会担心自己能否进入高一级学校、会让父母烦恼等。2．跨文化的差异：表现为中国学生更多是因为父母责备、辜负了父母期望或会让父母生气而导致考试焦虑；而美国学生更多是由于父母认为他们不能面对生活中的挑战而产生焦虑。3．性别差异：表现在美国的女中学生在7个项目上、中国的男中学生在2个项目上分别比本国异性有更大程度的焦虑（P〈0．05）。结论：中美中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑方面有类似的认知，但存在文化差异和性别差异。     

Childless elderly: Theoretical perspectives and practical concerns

Almost nothing is concretely known about childless elderly in cross-cultural perspective. Few published papers have appeared on this social category in the West, although childless elders make up (at least) 20% of the population of elderly in many Western nations. Little is known about childless elderly in the Third World. This paper provides some theoretical background to the study of childless elderly and articulates some social policy concerns about them. It suggests that there are five important questions to examine concerning the lives of childless elderly. These include, how childless aged are or are not provided for in societies in which a great deal of the care of the aged is undertaken by children; how kinship functions as a matrix for care; how the increasingly common phenomenon of voluntary childless may give meaning to childlessness in late life; how childlessness fits with such social science models such as the developmental cycle; and, the relationship of this phenomenon to changing opportunities for women. The paper further examines how factors such as fertility, systems of caregiving, the social meaning of childlessness, alternatives to childlessness such as adoption, and educational and economic opportunities may affect the lives of childless elders.     

A Kiswahili version of the SF-36 Health Survey for use in Tanzania: translation and tests of scaling assumptions

The objective of the study was to translate and adapt the SF-36 Health Survey for use in Tanzania and to test the psychometric properties of the Kiswahili SF-36. A cross-sectional study was conducted as part of a household survey of a representative sample of the adult population of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The IQOLA method of forward and backward translation was used to translate the SF-36 into Kiswahili. The translated questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers to 3,802 adults (50% women, mean (SD) age 31 (13) years, 50% married and 60% with primary education). Data quality and psychometric assumptions underlying the scoring of the eight SF-36 scales were evaluated for the entire sample and separately for the least educated subgroup (n=402), using multitrait scaling analysis. Forward and backward translation procedures resulted in a Kiswahili SF-36 that was considered conceptually equivalent to the US English SF-36. Data quality was excellent: only 1.2% of respondents were excluded because they answered less than half of the items for one or more scales; ninety percent of respondents answered mutually exclusive items consistently. Median item–scale correlations across the eight scales ranged from 0.47 to 0.81 for the entire sample. Median scaling success rates were 100% (range 87.5–100.0). The median internal consistency reliability of the eight scales for the entire sample was 0.81 (range 0.70–0.92). Floor effects were low and ceiling effects were high on five of the eight scales. Results for n=402 people without formal education did not differ substantially from those of the entire sample. The results of data quality and psychometric tests support the scoring of the eight scales using standard scoring algorithms. The Kiswahili translation of the SF-36 may be useful in estimating the health of people in Dar es Salaam. Evidence for the validity of the SF-36 for use in Tanzania needs to be accumulated.     

Comparative study of quality of life between the Chinese and Japanese adolescent populations

Researchers from Japan, China and Singapore have initiated a collaborative project, with the aim of comparing adolescent quality of life (QOL) internationally. This study presents the primary results of the investigation conducted in Beijing, China, and Kobe, Japan. The 70-item Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adolescents (QOLQA) was developed and evaluated in Japan and China. In total, 1114 Japanese and 613 Chinese junior high school students, aged 12-15 years, completed the questionnaire. Chinese students scored significantly higher than the Japanese students in overall QOL scores and in most domains. For both groups, subjects had highest score in the independence domain and lowest in psychological domain. In terms of overall QOL score, Chinese male students ranked first, followed by Chinese girls, Japanese boys, and Japanese girls. In the Japanese group, a continuing decrease of QOL scores with age was observed without exception, but no such tendency was present in their Chinese counterparts. No parallel relationship was observed between the higher level of economic development and better quality of life. The results also suggest that mental health promotion should be a priority in improving overall quality of life of adolescents both in Japan and China.     

Ataque de Nervios and History of Childhood Trauma

Objective: Ataque de nervios is a common, self-labeled Hispanic folk diagnosis. It typically describes episodic, dramatic outbursts of negative emotion in response to a stressor, sometimes involving destructive behavior. Dissociation and affective dysregulation during such episodes suggested a link to childhood trauma. We therefore assessed psychiatric diagnoses, history of ataque, and childhood trauma in treatment-seeking Hispanic outpatients (N = 70). Significantly more subjects with an anxiety or affective disorder plus ataque reported a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or or a substance-abusing caretaker than those with psychiatric disorder but no ataque. In some Hispanic individuals, ataque may represent a culturally sanctioned expression of extreme affect dysregulation associated with childhood trauma. Patients with ataque de nervios should receive a thorough traumatic history assessment.     

