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Aim: The study aimed to explore and compare stress, coping, professional identity and work locus of control of new graduate nurses among Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. Background: The transition from a student to a staff nurse role is recognized as a stressful experience and can be a rough journey. Many newly graduated nurses find it challenging to cope with their new roles in their first few months. Methods: A cross‐sectional research was used in the study. This study was completed in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei with newly graduated nurses working in hospitals. A total of 591 graduate nurses who had worked within 1 year in hospitals were recruited using convenient sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, including demographics, the occupational stress scale, the Chinese trait coping style questionnaire, the nurse professional identity scale and the work locus of control scale (Chinese version). Results: The newly graduated nurses in Shanghai had significantly lower (p < 0.05) work stress score (2.65 ± 0.67) compared with their counterparts in Hong Kong (2.99 ± 0.69) and Taipei (2.94 ± 0.60). Newly graduated nurses in Shanghai tended to choose positive coping to deal with stressful situations, whereas those in Hong Kong would be more likely to adopt negative attitudes (p < 0.05). The newly graduated nurses in Taipei had the lowest level of professional identity (3.25 ± 0.55, p < 0.05), and their work control tended to be external (46.13 ± 6.20). In contrast, those in Shanghai (52.75 ± 6.04) and Hong Kong (59.41 ± 7.29) tended to be controlled internally. Conclusions: The study findings revealed the differences among newly graduated nurses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei with their level of stress, coping, professional identity and work locus of control. Proper leadership, mentoring for newly graduated nurses, and emphasis on first aid nursing training, emotional management and management of stress in newly graduated nurse transition programmes were suggested. Implications for Nursing Management: By comparing the results in the three regions, we recommend that nursing managers promote the right leadership style. In addition to coaching, nursing managers can assign additional mentors to newly graduated nurses to help them supplement their clinical knowledge and skills with psychological support. These mentors can come from senior nurses or nursing managers working on less demanding tasks. In addition to the existing post transfer training programmes, new graduate nurses should also focus on emergency nursing training, emotional management training and stress management training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about aging and the attitudes toward older people were surveyed in undergraduate students (total number of subjects sampled is 1402) in four countries (Japan, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam) in eastern cultures and in two countries (United States and United Kingdom) in western cultures. All participants completed two questionnaires, FAQ1 (for knowledge) and ASD (for attitudes) in their own languages. It was found that within the undergraduate students sampled: (a) the level of knowledge about aging in the western countries is significantly higher than that in the eastern countries, and (b) attitudes toward aging are more positive in the western countries compared to the eastern countries. The data suggest that, within the limits of the sampling: (a) the tradition of respecting older adults in eastern cultures may have weakened gradually, and (b) the modernization theory that assumes industrialization devalues aging populations appears to be supported in eastern countries but not in western countries. An alternative non-linear theory is discussed for the relationship between modernization and the societal views on aging. Educational promotion of knowledge about aging is emphasized for the formation of positive attitudes toward older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on durational cues (i.e., syllable duration, pause duration, and syllable onset intervals (SOIs)) at discourse boundaries in two dialects of Mandarin, Taiwan and Mainland varieties. Speech was elicited by having 18 participants describe events in The Pear Story film. Recorded data were transcribed, labeled, and segmented into clauses. Discourse boundary indices were used to label discourse disjuncture levels. Results showed that the scope of lengthening included both the final and the penultimate syllables. Pause was a robust but optional indicator for discourse boundaries, and Taiwan Mandarin preferred unfilled over filled ones, while the Mainland variety did not show such strong preferences. Discourse hierarchy corresponded consistently with occurrences of pauses and duration of SOIs, within which pause was the main contributor. Higher discourse levels were more likely to be accompanied by pauses, and were indicated by longer pauses and SOIs. Syllable duration only played a secondary role in indicating discourse disjuncture size when pause was absent. When there was an accompanying pause, Mainland Mandarin relied solely on it to indicate discourse hierarchy, while Taiwan Mandarin used both syllable and pause duration, a dialectal difference that seemed to be rhythm-related. By shortening the degree of lengthening in the boundary syllable and lengthening the following pause at the same time, Taiwan Mandarin increased the absolute and relative duration of pause and maximized its role in indicating discourse hierarchy. The results of this study implied that the use of pause in discourse disjuncture demarcation was more of a language-specific choice while its role in discourse hierarchy encoding is more language-universal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Early interventions can improve treatment outcomes for individuals with major psychiatric disorders and with nonspecific symptoms but increasingly impaired cognitive perception, emotions, and behaviour. One way used to identify people susceptible to psychosis is through the schizotypal personality trait. Persons with schizotypal characteristics have been identified with the widely used Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief. However, no suitable instruments are available to screen individuals in the Taiwanese population for evidence of early psychotic symptoms. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to test the sensitivity and specificity of the Chinese version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief for identifying undergraduate students’ susceptibility to psychosis. Design: Two-stage, cross-sectional survey design. Setting and participants: The self-administered scale was tested in a convenience sample of 618 undergraduate students at a medical university in Taiwan. Among these students, 54 completed the scale 2 weeks apart for test–retest reliability, and 80 were tested to identify their susceptibility to psychosis. Data collection and analysis: In Stage I, participants with scores in the top 6.5% were classified as the high-score group (n =40). The control group (n =40) was randomly selected from the remaining participants with scores <15 and matched by gender. These 80 students were asked to participate in psychiatric interviews in Stage II. The instrument was tested for reliability using intraclass correlation coefficients and the Kuder-Richardson formula 20. The instrument was analysed for optimal sensitivity and specificity using odds-ratio analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: The 22-item Chinese version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief had a 2-week test–retest reliability of 0.82 and internal consistency of 0.76. The optimal cut-off score was 17, with odds ratios of 24.4 and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.83. The instrument had a sensitivity of 80.0% and specificity of 85.9% in identifying undergraduate students’ susceptibility to psychosis. Conclusions: The Chinese version Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief is a reliable instrument, but should not be used as a screening tool until its psychometric properties have been evaluated in more detail. Other screening tools need to be used in future studies with the CSPQ-B to improve the accuracy of identifying susceptibility to psychosis among young adults. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]