Table of Content

15 May 2013, Volume 29 Issue 3

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The Characteristics of 3 to 5-Year-Old Children’s Attribution to Peer Victimization

DONG Hui-qin, JI Lin-qin, CHEN Liang, ZHANG Wen-xin

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  225-231. 

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284 children aged 3 to 5 years old from a public kindergarten in Jinan city were interviewed to explore children's attribution. Results indicated that: (1) 3 to 5-year-old children's attribution to peer victimization included the following four types: hostile intent attributions, critical self-referent attributions, neutral attributions and non-attributions; (2) critical self-referent attributions increased with children's age and non-attributions decreased with children's age; age 4 to 5 years was the period of transition; (3) children used more neutral attributions, but less critical self-referent attributions and non-attributions to property victimization than other types of peer victimization; children used less neutral attributions and more non-attributions to verbal victimization than other types of peer victimization.

The Relation Between Friends’ Trustworthiness and Elementary School Children’s Trust and Its Development

LI Qing-gong, ZHOU Xiao-mei, XU Fen

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  232-237. 

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The present study investigated the relation between friends' trustworthiness and 9 to 12-year-old children's trust as well as the moderating effect of the age on this relationship. 361 elementary school children aged 9 to 12 participated the study. Children's trust and their friends' trustworthiness were assessed by peer evaluation and nomination methods. The results showed that friends' trustworthiness could significantly predict children's trust. Age played as a moderator on the relation between friends' trustworthiness and children's trust: with increased age, the friends' trustworthiness can predict children's trust more positively.

The Research on the Structure of Executive Function in 3-Year-Old

ZHANG Qian-yi, WEN Ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  238-246. 

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Whereas the executive function (EF) structure of adults is extensively researched and characterized in a hierarchical mode, it remains unclear for the population of 3-year-old children. The current investigation explored this issue by testing 3-year-old children with various tasks tapping on constructs of EF (i.e., working memory and inhibitory control function). 181 3-year-olds (96 girls and 85 boys, Mage=41.6 months) from two kindergartens in GuangXi province completed all the tasks. The task selection considers the developmental stage of the participants and it requires qualified testing characteristics(e.g., Inhibition task include Delay of Gratification, Delayed Alternation, Day-Night Stroop task; WM task include Counting Span, Beads, Six Boxes task). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed separately on splitted data set. EFA (n₁=90) resulted in a 2-factor model (representing working memory and inhibition function as the latent factors). CFA (n₂=91) further evidenced the better data fit of the 2-factor model than the 1-factor model (where EF was treated as the only latent factor). The results espoused the view that, children, early in their 3 year-old, their working memory and inhibition function start to separate from each other and operate rather independently. And differences between boys and girls over measurement invariance testing have not been found.

A Study on the Storage of Object and Spatial Working Memory for the Graphs with Features of Double Dimensions

WU Wen-chun

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  247-254. 

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The study investigated the storage mechanism and capacity of visual object working memory and visual spatial working memory for the graphs with features of double dimensions using change-detection paradigm. 40 participants aged 20.56±1.73 were randomly divided into two equal groups. They completed Experiment 1 and Experment 2 seperately. The stimulus graphs in experiment 1 were presented by basic features of color and shape, and that landolt rings in experiment 2 were presented by color and orientation. The results of two experiments both showed: (1) There was no significant difference between the memory accuracy of feature exchange condition and that of single feature change condition. (2) The performance of visual object working memory task was significantly higher than that of visual spatial working memory task. (3) Subjects could remember 2-3 objects and 3-4 spatial locations in visual working memory. These suggested that, the graphs with features of double dimensions were stored as integrated units in visual object and visual spatial working memory, and the storage capacity of spatial working memory was higher than that of object working memory.

The Influence of Domains and Trust Traits on College Students’ Trust Circle

LIU Chun-hui, XIN Zi-qiang, LIN Chong-de

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  255-261. 

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The purpose of the study was to explore how domains and trust traits affected the size and composition of a trust circle discriminate of 395 college students. The experiment was a 2(context of domain: lending money; sharing negative information)×4(risk level)×2(trust trait: high; low) mixed design. The results showed that: (1) the size and composition of trust circle were affected by the trust domain, specifically, the size of the trust circle when lending money was larger than sharing negative information and the rank orders of chosen trustees differed in two domains. (2) As the risk increased, the trust circle size in both domains became smaller. Specifically, its impact was greater when lending money than sharing negative information. There was no significant effect on the trust circle composition by risk levels. (3) In both domains, the trust circle size was significantly influenced by trust trait, and the trust circle size of participants, who had high trust level, was larger. (4) The composition of trust circle demonstrated the following hierarchy of trustees: relatives, acquaintances and strangers.

Development of Cognitive Functioning and Aging of Adults：A Cross-Section Study with Diminished Cohort Effects

TANG Xi-rong, JIANG Li, ZENG Hui, YAO Shu-qiao

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  262-267. 

