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Research on grit indicates that perseverance positively predicts academic achievement. Yet, the mechanisms through which perseverance might lead to academic success remain less explored, particularly in cross-cultural research. The current study investigated such mechanisms by examining possible mediating effects of students’ use of self-regulated learning strategies (control, memorisation, and elaboration) on the predictive relation of students’ perseverance on their academic achievement, in students from East Asian and Anglo-Saxon English speaking Western countries. The sample came from the OECD PISA study and included 24,352 population-representative 15-year-old students from Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and the US. Results revealed that perseverance had a more positive association with achievement in East Asian cultures than Western cultures. Control strategy was stronger positive mediators of achievement in Western countries, whereas memorisation and elaboration strategy use and instrumental motivation more negatively mediated the effect of perseverance on achievement in Western countries.

A large body of research has examined whether people who are prone to see patterns in randomness are also more likely to believe conspiracy theories. However, empirical evidence on the subject is mixed. In an attempt to reconcile these inconsistent findings, we plan to conduct a pre-registered replication of an influential study on randomness perception and conspiracist ideation in the United States (n = 600) and Switzerland (n = 600) and extend the study in other meaningful ways. Our high-powered study will investigate differences in statistical power, culture and education as potential explanations for the conflicting findings in the literature and isolate conspiracist ideation from paranoia. We also plan to conduct a meta-analysis of existing published and unpublished findings on the key relationship between randomness perception and conspiracist ideation. Together, our paper will help clarify the relationship between randomness perception and conspiracist ideation using a high-powered pre-registered replication, critical tests of generalization, and a meta-analysis of the literature.

En: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Number 4, Article 2058 (February 2021), p. 1-15. ISSN-e 1660-4601. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18042058 1 recurs en línia (p. 1-15) Despite the growing body of research regarding sexting and online sexual victimization, there is little evidence exploring cultural differences in association with those behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine cultural differences in sexting practices by comparing an American sample and a Spanish sample of university students. The original sample was composed of 1799 college students, including 1386 Spanish college students and 413 American Students, with 74% of female participants, and ages ranging from 18 to 64 years old (mean age = 21.26, SD= 4.61). Results indicate that American students sext more than Spanish students and have higher probabilities of being victims of nonconsensual dissemination of their sexual content. However, Spanish students receive more sexts than American students. Although our results show differences between the Spanish and the American samples that might be modulated by cultural factors, the vulnerability of females regarding sexting remains unchanged. Additionally, differences in specific characteristics of the behaviors (such as perceived risk, receiver of the sexual content, intensity of the sexual content, and motive for sexting) were also studied. Further results and implications are discussed in relation to cultural differences

This study conducted a narrative inquiry of the experiences of Chinese pre-service teachers who participated in an exchange program. Data were collected through participant observations, reflective journals, and interviews. Results suggest that key challenges participants experienced included culture shock, isolation, language barriers, and undeveloped time-management skills. Based on these findings, the study recommends that to maximize the benefits of cultural exchanges, it is critical to ensure students understand the nuances of time management and the transformative learning process so as to maximize their time and critical engagement while being abroad. Prior to departure students should learn about Western pedagogical models and the possible challenges related to culture shock.

While adolescent health literacy has gained momentum, it is under-researched from a cross-cultural perspective. This study aims to compare health literacy among two cultural groups of secondary students in Beijing and Melbourne. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 770 students from five secondary schools in Beijing and Melbourne. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect information on health literacy (the eight-item health literacy assessment tool (HLAT-8), the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) and the 47-item Health Literacy Survey (HLS-47)), its antecedents and health outcomes. Overall, students&rsquo, health literacy in Melbourne (n = 120) was higher than that in Beijing (n = 650): 28.25 &plusmn, 6.00 versus 26.37 &plusmn, 5.89 (HLAT-8), and 4.13 &plusmn, 1.73 versus 3.65 &plusmn, 1.64 (NVS). The proportion of students with low health literacy varied by instruments, representing 23.7&ndash, 32.2% in Melbourne and 29.0%&ndash, 45.5% in Beijing. In both cultural groups, students&rsquo, self-efficacy, social support, and perceptions of school environment were associated with their health literacy, which in turn predicted their health behaviours, patient-provider communication and health status. Given the nature of our study design and small samples, a cautious conclusion would be that adolescent health literacy is sensitive to the broad cultural context and might be an interactive outcome influenced by an individual&rsquo, s health skills and the social environment. Particularly, creating a supportive school environment is critical to develop adolescent health literacy that would eventually contribute to better health outcomes.

