Table of Content

15 May 2024, Volume 40 Issue 3

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A Microgenetic Study of Theory of Mind in Children Aged 3~4 Years

LIU Jianrong, CHEN Qingxin, TONG Ning

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  305-315.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.01

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This study was intended to further explore the characteristics and mechanisms of the development of the Theory of Mind (ToM) in preschool children. Based on microgenetic design, the study involved 63 children aged 3~4 years who failed in false-belief tasks. The purpose was to investigate the rate, sources, transfer, and patterns of ToM evolution and identify the changing characteristics of types of interpretation. The results showed that both feedback without explanations and feedback with explanations were the sources of ToM development. Furthermore, the process of development was gradual and fluctuating; the change was first rapid and then gradual. Moreover, the findings suggested that children who had been trained to improve their ToM skills would promote cognitive transfer ability, and their ability to explain false-belief problems would also be developed.

Who Are Young Children More Likely to Lie for? The Influence of Different Beneficiaries on Lying Behavior among Preschoolers Aged 5～6 Years

ZHANG Wenjie, HUANG Zijun, TAN Peixia, FAN Wei, ZHONG Yiping

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  316-323.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.02

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Experiment 1 adopted the “Hide-and-Seek Game task” to examine the influence of beneficiaries with different extents of self-relevance on lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. The results of Experiment 1 suggested that participants told more lies for their own benefits compared with the benefits of the highly self-relevant beneficiary (friends) and lowly self-relevant beneficiary (strangers). Nevertheless, compared with the benefits of the lowly self-relevant beneficiary (strangers), participants were more likely to lie for the benefits of the highly self-relevant beneficiary (friends). Experiment 2 also used the “Hide-and-Seek Game task” to investigate the influence of beneficiaries of different groups on lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. The results of Experiment 2 also found that participants were more likely to lie for their own benefits compared with the benefits of the in-group beneficiary and out-group beneficiary. In addition, by comparison with the benefits of the out-group beneficiary, participants were more likely to lie for the benefits of the in-group beneficiary. Our findings indicate that there is a strong egoistic tendency in lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. More importantly, prosocial lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years is affected by self-relevance at the individual level, and there is “Self-relevance preference”. At the group level, prosocial lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years is influenced by group differences, and there is “In-group favoritism”.

Love Yourself, Love Others More: The “Altruistic” Mechanism of Self-compassion

CHANG Baorui, HUANG Jiangxi, LIN Peitian, FANG Jiandong

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  324-334.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.03

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To explore the “altruistic” mechanism of self-compassion, In study 1, 538 college students were surveyed by Self-compassion Scale, Meaning in Life Scale, Psychological Resilience Scale and Prosocial Behavior Scale. The results showed that:(1) Self-compassion, meaning in life, resilience and prosocial behavior were positively correlated, and self-compassion positively predicted prosocial behavior; (2) Meaning in life played an independent mediating role between self-compassion and prosocial behavior; (3) Psychological resilience played an independent mediating role between self-compassion and prosocial behavior; (4) Self-compassion can influence prosocial behavior through the chain mediating effect of meaning in life and psychological resilience. Further, we used the intervention method to intervene participants’ self-compassion for 7 days in study 2.The results showed that with the increase of self-compassion level, participants’ prosocial behavior also improved significantly. In conclusion, this study reveals the underlying psychological mechanism of self-compassion and prosocial behavior, and has some implications for the social benefits of self-compassion.

Marital Conflict, Anxiety and Parenting Styles of High School Parents: Actor-partner Interdependence Moderation Model

XIA Yanyu, LI Dan, MA Yange, HAN Xianguo, LI Zhengyun

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  335-345.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.04

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The data from 1024 pairs of parents of high school students at two schools were used to analyze the relationship between marital conflicts and parenting styles, as well as the moderating role of anxiety, with the help of the actor-partner interdependence moderation model. The results found that: (1) Both paternal and maternal marital conflict negatively predicted their warm acceptance and positively predicted their rejection punishment; (2) Maternal anxiety exacerbated the negative partner effect of paternal marital conflict on maternal warmth acceptance and attenuated the negative actor effect of maternal marital conflict on their warmth acceptance; (3) Paternal anxiety exacerbated the positive actor effect of paternal marital conflict on their rejection punishment, and maternal anxiety attenuated the positive partner effect of paternal marital conflict on maternal rejection punishment. The results contribute to understanding the impact of marital conflict on parenting styles from a dyadic perspective, and the moderating effects that anxiety plays in the above relationships.