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To explore the development of cognitive functioning and aging of Chinese adults, the data of the standardization sample of the Intelligence Scale for Chinese Adults were adopted to estimate special mean of intelligence quotient and three intelligence indices for every age-group, during which education level and occupation were controlled statistically in order to diminish cohort effects. Different fashion in age trend was found among the three indices and IQ. Crystallized intelligence index increased 0.69 from age -group 25-29 to age-group 35-44 and then decreased 3.3 totally. Attention-memory index peaked in the age-group 25-29 and decreased 3.3 from age-group 25-29 to 34-44 totally, while decreased 3 or so in every group from age-group 45-54 to 70-74. The fluid intelligence index and IQ shared resembling fashion of age trend with the crystallized intelligence index, albeit the range between the highest score and the lowest score was shorter. The results suggest that crystallized intelligence maintain stable before 74 years old while in domain of fluid intelligence and ability of attention and memory obvious linear decline present in Chinese adults.

The Effects of Home Learning Environment on Children’s Early Academic and Social Skills

LI Yan-wei, LI Yan-fang, LIU Li-sha, LV Ying

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  268-276. 

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Home learning environment (HLE), as one component of the micro-system and the first learning environment that children was exposed to, has a large effect on children's early development. With 181 children aged 53~67 months and their primary caregivers as the subjects, the present study investigated the effects of HLE (including Home Learning Activities and Enrichment Experience in daily life) on their literacy, numeracy and social skills. The results are as follows: (1) After controlling for the gender and age of children, HLE can explain 9.4% of the variance on literacy, 4.4% of the variance on numeracy and 9.6% of the variance on social skills; (2) Further, after controlling for the SES and early education experience, HLE can still explain 7.4% of the variance on literacy, 3.2% of the variance on numeracy and 8.5% of the variance on social skills; (3) Two aspects of HLE have different impact on children's early development. Home Leaning Activities is the most powerful predictor of children's literacy and numeracy skill, while Enrichment Experience is the most powerful predictor of children's social skills.

Students’Social Service Experiences and the Effects on Their Civic Action Intentions：the Mediating Role of Community Service Perspectives

WANG Cong, YAO Mei-lin, GUO Fang-fang, YAN Wen-fan, WENG Can, ZHAO Fei-hu

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  277-284. 

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To explore the characteristics of middle school students' social service experiences in China and the effects on their future civic action intentions, as well as the mediating effect of community service perspectives, 6203 middle school students were selected to fill Social Service Experience Quality Questionnaires, Community Service Perspective Questionnaires and Civic Action Intention Questionnaires. The results showed that: (1) There are significant differences among various dimensions of students' social service experience qualities. The scores of self and exterior regulations, deepen and broaden factors, linking to curriculum, autonomy are successively reduced. (2) Significant differences of students' social service experiences qualities were emerged in regions, types of schools and grades, favoring those from cities, model schools, or low-grades. The interaction between types of schools and grades was also significant, as the advantages of model schools were mainly existed in the low-grades. (3) Simple correlation results indicate significant relationship among students' social service experiences qualities, community service perspectives and civic action intentions. Students' community service perspectives partially mediated the relationship between social service experiences qualities and civic action intentions.

The Influence of Difficulty and Value on Senior One Students’Choice of Stop Study, Massed Study and Spaced Study

WEI Fei, LIU Ru-de, HE Yi-li, LIU Lin-shu, WEI Jun

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  285-291. 

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The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the difficult levels and values of the items on learners' choice of stop study, massed study and spaced study. The participants included 50 senior one students. In the study, antonymous and artificial paired-words were adopted as easy and difficult items, which were randomly assigned to different values. A questionnaire was used to investigate the cognition of the students on massed study and spaced study. Results indicated that: (1) Only 44% of the participants reported that spaced study was more effective, and more participants tended to choose massed study rather than spaced study. (2) The recall of difficult items was improved with spaced study. (3) The participants tended to stop studying the easy items, but when the difficulty of the items increased, they were less like to stop studying, especially for the items with higher values; the more difficult the item was, the more tendency to choose spaced study, but it remained unchanged for the choice of massed study.

The Effects of Text Presentation and Structure On Primary School Students’Representation of Math Word Problems

XING Qiang, SHAN Yong-ming

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  292-298. 

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450 primary school students as subjects, discussed the effects of text presentation and structure on primary school students' performance on math word problems representation. used 2 (Difficulty) ×2 (Familiarity) ×5 (Types of rewordings) x 3 (Grade) four-factor mixed design. Results showed that:different text presentation and structure affect primary school students' performance in math word problem-solving independent of the student's Grade; Both Conceptual rewordings problem and situational rewordings problem promote primary school students' performance on math word problems representation; In easy problems, additional information affect performance on math word problems representation significantly; In difficult problems, the difficulty of the math relations affect on math word problems representation significantly; When primary school students solve standard rewordings problems whose's text background is compact , familiarity has a greater impact on student's problem understanding; Whethere the added text affect the students' performance on math word problems representation or not , it depends on the length of the added text whether help to understand the syntactic relations and semantic scene of problem.

Impacts of Pre-school Education Length and Maternal Education Level upon the School Adjustment of Grade-1 Pupils in the Rural Area

LI Da-wei, ZHANG Xiang-kui, GAI Xiao-song, JIAO Xiao-yan

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  299-304. 

