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Summary : A modified e-Delphi study was conducted to identify the core competencies required by social workers for disaster management in China. A list of competencies was compiled through an integrative review and in-depth interviews. We then conducted a three-round e-Delphi survey with 25 experts including social work practitioners and academics, government officials and other professionals. After a 4-month period of data collection and analysis, we proposed a specific social work competence framework for disaster management in the unique context of China. Findings : A total of 87 competencies were identified and categorised into knowledge, values and skills needed for the mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phases of disaster management (a total of 15 categories). Through a further thematic analysis, we identified four interconnected themes related to disaster resilience building and social justice in various phases. Applications : This ground-breaking competence framework can inform Chinese social work practice and training in disaster management, thus enabling social workers to better identify their specific professional roles and tasks in disaster contexts. The framework can also enhance transdisciplinary collaboration among social workers and the various disaster management stakeholders, and can also be of value when developing social work core competencies outside of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on observations of a Chinese online depression community, this article explored the members' sense making of depression by analyzing their narrative accounts of depression. Four types of sense making were predominant among the depression sufferers: complaining, regret, superiority, and discovery. The complaining narrative is the members' telling about the pain caused by family (parental control or neglect), school bullying, stress from study or work, and social norms. The regret narrative is the members' reflection on their habit of perfectionism and lack of self-disclosure. The superiority narrative is the members' attribution of depression to their intelligence and morality that surpass the average people. The discovery narrative is the members' novel understanding of the self, significant others, and key events. The findings suggest that the social and psychological explanation of the causes of depression, instead of the medical model, is popular among the Chinese patients. Their stories of depression are also stories of marginalization, visions for the future, and realizing the normalization of identity as depression patients. The findings have implications for public policy around support for mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decades of neuroimaging research has revealed atypical development of intrinsic functional connectivity within and between large-scale cortical networks in autism spectrum disorder, but much remains unknown about cortico-subcortical developmental connectivity atypicalities. This study examined cortico-striatal developmental intrinsic functional connectivity changes in autism spectrum disorder and explored how those changes may be correlated with autistic traits. We studied 49 individuals with autism spectrum disorder and 52 age-, sex-, and head motion–matched typically developing individuals (5–30 years old (14.0 ± 5.6)) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Age-related differences in striatal intrinsic functional connectivity were compared between the two groups by adopting functional network–based parcellations of the striatum as seeds. Relative to typically developing individuals, autism spectrum disorder individuals showed atypical developmental changes in intrinsic functional connectivities between almost all striatal networks and sensorimotor network/ default network, with connectivity increasing with age in the autism spectrum disorder group and decreasing or constant in typically developing individuals. Age-related degree centrality and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity atypicalities in sensorimotor network/default network and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity disruptions in striatal regions were also observed in autism spectrum disorder. Significant correlations were found between cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule communication/repetitive and restricted-behavior subscores in autism spectrum disorder. Our results indicated that developmental atypicalities of cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities might contribute to the neuropathology of autism spectrum disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although domestic violence has long been identified as a serious social problem in China, little is known about police officers' attitudinal and behavioral tendencies toward such incidents. Drawing upon survey data collected from police officers in two Chinese provinces, this study assesses whether officer and organizational factors are correlated to police inaction and intervention in resolving family violence. More than a quarter of Chinese police officers often and sometime did not take any action when responding to domestic violence. Chinese officers favored most the least punitive approaches of mediation and separation, with the most punitive actions, written warning and criminal sanction as the least preferred interventions. We found that Chinese officers with low levels of knowledge about the domestic violence law, higher degrees of tolerance of violence and less supportive attitudes toward an active police role in handling domestic violence are less willing to take any action against the offenders. Chinese police officers who perceived stronger supervisory support and expressed better knowledge about China's new domestic violence law are more likely to intervene in domestic violence, whereas police officers who expressed greater degrees of tolerance of violence and believed in gender equality in society are less inclined to intervene. Policy makers and police administrators ought to pay greater attention to frontline supervisors' attitudes and behavior toward proper responses to family violence. If active intervention is preferred, then measures and programs should be put into place to improve police officers' legal knowledge and communication and problem-solving skills pertaining to conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, women who domestically relocate from rural or less developed regions to major cities are at a higher risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) than