The Relationship between Relative Deprivation and Cyberbullying in College Students:The Mediating Effect of Moral Disengagement and Moderating Effect of Moral Identity

HU Zhiqin, XIONG Meng

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  346-356.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.05

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In order to give an interpretation of the relationship and complex mechanisms between relative deprivation and cyberbullying, the present study formulated a moderated mediation model to test the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of moral identity in the relations between relative deprivation and cyberbullying. A total of 575 college students completed questionnaires measuring relative deprivation, moral disengagement, moral identity and cyberbullying. The results showed that: (1) After controlling for age, gender, and subjective class identity, relative deprivation was positively associated with cyberbullying among college students; (2) The positive impact of relative deprivation on cyberbullying was mediated by moral disengagement; (3) The mediating effect of moral disengagement was moderated by moral identity in the second half path, that is, the moral disengagement of college students with low moral identity has a greater negative impact on cyberbullying than college students with high moral identity. The research results contribute to revealing the formation mechanism of college students’ cyberbullying, which has significant implications for cyberbullying intervention.

Childhood Emotional Neglect Experience and Undergraduates' Emotion Regulation Strategies: Preference and Its Brain Structure

WEI Shilin, XU Bin, YIN Xiaojuan, ZHU Ziliang, CHEN Juntao, Jin Hua

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  357-366.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.06

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Combined with questionnaire and structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI), this study aimed to explore the relationship between simple childhood emotional neglect, the use of emotion regulation strategies, and the underlying brain structure in undergraduates. 21 subjects in the neglect group who only experienced emotional neglect in childhood trauma and 26 subjects in the control group who hadn't experienced any childhood trauma completed questionnaires and sMRI scans. The results showed that the reappraisal strategy was used less frequently in the neglect group than in the control group, and there was no significant difference in the frequency of suppression strategy use between the two groups. The mean gray matter volume (GMV) of the right middle frontal gyrus in the neglect group was significantly smaller than that in the control group, and the mean gray matter volume in this area was significantly positively correlated with the frequency of reappraisal strategy use. Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) found that the gray matter voxel signal pattern of the right insula significantly predicted the frequency of reappraisal strategy use. The results suggest that childhood emotional neglect may be related to the changes of emotion regulation strategies, right middle frontal gyrus and insula in early adulthood.

The Effects of Iconic Gestures and Deictic Gestures on Action-related Vocabulary Learning in Children with Autism

WANG Juan, LIU Tianbi, FAN Xiaoyue

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  367-374.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.07

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The present study aimed to investigate action-related vocabulary learning in children with autism under the conditions of iconic gesture, deictic gesture, and non-gesture. Three groups of language-level matched children were selected to learn eight action-related vocabularies under the conditions of iconic gesture, deictic gesture, and non-gesture. All children were trained through pictures, situational stories, and videos. The vocabulary comprehension test and vocabulary naming test were completed at the end of the first learning session (T1) and the last learning session (T2). The results showed that: (1) Iconic gestures significantly benefitted vocabulary comprehension in children with autism beyond deictic gesture and non-gesture; (2) The increase in the number of learning sessions contributed to the improvement of vocabulary learning performance, regardless of the group; (3) All groups’ naming scores were poor in the short-term learning condition, but as the number of learning sessions increased, the facilitative effect of iconic gesture on naming test became more prominent. The study has shown that iconic gestures can promote action-related vocabulary comprehension in children with autism. For the naming test, the promoting effect was regulated by the number of learning. The iconic gestures may successfully enhance vocabulary naming in children with autism by increasing the training intensity. In addition, deictic gestures do not significantly promote the action-related vocabulary learning of children with autism.