Measurement Issues in Health Disparities Research

Background. Racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care have been documented; the elimination of such disparities is currently part of a national agenda. In order to meet this national objective, it is necessary that measures identify accurately the true prevalence of the construct of interest across diverse groups. Measurement error might lead to biased results, e.g., estimates of prevalence, magnitude of risks, and differences in mean scores. Addressing measurement issues in the assessment of health status may contribute to a better understanding of health issues in cross-cultural research.
Objective. To provide a brief overview of issues regarding measurement in diverse populations.
Findings. Approaches used to assess the magnitude and nature of bias in measures when applied to diverse groups include qualitative analyses, classic psychometric studies, as well as more modern psychometric methods. These approaches should be applied sequentially, and/or iteratively during the development of measures.
Conclusions. Investigators performing comparative studies face the challenge of addressing measurement equivalence, crucial for obtaining accurate results in cross-cultural comparisons.     

Abnormal illness behavior and psychiatric disorders: a study in an outpatient clinic in Japan

Abnormal illness behavior, such as hypochondriacal attitude and inappropriate treatment-seeking, has been associated with various psychiatric disorders in which patients tend to abuse medical services and seek inappropriate treatment in general practice clinics rather than psychiatric clinics. However, the relationship between illness behavior and psychiatric disorders in Japan is yet to be elucidated. We examined the abnormal illness behavior of 243 patients who visited the outpatient department of psychiatry at Saga Medical School Hospital, Saga, Japan, using a Japanese version of the Illness Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Multivariate analysis indicated significant association between some of the IBQ scale scores and age, sex and employment status. Patients with anxiety disorder scored higher on five of the seven IBQ scales compared with patients with another major disorder (mood disorder, schizophrenia or somatoform disorder). When compared with the IBQ scale scores reported in Australian patients in a psychiatric hospital, most of the IBQ scale scores differed significantly in our patients; a higher score among Japanese patients on the general hypochondriasis scale was most prominent. A similar trend in IBQ scale scores was also noted among Japanese patients visiting the hospital's general medicine clinic in comparison with Australian patients visiting a general practice clinic. Japanese patients with anxiety disorder may display the most salient abnormal illness behaviors among patients with psychiatric disorders. Sociocultural background may contribute to the characteristic abnormal illness behaviors of Japanese patients.     

Papers Please - Predictive Factors of National and International Attitudes Toward Immunity and Vaccination Passports: Online Representative Surveys

BackgroundIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision-makers must know whether these passports will be widely accepted by the public and under what conditions. This study focuses attention on immunity passports, as these may prove useful in countries both with and without an existing COVID-19 vaccination program; however, our general findings also extend to vaccination passports.ObjectiveWe aimed to assess attitudes toward the introduction of immunity passports in six countries, and determine what social, personal, and contextual factors predicted their support.MethodsWe collected 13,678 participants through online representative sampling across six countries—Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom—during April to May of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed attitudes and support for the introduction of immunity passports.ResultsImmunity passport support was moderate to low, being the highest in Germany (775/1507 participants, 51.43%) and the United Kingdom (759/1484, 51.15%); followed by Taiwan (2841/5989, 47.44%), Australia (963/2086, 46.16%), and Spain (693/1491, 46.48%); and was the lowest in Japan (241/1081, 22.94%). Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modeling was used to assess predictive factors for immunity passport support across countries. International results showed neoliberal worldviews (odds ratio [OR] 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.22), personal concern (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.00-1.16), perceived virus severity (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14), the fairness of immunity passports (OR 2.51, 95% CI 2.36-2.66), liking immunity passports (OR 2.77, 95% CI 2.61-2.94), and a willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.51-1.68) were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman; OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.82-0.98), immunity passport concern (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.57-0.65), and risk of harm to society (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.67-0.76) predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries and results were modeled separately to provide national accounts of these data.ConclusionsOur research suggests that support for immunity passports is predicted by the personal benefits and societal risks they confer. These findings generalized across six countries and may also prove informative for the introduction of vaccination passports, helping policymakers to introduce effective COVID-19 passport policies in these six countries and around the world.     

Cross-Cultural Applicability of FACES IV

We studied cross-cultural Hungarian adaptation and validation of FACES IV for screening adaptive versus nonadaptive family functioning. A protocol was followed including translation, tests of reliability, construct and convergent validity, standardization, testing of family types, and ratios. Two hundred forty-nine couples (498 adults) from various regions of the country participated in the study. Results indicated high item–remainder correlations and Cronbach alphas. Factor analytic data fitted well with the model indicated by the Olson studies. Most salient results were found for Cohesion, which partially overlapped Flexibility, and had high negative correlations with the Disengaged dimension. Rigid and Chaotic as well as Enmeshed were found to be independent factors. Family types of the Hungarian sample explored by cluster analysis were comparable to the U.S. sample.