Table of Content

15 March 2015, Volume 31 Issue 2

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The Relationship between Online Social Support and Online Interpersonal Trust of College Students': A Moderated Mediation Model

SUN Xiaojun, ZHAO Jing, ZHOU Zongkui, XIE Xiaochun, TONG Yuantian

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  129-136.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.01

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Based on social cognitive theory, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether online social efficacy mediated the relation between online social support and online interpersonal trust, and whether this mediating process was moderated by self-esteem. Based on cluster sampling, 432 college students were recruited to participate in this study. The results indicated that: (1) internet age significantly negatively predicted online interpersonal trust;and online social support significantly positively predicted online interpersonal trust; (2) online social efficacy played a partial mediating role between the online social support and internet interpersonal trust; (3)the mediation of online social efficacy was moderated by self-esteem. In the term of high self-esteem individual, online social efficacy played a partial mediating role. But for individuals with low self-esteem, the mediating effect of online social self-efficacy was not significant, and online social support only had direct effect on online social support.

The Micro-Change of Representational Depth: Path, Rate and Sources

ZHANG Huan, XIN Ziqiang

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  137-148.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.02

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As a key index of cognitive development, the representational depth refers to the highest level of relations in a problem represented by individuals. Previous studies have revealed that the development of representational depth is a monotonic increasing process with age. However, these cross-sectional studies conducted in a long time scale (e.g. several years) could only reveal the differences of representational depth in the group level at different ages. Micro-genetic study with dense observation could reveal the change process of representational depth and its mechanism. Based on a sample of 68 fifth graders, the present study used the micro-genetic method to explore the change path and rate of representational depth occurred in the Gear-System task as well as the sources of these changes. There were six sessions in the experiment. In each session the turning direction of driving gear was presented and then participants were required to infer the turning direction of target gear. They were asked to think aloud about their solution attempts, and the recorded protocol was analyzed to determine their representational depth in each task. Results showed that: (1) the development of children's representational depth could occur at a short time scale. (2) This micro-change path is mainly a monotonic increasing process from first-level depth to third-level depth, while there are great individual differences. (3) The rate of change is more rapid at the beginning stage than at the following stages. (4) More frequent practice and self explanation, more complex practice patterns and more difficult tasks could facilitate the increasing of representational depth. It is concluded that the change path of representational depth at the macro and micro levels may be similar, which suggests that representational depth can be viewed as a key index of children's ability to represent problems. Furthermore, although the frequency of practice and the difficulty of task have an effect on representational depth, the effect seems to be weakened as practice continued.

Development of Children's Number Line Estimation: the Influence of Mental Distance

ZHANG Fan, LAI Yinghui, CHEN Yinghe

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  149-156.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.03

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A total of 109 7-to 9-year-old children were selected to take the number line estimation task. The aim was to test how their mental distance, numerical representations, and accuracy of estimation developed with age. The results showed the following: Mental distance did exist among 7- to 9-year-old children, and the range of mental distance might exceed 10 for 7-year-old children and gradually disappeared between 7- to 9-year-old; Influenced by mental distance, children's number line representational models changed from exponential to linear; In accordance with the change of representational models, the accuracy of estimation improved with development.

The Effects of Trained Lexical Categories on Color Perception: Evidences from ERPs

ZHONG Weifang, RU Taotao, LI You, PENG Shaoling, MO Lei

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  157-164.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.04

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The current research investigated how lexical categories affected color perception. In Experiment 1, participants received a short-term color name and color re-organization training, which aimed to change two within-category colors into between-category colors, and then finished a visual search task. Results showed that, after training, participants distinguished two colors similar to the trained colors faster in the right visual field than in the left visual field. In Experiment 2, participants received the same training as Experiment 1, and then completed a visual Oddball task. Results showed that the deviants similar to the trained colors evoked larger vMMN effects in the right visual field than in the left visual field. These findings suggested that the trained lexical categories distort or warp color perception in a short time. In addition, the trained lexical categories distort or warp the perception of a color category rather than a certain color exemplar.

The Influence of Nap Deprivation on Prototype Elicitation Effect in Scientific Innovation Problem Solving

LI Wenfu, GONG Zhengxia, QIU Jiang, ZHANG Qinglin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  165-170.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.05

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The present study was designed to explore the nap-deprivation effect on the process of prototype heuristic in scientific innovation problem solving. 32 scientific innovation problem were selected from the real world and divided into high-heuristic effect (HHE) problem and low-heuristic effect (LHE) problem. The learning-test paradigm was used. Specifically, we used “1 to 1” and “8 to 8” paradigm, that is, learn 1 heuristic prototype and then solve 1 scientific problem or learn 8 heuristic prototypes and then solve 8 scientific problems. 36 subjects with nap habit were enrolled and distributed randomly into nap-deprivation group (NDG) or normal nap group (NNP). Dependent variables consisted of the rate of prototypal events activation and the rate of scientific problem solving. The results showed that: 1)the main effect of experimental paradigm, group and material were significant on the rate of prototypal events activation and the rate of scientific problem solving;2) any significant interactive effect was found. The results suggested that the nap-deprivation influenced the application process of heuristic information and the activation process of prototype events.

The Landing Positions of Older and Younger Adults while Reading Spaced Text

BAI Xuejun, GUO Zhiying, WANG Yongsheng, GAO Xiaolei, YAN Guoli

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  171-179.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.06

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The present study investigated the landing positions of elder and younger adult readers when reading spaced Chinese text. 14 older and 14 younger adults participated in the current study, with their eye movements recorded using an SR research EyeLink 2000 eyetracker. The Chinese sentences in the experiment included normal unspaced text and word spaced text (text with spaces between words). The results showed that: (1) there was a similar pattern in saccadic target selection between younger adults and older adults while reading both unspaced and word spaced text, with a strong tendency to fixate the word center in single-fixation cases, and to fixate the word beginning in multiple-fixation cases; (2) For elder adults, the probability of fixations landing at the end of the words was lower while reading normal unspaced text than word spaced text. However, for young adults, there was no difference of the probability of landing at the end of the words when reading normal unspaced text and word spaced text. The results indicated that there were landing position effects while reading spaced Chinese text for elder readers and younger readers.

Effect of Autonomous Motivation and Family's Social Class on The Relationship between Teacher's Autonomy Support and Junior Middle School Students' Academic Engagement

CHEN Jiwen, GUO Yongyu, HU Xiaoyong

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  180-187.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.07

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The present study examined a mediated moderation model which integrated the mediating effect of junior middle school students' autonomous motivation and moderating effect of their family's social class between teacher's autonomy support and students' academic engagement.Learning Climate Questionnaire,the MacArthur Scale of subjective SES,Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A) and modified Classroom Engagement Inventory (CEI) were administered to 1211 junior middle school students. Based on MacArthur Scale score of 3 points or less, 6 points above as screening condition, 374 typical lower-class students and 117 typical higher-class students were selected to constitute a sample of 471 students. Results showed that: (1) Teachers' autonomy support was positively associated with students' academic engagement; (2) Autonomous motivation could partially mediate the relation between teachers' autonomy support and engagement; (3) Family's social class moderated the association between autonomous motivation which aroused by teachers' autonomy support and engagement.

The Relationship of Teachers' Caring Behavior and Students' Academic Development: The Mediating Role of Learning Self-efficacy

LEI Hao, XU Guigui, SHAO Chaoyou, SANG Jinyan

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  188-197.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.08

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This study discusses how the Chinese middle school students' learning self-efficacy plays a mediating role between the teachers' caring behavior and the students' academic Performance. This study investigates 1340 middle school students by using teachers' caring behavior questionnaire and the Chinese version of the students' learning self-efficacy questionnaire, and collects their midterm test scores. Result: (1) Teachers' caring behavior score is higher than “3”; Students' learning self-efficacy has a high score, score of 3.73. (2)Correlation results show that there was a significantly Positive correlation among the teachers' caring behavior, middle school students' learning self-efficacy and academic Performance. (3)Middle school students learning self-efficacy Plays a Partial mediating role between the teachers' caring behavior and the student's academic Performance, effect value is 0.25; Learning Self-efficacy contained two constructs, Learning ability self-efficacy and Learning behavior self-efficacy, Learning ability self-efficacy could explain Partial variance of Teachers' Caring Behavior (effect value is 0.18) and Students' Academic Development and Play Partial-mediating role, and so did Learning behavior self-efficacy (effect value is 0.04); Learning ability self-efficacy could explain more variance and mediate the relationship more.

The Influence of The Familiarity of Distractions and Cognitive Styles in Text Reading

CHE Xiaowei, ZHANG Qian, LI Shouxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  198-203.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.09

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The present study explored how the familiarity of distractions and individual cognitive styles influenced text reading by using familiar and unfamiliar words. The study included two stages. In the first stage, participants with different cognitive styles read eight passages and then answered three questions. In the second stage, participants studied a list of 16 words for free recall, consisting of 8 previously familiar distracting words, 8 new familiar words, or consisting of 8 previously unfamiliar distracting words, 8 new unfamiliar words. Half of the participants were cued about the relevance of previous distractions and text reading before recalling the words in the memory test. The results are as follows: the influence of the familiar words was significantly higher than that of the unfamiliar words for field independent participants, while there were no significant differences for field dependent participants. Furthermore, the number of old words (previously distractions) recalled was significantly higher than that of new words in the cued memory task for both familiar and unfamiliar words. The results indicate that: (1) compared to field dependent individuals, field independent individuals are more easily influenced by familiar distractions in text reading; (2) familiar words could lead more significant interference than unfamiliar ones in reading, possibly due to the activation of individual experience rather than the processing priority of familiar words.

The Stability of Internalizing Problem and Its Relation to Maternal Parenting during Early Adolescence

XU Fuzhen, ZHANG Lingling, WEI Xing, ZHANG Wenxin, CHEN Liang, JI Linqin, CHEN Xinyin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  204-211.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.10

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Early adolescence is a particularly vulnerable period of internalizing problem. Internalizing problem during early adolescence frequently would persist into the whole adolescence and adulthood, resulting in poor prognosis and increasing the risk of education, unemployment and other antisocial behaviors in the future. Existing researches reported that internalizing problem in early adolescence were associated with maternal parenting, and many researchers have found that adolescents' previous developmental characteristics could influence the manner in which mother treated them. This longitudinal study was to examine the stability of adolescent's internalizing problem and the prediction of maternal parenting, on one hand, and gender differences, on the other hand. A total of 502 young adolescents (252 for boys and 250 for girls), 11-year-olds filled out the Youth Self-Report about internalizing problem subscale and their mothers finished questionnaire about their parenting style at two times (T1/T2) within a 1-year interval. Results were as follows: Young adolescents tended to maintain a high level of stability of internalizing problem, and girls reported higher level of internalizing problem than boys. Maternal parenting of supervision-discipline at T1 could predict a significant increase in adolescents' internalizing problem at T2 for boys, but this wasn't the case for girls. Previous level of early adolescents' internalizing problem could moderate the prediction of maternal warmth-conduct and supervision-discipline on the following internalizing problem. Specifically, as for boys with higher level of internalizing problem, their mothers' warmth-conduct and supervision-discipline could predict a significant increase in internalizing problem one year later. Conversely, for girls with higher level of internalizing problem, their mothers' warmth-conduct could predict a significant decrease. When it comes to those adolescents with lower level of internalizing problem, their mothers' warmth-conduct and supervision-discipline couldn't predict significantly the following outcome. Based on self-report and mother-report data, the shared method variance could be avoided. But our sample was a bit homogenous, consisting of mostly adolescents from high level of family socioeconomic status. So the results should be re-tested in other samples with different family context.

Relationship between SES and Social Adjustment of Left-over Children: with Perceived Discrimination as The Mediator

SU Zhiqiang, ZHANG Dajun, SHAO Jingjin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  212-219.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.11

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This study examined the mediation effects of perceived discrimination (including personal and group discrimination) for the relationship between SES and Social adjustment in left-over Children. The participants were 542 Chinese lief-over children with an age range of 10~18years. Data were collected by using SES (three indicators: parental education, parental occupation, household income), Personal/Group discrimination Scale, Postitive/Negative affect Scele, The self-esteem Scale, and Behavior Problem Scale. The results showed that: (1) There was a significant positive relationship between left-over Children's SES and Social adjustment. (2) With respect to the personal discrimination, the Group discrimination mediated the relationship between SES and Social adjustment left-over children; (3) A multi-group analysis indicated the mediation model of Group discrimination was no significant gender differences, and the males with high group discrimination are more likely to have social adjustment problems than the female counterparts.

The Impact of Classroom Composition on Psychological Adjustment of Left-behind Children: Contrast Effect or Assimilation Effect?