Relationships between Perceptions of Teacher Autonomy Support and Pupil’s Intellectual Risk-taking: The Mediation Roles of Science Learning Interest and Creative Self-efficacy

TAN Lihua, FENG Shiji

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  375-383.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.08

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Intellectual risk-taking (IRT), which refers to students engaging in adaptive learning behaviors (e.g., sharing tentative ideas, asking questions, attempting to do and learn new things) regardless of failures or making mistakes, played an important role in Students’ science learning and creativity development. Based on self-determination theory and self-efficacy theory, this study aimed to provide a mediation model which examined how students’ perceptions of teacher autonomy support relate to their intellectual risk-taking engagement through the mediation of science learning interest and creative self-efficacy. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 757 primary school students from South China. The structural equation modeling revealed that: (1) Perceptions of teacher autonomy support would positively link to students’ intellectual risk-taking. The more teacher autonomy supports students perceived, the more intellectual risks they would take; (2) The positive association between perceptions of teacher autonomy support and students’ intellectual risk-taking was fully mediated by science learning interest and creative self-efficacy. That means, perceptions of teacher autonomy support did not relate to students’ IRT directly, it contributed to students’ intellectual risk-taking through the full mediation roles of science learning interest and creative self-efficacy. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

The Effect of Academic Achievement on Subjective Well-being in Early Adolescence: The Role of Self-esteem and Mobility

HUANG Yuancheng, YUAN Qiumei, XIN Ting, LI Caina

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  384-392.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.09

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To explore the effect of academic achievement on subjective well-being and the role of self-esteem and mobility in this relationship, a total of 847 adolescents (298 migrant adolescents) from two junior middle schools in Xi'an were administrated and followed up for three years by questionnaire survey. We collected the academic achievement of adolescents (the first grade of junior middle school) and used Rosenberg Self-esteem scale and Well-Being Index scale to measure their self-esteem and subjective well-being respectively. The results showed that academic achievement in the first year of junior middle school could directly predict adolescents’ subjective well-being in the third year of junior middle school. Moreover, self-esteem in the second year of junior high school had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between academic achievement in the first year and subjective well-being in the third year. Importantly, the longitudinal mediating model was significantly different between migrant and non-migrant adolescents. Specifically, results from above were only applicable to non-migrant adolescents, and migrant adolescents’ subjective well-being in the third year was only predicted by the level of self-esteem in the second year. Our findings revealed one possible mechanism explaining the impact of academic achievement on subjective well-being in early adolescence, which provided further insights to improve adolescents’ subjective well-being.

Relations between Preference for Solitude and Internalizing Problems in Adolescents: A Moderated-mediation Model

ZHANG Ling, HAIDABIEKE Aersheng, CHEN Fei, ZHOU Tong, DING Xuechen

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  393-402.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.10

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The goal of the study was to explore the relations between preference for solitude, internalizing problems, and rumination, among adolescents in Shanghai and Shandong province. Participants were 767 adolescents from three schools in Shandong and Shanghai. Data were collected using the assessments of self-reports. Results indicated that: (1) Preference for solitude positively predicted adolescents’ internalizing problems; (2) Rumination partially mediated the relations between preference for solitude and internalizing problems; (3) Grade moderated the mediating path through rumination. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of preference for solitude, rumination, and grade for adolescents’ internalizing problems in Chinese culture.

The Relationships among Parent-child Cohesion, Sympathetic Nervous System Activity and College Students’ Depression under the Context of Parent-child Separation

WANG Lei, BING Qian, ZHAO Jingxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  403-411.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.11

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Parent-child separation puts the individuals at increased risk for suffering from depression. However, the effect of parent-child separation experience on the interaction between biology and environment on depression has not been revealed. A sample of 210 college students completed the questionnaires, semi-structured interview and experiment to examine whether the interaction between parent-child cohesion and sympathetic nervous system activity (SCLR) on depression varied with early parent-child separation experience. The results showed that: (1) Parent-child separation experience positively predicted depression, while parent-child cohesion negatively predicted depression; (2) The moderating effect of SCLR on the association between father-child cohesion and depression varied with parent-child separation experience. These results indicate that early parent-child separation experience could change the biological-environmental mechanism of depression.

Fear of Negative Evaluation and Problematic Mobile Phone Use: The Serial Mediating Effect of Social Anxiety and Loneliness

QUAN Fangying, LEI Xiaofang, LIANG Binqi, WANG Lu, LI Honghan

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  412-420.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.12

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The purpose of this study was to explore whether social anxiety and loneliness play mediating role in the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and problematic mobile phone use. 666 college and middle school students (M_age= 18.33, SD= 2.33) was surveyed by Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Interaction Anxiousness Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale Short Form, and Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale. The results indicated that: (1) There was significant positive correlations among fear of negative evaluation, social anxiety, loneliness, and problematic mobile phone use; (2) Social anxiety and loneliness played mediating role in the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and problematic mobile phone use, respectively; (3) Social anxiety and loneliness also played sequential mediating role in the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and problematic mobile phone use. This study revealed the mental mechanism between fear of negative evaluation and problematic mobile phone use in college and middle school students. And it provided suggestions on how to prevent and intervene in problematic mobile phone use among college and middle school students.

Classification Decision Tree Analysis on Influencing Factors of Suicidal Behavior in College Students

XUE Zhaoxia, REN Ziyuan, JING Lei, LI Hui

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  421-430.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.13

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To identify the risk and protective factors of suicide behavior in college students. 11,288 valid college students were investigated by using a gratitude, self-control dual system scale, suicide tests, and some basic demographic information. The classifiation tree method were used to identify the risk factors of suicide attempts. The results showed that: (1) The incidence of suicidal ideation was 17.1% within one year, and the incidence of suicidal behavior was 3.8% within six months; (2) The results of classified decision tree analysis showed that suicide ideation was the root node, and gratitude, impulsivity, control, family class, and only-child or not were all important child nodes (AUC=0.959). The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Suicidal ideation is the most important proximal risk factor of suicide behavior in college students, impulsivity is the medium risk factor, gratitude and moderate control are the distal protective factors, respectively; (2) The risk of transition from suicidal ideation to suicidal behavior is higher among college students from low social class, and among non-only-child college students from middle and high social class families.

The Debate between Associative Learning and Hypothesis Testing in Cross-situational Word Learning

LIU Shuyun, HUANG Yanli, SHI Yujing, XIE Jiushu, DENG Zhu

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  431-441.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.14

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Word learning is the foundation of language learning. Cross-situational word learning is a main form of word learning. However, the inner mechanism of cross-situational word learning is still under debate. Previous studies have proposed two competing theories on the cross-situational word learning: associative learning and hypothesis testing theories. Associative learning theory holds that learners memorize all word-referent associations and choose the most robust word-referent according to co-occurrence frequency. However, hypothesis testing theory holds that learners only memorize a single word-referent association and verify it across trials. To solve the previous debate, the present review proposes an integrated model of associative learning theory and hypothesis testing theory, which is based on cutting-edge research findings. Future studies should examine the integrated model systematically in cross-situational word learning.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation:Process and Motivation

XIONG Zike, LI Zhongquan

Psychological Development and Education. 2024, 40(3):  442-456.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.15

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Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) is ubiquitous in daily life. People sometimes try to change others’ emotions, and sometimes seek others’ help to change their own emotions. Recently, an increasing number of researchers have begun to pay attention to the topic of IER. This article reviews studies on IER from three aspects: concepts related to IER, the process of IER, and motivations of IER. Based on the existing works, we propose a four-stage process model and a motivation model of IER. Finally, we point out some future research directions, such as the exploration of IER, cross-cultural comparisons of IER, and the impact of technological development on IER.