Phenomenon: Medical professionalism is a complex construct, based in social and cultural influences, yet little research has been done to show how culture influences the behaviors and attitudes of medical students. We presented Italian students with the same professional dilemmas used in a previous Canadian and Taiwanese cross-cultural study to look for similarities and differences and detect elements of Italian culture that influenced how students responded to dilemmas. The aim was to provide medical educators with some insights into students' behavioral strategies and feelings when faced with a professional dilemma. Approach: Using Giorgi's method, we performed a phenomenological analysis of 15 interviews of Italian medical students who responded to standardized video scenarios representing professional dilemmas. These videos were used in Canada and Taiwan and were translated into Italian. All students were from the same degree course, at Year 6, and were recruited on a voluntary basis at the beginning of the Internal Medicine course. Interview transcripts were anonymized before analysis. Findings: Scenarios were perceived as realistic and easy to envision in Italy. Four themes emerged: establishing priority among principles, using tactics to escape the dilemma, defending the self, and defending the relationships. When compared with previous studies, we noted that Italian students did not mention the principles of reporting inappropriate behavior, seeking excellence, or following senior trainees' advice. Insights: This is the first cross-cultural study of professionalism that involves a Mediterranean country and the observed differences could be interpreted as expressions of Italian cultural traits: distrust toward authority and a cooperative rather than competitive attitude. These findings have practical implications for educators to design and run curricula of professionalism with culturally appropriate topics. They highlight the need for more cross-cultural research.

The present study focused on examining whether coffee intake is related to the intensity of aggressive feelings in reaction to various provoking or frustrating situations, along with consideration of sex and culture. Previous studies focused mainly on the dose of caffeine (not the habit of coffee drinking) and aggressive behavior. Many of these studies showed a positive relation between the amount of caffeine consumed and aggression, so it was expected that also habitual coffee consumption would be positively related to propensity for aggressive feelings in situ ations of provocation and frustration. Participants from Greece (n = 299) and Poland (n = 300) declared whether they were coffee drinkers (at least 1 mug of coffee per day) and completed the Situational Triggers of Aggressive Responses questionnaire. The results showed that in females, coffee drinkers had higher scores in Sensitivity to Provocation (SP) and Frustration (SF) than nondrinkers, while no differences between drinkers and nondrinkers appeared in males. Moreover, amongst coffee drinkers, females had higher scores in SP and SF than males, while no sex differences were found in nondrinkers. Furthermore, in Poland coffee drinkers had higher SP scores than nondrinkers. Poles also had higher SP scores than Greeks, but only when coffee drinkers were compared.

The present study investigated the entrepreneurial self-efficacy perceptions among university students across two countries, i.e., Poland and Turkey. Data were obtained through questionnaires designed to assess the perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In all, 365 Polish and 278 Turkish students completed the questionnaires. Results indicated that Polish and Turkish students did not differ significantly in regard to the overall measure of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Our study contributed to the entrepreneurship literature by performing a cross-cultural comparison of the perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Thus, it provided recommendations for fostering entrepreneurial self efficacy among university students.