HOU Ke, LIU Yan, QU Zhiyong, ZHANG Yunyun, JIANG Suo

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  220-229.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.12

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Using survey data of 4021 rural children from 103 classes (grades 4 to 9)in Henan and Shanxi Provinces, this article examines how classroom composition, measured by the proportion of students from an intact family background,effects the psychological adjustment (depression, self-esteem, and future-related stress) among rural adolescents,and whether the association differs by family background. After controlling for individual characteristics, class characteristics and school fixed effects, we find that with increasing percentages of students from an intact family background at their classroom,left-behind children experienced low levels of self-esteem,individuals from a non-intact family background experienced more future-related stress. Also we find children had higher depression in a class with high average depression level,regardless of the children's family background.

Attachment and Subjective Well-being of Junior Middle School Students: the Mediating Role of Self Esteem

DENG Linyuan, MA Bohui, WU Yongxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  230-238.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.13

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This study explored the influence of parental attachment, peer attachment on the junior middle school students' subjective well-being, and the mediating effects of collective self-esteem and self-esteem between them. 857 students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 in two general junior schools participated in the survey. The results reveal that: (1) The developmental trend of girls' mother-child and father-attachment levels were like a U-curve, while Grade 8 is a turning point, boys' father-child and mother-child attachment levels had a downward trend with grade increasing, while Grade 9 was the lowest, with no significant difference between Grade 7 and Grade 8. (2) Boys' collective self-esteem level was significantly higher than girls, with U-curve developmental trend; gender and grade differences in individual self-esteem were not significant. (3) Boys' life satisfaction was significantly higher than girls', and both decreased by grade increasing; sex and grade differences of positive emotions were not significant; girls' negative emotions began to turn from Grade 8, while Grade 7 experienced the least negative emotions, but no significant differences between Grade 8 and Grade 9; boys' negative emotions were not significantly different between grades. (4) parent-child attachment and peer attachment had significantly positive relationship with collective self-esteem and individual self-esteem, as well as subjective well-being. (5)Mother-child attachment, peer attachment, individual self-esteem and father-child attachment predicted junior middle school students' life satisfaction positively, and predicted negative emotions negatively; peer attachment, self-esteem, mother-child attachment and collective self-esteem predicted their positive emotions positively. (6) Parent-child attachment, peer attachment not only could directly influence the subjective well-being of junior middle school students, but also had an indirect effect through two ways (attachment→collective self-esteem→subjective well being; attachment→collective self-esteem→individual self-esteem→subjective well being).

Intervention on Peer Relationship Promoting Middle School Students' Prosocial Behavior

YANG Jing, YU Junxuan, KOU Yu, FU Xinyuan

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  239-245.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.14

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Based on adolescents' conceptual representation of prosocial behavior and their emphasis on peer relationship, combining social skills training and cognitive training, we designed intervention courses with regard to improving peer relationship, which included establishment of peer relations, maintenance of peer relations, and conflict resolution. The intervention courses lasted ten weeks (45 minutes per week). Results showed that the intervention courses not only significantly improved the students' peer relationship, but also promoted their prosocial behaviors, especially the dimensions of altruism, commonweal-rule, and interpersonal relationship. Discussion focused on the implications for understanding the role of peer-relationship intervention courses in cultivating adolescents' prosocial behavior.

School Climate and Pathological Online Game Use among Adolescents: The Moderated Mediation Model

ZHU Jianjun, ZHANG Wei, YU Chengfu, ZHOU Shasha, SUN Guojian, ZHEN Shuangju

Psychological Development and Education. 2015, 31(2):  246-256.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2015.02.15

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The present study investigated the relationship between school climate and adolescents' pathological online game use (POGU), and was to explore the mediating effect of school engagement as well as the moderating effect of father-child/mother-child relationship. The school climate questionnaire, school engagement scale, parent-child relationship questionnaire and pathological online game use questionnaire were administered to 3056 adolescents (M age 16.33, male 1602) from senior high school in XXX province. Results were as follows: (1) school climate could negatively predict adolescents' POGU. (2) school climate influenced adolescents' POGU directly and indirectly through the school engagement. (3) father-child/mother-child relationship moderated the mediated path. Moreover, mother-child relationship moderated the relationship between school climate and school engagement, while father-child relationship moderated the relationship between school engagement and adolescents' POGU. The results showed school engagement played a partial mediation effect in the relationship between school climate and adolescents' POGU. In addition, for individuals with better mother-child relationship,school climate could positively predict school engagement, but for individuals with worse father-child relationship, school engagement had the trend to negatively predict adolescents' POGU.