their non-migrant counterparts. Few studies have focused on Chinese domestic migrant women's help-seeking for IPV and their use of different sources of support. The present study aimed to identify factors that influence migrant women's help-seeking decisions. In addition, we also examined factors that contribute to migrant women's use of diverse sources of support for IPV. A sample of 280 migrant women victimized by IPV in the past year at the time of the survey was drawn from a larger cross-sectional study conducted in four major urban cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Using a multinomial logistic regression model and a zero-inflated Poisson model, we found that factors influencing migrant women's help-seeking decisions and their use of diverse sources of support included socioeconomic factors, IPV type, relationship-related factors, knowledge of China's first anti-Domestic Violence Law, and perception of the effectiveness of current policies. We discuss implications for future research and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The tension between indigenizing versus internationalizing social work knowledge, resulting from local-specific sensitivity, has been a contemporary dispute in the Global South where there are diverse geo-historical backgrounds. This is the case in China, where the mainstream international narrative surrounding social work development has been configured by the normative values and knowledge of a Euromodern origin. Such misrepresentation rarely reflects indigenous voices from the local social work academy. Informed by Foucault's thesis of power/knowledge, this article first compares the model of state social work in China and the world. Then, as a decolonizing project, a narrative review of 26 Chinese language articles was conducted. Findings: Distinctive service and policy practices in the Chinese traditional helping system were identified to illustrate how western social work was ethnocentrically repositioned in the "post-socialist" China. These initiatives include micro-level "Civil Affairs" services, meso-level "mass work" practice, and macro-level "Minsheng" State and crossregional Pairing Aid Programs, which are rooted in the cultural (Confucianism), economical (socialist market economy), and political (Marxism) ecosystem in China. Applications: Through an indigenized epistemological stance, a state-led anti-colonial framework is presented to unveil the making of social work indigenization and social welfare development that de-centers Eurocentric hegemony. To reorient social work knowledge apart from persistent neo-colonialism in the form of academic imperialism, social work development should be tailored into a locally responsive and geopolitically appropriate models in the non-western world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic underperformance of high school students with learning disabilities may reduce their access to higher education and decrease their employment opportunities. Based on stereotype threat hypothesis, the present study examined the role of stereotype threat in academic performance among adolescents with learning disabilities and the moderating role of psychological disengagement in this relation. In Study 1, 120 students with learning disabilities finished the measures of stereotype threat vulnerability and psychological disengagement, and their academic score at two time points were collected. Results showed that students who are more vulnerable to stereotype threat tend to have a lower academic score at Time 2 even after controlling for academic score at Time 1, and this relation was moderated by psychological disengagement. In Study 2, 62 sophomore students with learning disabilities finished measures of stereotype threat, academic persistence, and psychological disengagement. The results showed that the effect of stereotype threat on academic persistence was significant among students who were of low psychological disengagement, while this effect was not significant among students who were psychologically disengaged in academics. These results emphasize the individual differences of learning disabled students' response to stereotype threat and have significant implications for framing targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the efficiency of a single-session character-strength-based cognitive intervention on enhancing freshmen's adaptability. Method: A randomized trial, pretest, posttest, follow-up intervention was employed using repeated-measures analyses to evaluate the effect. This 90-min intervention contained four activities with 52 undergraduate freshmen (age 17–20) randomly assigned to the intervention and control group, 38 of whom completed all the programs (19 of each group). Results: Compared with the control group, the intervention group showed a remarkable increase in well-being and a significant reduction in depression and anxiety at post and follow-up assessment. The stress level of the intervention group significantly decreased only at the follow-up test. Time effect and the interaction between time and group were significant in anxiety and stress. Conclusions: This intervention can quickly reduce negative affect and elevate well-being for freshmen. It expands the role of social worker in the prevention of mental illness among college population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-concepts of Hong Kong Chinese parents with a child of school age with severe intellectual disability were explored. A 20-item Adult Sources of Self-Esteem Inventory (ASSEI) and open-ended questions on self-evaluation and interviewing were adopted as the major procedures to identify the source and basis of their self-conceptions. One hunched and nine parents — 35 males and 74 females, aged 31 to 45 — participated in this study. The results indicated that the participants showed similar life priorities as the control group (parents of non-handicapped children). However, the participants showed significantly lower concept of self than the control group in most areas of life. An exploratory factor-analytic result showed that the parents' concept of self had a one-dimensional structure, which might indicate the parents' lack variety in their life. An analysis of the contents of the open-ended responses showed that family and work were the most important domains of the concept of self However, most of the respondents stated that poor family relationships, the health problems of their child, and work and financial problems made them 'feel bad'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]