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Overwork is a common phenomenon worldwide. Although previous studies have found that long working hours can cause physical and mental health problems in employees, the nature of the relationship between working hours and job satisfaction remains little understood. We have theorised that there is a curvilinear association between working hours and job satisfaction, and tested this hypothesis. A total of 771 adult Chinese employees submitted self-reported measures of working hours, job satisfaction, and job autonomy. The results show that working hours have an inverted U-shaped association with job satisfaction. Work scheduling autonomy and decision-making autonomy moderate this relationship. Here we present our data and discuss their theoretical and practical implications., Author(s): Rui Dong [sup.1] , Hongya Wu [sup.1] , Shiguang Ni [sup.2] , Ting Lu [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.463102.2, 0000 0004 1761 3129, School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University [...]

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly being used in the field of mindfulness, but the effectiveness of VR-based mindfulness interventions is unclear. This systematic review of empirical studies was performed to assess the effectiveness of VR-based mindfulness interventions on psychological and physiological outcomes in adults based on five databases. Databases were reviewed from the start of the records to February 21, 2020. