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In December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, Hubei province, China COVID-19 is characterised by fever and severe acute respiratory symptoms in early stages, which can rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome that is associated with high mortality As of 9 February 2020, 40171 cases have been confirmed cumulatively and 23589 suspected cases were collected in China The wide and rapid spread of COVID-19 has intensely captured public attention, leading to increased mental health stress Timely mental health care and intervention during the outbreak of COVID-19 is urgently needed not only for confirmed or suspected patients and frontline medical workers, but also for the general public Previous studies showed that affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress responses in various threat situations The goal of the present study was to investigate whether an intervention involving reflection on personal values was capable of buffering psychological stress responses during the outbreak We recruited 220 participants who completed a questionnaire on their personal values Those in the self-affirmation group were asked to choose and write their thoughts and feelings of a personal value that made them feel important to themselves while those in the control condition were asked to do the same for a personal value that they thought was important to others Both groups completed a Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) prior to and 7 days after intervention We used two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate the buffer effect of value affirmation on stress responses with time of assessment as a within-subjects factor and intervention group as a between-subjects factor for anxiety and depression Our results revealed a significant relationship between time and intervention for the reduction of anxiety Further simple effect analysis demonstrated that the control group showed heightened levels of anxiety 7 days after intervention compared with before, whereas participants who affirmed their values did not show any increase This effect remained significant after controlling for sex, age, educational level, and annual family income However, no significant differences were found for depression The present study demonstrates for the first time that an experimental intervention involving the affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress response during the COVID-19 epidemic Specifically, participants who affirmed their values did not show increased levels of anxiety compared with control participants Self-affirmation is easy to accomplish since it does not require professional guidance or a distinct environment and occupies little time, it would be a convenient strategy for the public to cope with psychological stress during the outbreak

To explore the mediation role of smartphone addiction on the relationship between parent-child relationships and the intensity of use of social network sites (SNSs), as well as the moderation effect of anxiety, this research conducted self-report questionnaires of the Social networking site (SNS) Usage Questionnaire, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale and Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment with 719 adolescents. The results showed that (1) the parent-child relationship negatively predicts SNS usage and (2) smartphone addiction plays a mediating role in the link between the parent-child relationship and SNS usage. (3) The relationship between the parent-child relationship and SNS usage is moderated by anxiety (on the first mediation path), and low levels of anxiety can mitigate the negative impact of the parent-child relationship on smartphone addiction, thus also mitigating the negative effects of the parent-child relationship on SNS usage. Our conclusion highlighted the vital role of the parent-child relationship and anxiety on the influence of smartphone addiction and the intensity of use of SNSs among adolescents. Our research also provides clinical implications: (1) teachers in high school can adopt family group counseling or emotion regulation workshop to help adolescents to prevent addiction to smartphones and social network sites; (2) we can reduce addictive behaviors by designing a series of intervention sessions to improve parent-child relationships and reduce anxiety for adolescents who have been addicted to smartphone and social network sites.

The present study was aimed to investigate the causes of COVID-19 worry and its effect on initial behaviors that observed in early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. In the online survey, participants‟ were asked about normative concerns, COVID-19 worry, initial behaviors, and the neuroticism personality trait. Results demonstrated that (i) higher normative concerns and neurotic trait were predictors of higher COVID-19 worry; and (ii) higher normative concerns and COVID-19 worry significant predictors of buying preparatory materials, higher worry for postponing travel plan, and higher worry and neuroticism for purchasing daily commodities more than usual and difficulties in concentration.

Prior knowledge level varies between individuals and influences the effectiveness of learning strategies. This study tested the influence of prior knowledge level on effects of retrieval practice and elaboration. Psychology major students (more familiarity with psychology key terms) and non-psychology major students (less familiarity with psychology key terms) learned five lists of psychology key terms under three conditions: retrieval practice, elaboration, and control. The result revealed an interaction between prior knowledge level and learning strategy. There was no significant difference in proportion of final recall between psychology major students and non-psychology major students in the retrieval practice condition, but proportion of final recall was notably higher in psychology major students than non-psychology major students in the elaboration condition. Therefore, prior knowledge level influenced effects of retrieval practice and elaboration due to differences in their underlying mechanisms, supporting the episodic context account.

Family environment affects children's reading comprehension ability. In poverty-stricken parts of rural China, some parents have been migrant workers for many years. It is common for left-behind children to have one or both parents permanently missing. This study explores the impact of parental absence on children's reading comprehension. We measured the reading comprehension of 903 children (467 left-behind and 436 parented), using the Chinese Primary School Students' Reading Comprehension Ability Scale. After controlling for the parents' levels of education, reading input, and interest variables, we found that children with absent parents had significantly lower reading comprehension scores than parented children; they struggled to understand chapter layout, the author's intentions, writing technique, evaluation, and appreciation. While children with absent fathers received the same scores as parented children, those with absent mothers received significantly lower scores. Clearly, absent mothers have a greater impact on children's reading comprehension than absent fathers.

This study investigates 727 parents from China, Japan, and Korea by a self-devised scale and compares the differences in their expectation of early childhood education in cross-cultural backgrounds. The result shows that parents from the three countries have a positive attitude toward their children's development. The main effect of nations on such factors as individual development, close attention to diet, willpower training, moral judgment, and emotional exchange with adults is significant, while the two-way interaction between nations and child gender, nations and child age, and the three-way interaction between nations, child gender, and child age are not significant.

The present study examined 25 male prisoners with a history of heroin dependency ( M = 35.3 yr., SD = 8.5, range = 21–48) and 25 male prisoners with no history of substance abuse ( M = 31.5 yr., SD = 9.8, range = 19–47) who were selected to complete the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results showed that the group with a history of heroin dependency used a cognitive reappraisal strategy less frequently than controls and that there was no difference in the use of expression suppression strategies between the two groups. It was concluded that the negative impact of heroin abuse on an individual's emotion regulation is primarily reflected in the cognitive reappraisal dimension.