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The present research has probed into the relations between the pre-school education length, the maternal education level and the children's school adjustment, using peer nomination, teachers' reports and parents' reports. 135 elementary school children from Grade 1 participated in the study,and they completed the questionnaires twice during one year.The findings reveal the following: (1) In the first semester, the students whose pre-school education length is longer show more positive social behaviors; (2) The students whose maternal education level is lower show more sensitive withdrawal behaviors and refused peer relationships; (3) If the maternal education level is lower and the pre-school education length is longer, these students show more attacking and offensive behaviors. If the maternal education level is higher and the pre-school education length is longer, these students show less attacking and offensive behaviors. The analysis shows that the maternal education level and the pre-school education length interact to jointly exert an impact on the children's development in the future. And the maternal education level has a stronger impact. Therefore, attention should be paid to improving the quality of kindergarten education and its influence to family education.

Family Environment, Parent-Child Attachment and Adolescent Internet Addiction

DENG Lin-yuan, FANG Xiao-yi, WU Ming-ming, ZHANG Jin-tao, LIU Qin-xue

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  305-311. 

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This study selected 1038 students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 from three different cities in China to explore the effects and mechanism of adolescents'family environment and parent-child attachment on their internet addiction, as well as to test the Person-Context Interaction Theory and the Process-Person-Context-Time Model .The results showed as follows: (1) Both the family environment and parent-child attachment were negatively related to adolescents'internet addiction; (2) In the family environment dimension, the family intimacy predicted adolescents'internet addiction more obviously than family adaptability,while in the father-child attachment dimension, the father-child trust negatively predicted adolescents'internet addiction, and in the mother-child attachment dimension, the mother-child alienation positively predicted adolescents'internet addiction; (3)The family intimacy not only directly affected adolescents'internet addiction,but also had indirect effect on adolescents'internet addiction through the mediation effects of mother-child alienation and father-child trust; however, the difference of mediation effects between mother-child alienation and father-child trust was not significant.

Positive Self in Mild and Moderate Depression

ZHOU Ya, LIU Xiang-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  312-318,334. 

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Based upon the perspectives of positive psychology, this study aimed to identity the potential positive self in depressed individuals. Participants were 131 secondary school students (65 depressed, 66 normal) from Wuhan City. Measures included: (1) the Beck Depression Inventory, to group the participants into mild and moderate depression and the normal control; (2) the Self Description Questionnaire II, to evaluate explicit global & specific self-esteem; and (3) adapted Implicit Association Test, to evaluate implicit global & specific self-esteem. All participants completed the measurements at two time points, i.e. immediately after their final math exams of the winter term (stress condition), and on the first day of the following summer semester (non-stress condition). Results included: (1) no matter explicit or implicit level, depressed individuals tend to have positive self in intrapersonal self dimensions, together with negative self in interpersonal self dimensions; (2) no matter explicit or implicit level, depressed individuals tend to have unstable self in dimensions relevant to their core self-worth, together with stable self in other dimensions.

Effects of Coping Plan on Weight-reducing Effect among Female College Students： Moderated Mediating Effect of Emotional Regulation and Ideal Physical Self

YANG Li-zhu, LI Xiao-xi, GAO Wen

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  319-326. 

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Questionnaires were used on 201 female college students at the action phase of weight reduction to examine the effects of their coping plan, emotional regulation and ideal physical self on weight-reducing effect. The established structural equation model indicated that (1) Emotional regulation fully mediated the translating from coping plan to weight-reducing effect. (2) Ideal physical self moderated relationship between emotional regulation and weight-reducing effect. In lower group, the higher level of emotion regulation, the more conducive to the realization of weight loss goals. (3) Coping plan, emotional regulation, ideal physical self and weight-reduction effect formed a moderated mediator model. (4) The moderated mediator model had no significant difference between blind losing weight group and the reasonable one. Now it comes to the conclusions that coping plan boosted weight-reducing effect by enhancing emotional regulation whether on the group ought to lose weight or not. The whole process was moderated by ideal physical self, the lower level of which may help to achieve the weight loss goals.

The Effects of Self-concept and Self-supporting Personality on the Normal School Students’Teacher Career Maturity

LIU Li-li, JIAO Run-kai

Psychological Development and Education. 2013, 29(3):  327-334. 

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Although self-concept has been found to play a crucial role in career maturity development, the nature of the relation between the two needs to be explored further. 986 normal school students were surveyed by Teacher Career Maturity Questionnaire for Normal University Students, Tennessee Self-concept Scale and Self-Supporting Personality Scale of Adolescent Students, in order to explore the effects of two factors, that self-concept and self-supporting personality, on the teacher career maturity of normal school students. The results showed that: (1) The student's self-concept has a significant correlation with self-supporting personality, teacher career maturity, teacher career attitude maturity and teacher career ability maturity; (2)Self-supporting personality plays a fully mediation effect in the relationship between self-concept and teacher career ability maturity, and a partial mediation effect in the relationship between self-concept and teacher career maturity, self-concept and teacher career attitude maturity. However, the relationship of self-supporting personality and career maturity needs to be studied further.