In this paper we test the hypothesis that beliefs about the ideal mother are convergent across cultures and that these beliefs overlap considerably with attachment theory’s notion of the sensitive mother. In a sample including 26 cultural groups from 15 countries around the globe, 751 mothers sorted the Maternal Behavior Q-Set to reflect their ideas about the ideal mother. The results show strong convergence between maternal beliefs about the ideal mother and attachment theory’s description of the sensitive mother across groups. Cultural group membership significantly predicted variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores, but this effect was substantially accounted for by group variations in socio-demographic factors. Mothers living in rural versus urban areas, with a low family income, and with more children were less likely to describe the ideal mother as highly sensitive. Cultural group membership did remain a significant predictor of variations in maternal sensitivity belief scores above and beyond socio-demographic predictors. The findings are discussed in terms of the universal and culture-specific aspects of the sensitivity construct., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Introduction Depression is a mood disorder that affects a significant proportion of the population worldwide. In Malaysia and Australia, the number of people diagnosed with depression is on the rise. It has been found that impairments in emotion processing and emotion regulation play a role in the development and maintenance of depression. This study is based on Matsumoto and Hwang9s biocultural model of emotion and Triandis9 Subjective Culture model. It aims to investigate the influence of culture on emotion processing among Malaysians and Australians with and without major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods and analysis This study will adopt a between-group design. Participants will include Malaysian Malays and Caucasian Australians with and without MDD (N=320). There will be four tasks involved in this study, namely: (1) the facial emotion recognition task, (2) the biological motion task, (3) the subjective experience task and (4) the emotion meaning task. It is hypothesised that there will be cultural differences in how participants with and without MDD respond to these emotion tasks and that, pan-culturally, MDD will influence accuracy rates in the facial emotion recognition task and the biological motion task. Ethics and dissemination This study is approved by the Universiti Putra Malaysia Research Ethics Committee (JKEUPM) and the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC). Permission to conduct the study has also been obtained from the National Medical Research Register (NMRR; NMRR-15-2314-26919). On completion of the study, data will be kept by Universiti Putra Malaysia for a specific period of time before they are destroyed. Data will be published in a collective manner in the form of journal articles with no reference to a specific individual.

Introduction. Driven by an overarching conceptual framework adapted from Self-Determination Theory, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of perceived parental academic autonomy support vs. academic planning control on the interrelated variables of adolescents’ self-esteem, academic motivation, and academic achievement, using multisample structural equation modeling.Method. A sample of 271 Asian American and 218 Latino American high school students were recruited in Southern California to respond to a questionnaire composed of a battery of adapted and self-constructed scales.Results. In the Asian American sample, perceived parental academic autonomy support had significant direct positive effects on academic achievement, self-esteem, academic motivation, and indirect effects on academic motivation mediated by self-esteem, while perceived parental academic planning control had direct negative effects on self-esteem and academic achievement. However, in the Latino American sample, perceived parental academic autonomy support had positive indirect effects on academic achievement mediated by academic motivation and self-esteem, and perceived academic planning control had negative direct effects on both self-esteem and academic motivation.Discussion and Conclusion. Plausible explanations for the different pathways in the two cultural groups were presented from the cultural perspectives. The potentiality of using parental academic autonomy support as a predictor for academic achievement was also discussed.

The present study focuses on romantic stress and coping styles in the context of identity and future-related stressors in 8,654 adolescents with a mean age of M = 15.3; SD = 1.84. The adolescents from 17 countries were grouped into seven regions, i.e., Mid-Europe, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, South Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Future-related stressors were perceived as being more stressful than romantic stressors by all adolescents, irrespective of the region in which they lived. Identity-related stressors were of greater concern to adolescents from South Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Romantic stress was much higher in adolescents from Mid-Europe and Southern Europe compared to adolescents from other regions. Roughly 80% of all adolescents employed adaptive coping styles in that they negotiated with the romantic partner, sought support from friends and others, and shared an overall positive outlook. Adolescents from Mid-, Northern, and Eastern Europe were the most active in negotiating and support-seeking when dealing with romantic stressors.

A team of US and Mexican researchers used focus groups to determine challenges faced by rural school directors who worked in isolated, poor communities. They had no preparation before becoming directors. Their stories express frustration with teachers who do not come to school on time and are not committed to education. Yet the directors throw themselves into their work and persist over the years. They ask for training in how to work with teachers, and they bring qualities of idealism and persistence to their work. The profiles of the directors suggest a changing dynamic on Hofstede's (2001) cultural dimensions

Background To validate the association between country-of-birth and disparities in the stimulant use for ADHD among individuals in Western Australia. Methods Using linked data, a population-based retrospective cohort of individuals admitted to hospital before age 25 years was followed through to identify having stimulants for ADHD in 2003–2007. Multivariate logistic and linear regressions were used to characterise associations between stimulants and country-of-birth, geographical remoteness and socioeconomic status. Results Of 679,645 individuals, 14,122 (2.1%) had a record of having stimulants for ADHD. Of these, 205 (1.5%) were born in Africa, Asia, Middle-East or South America, while 13,664 (96.8%) were born in Australia/New Zealand, Europe or North America. Individuals with traditionally non-Anglophonic backgrounds were around one-half as likely to have stimulants as individuals with Anglophonic backgrounds (OR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.46–0.61, p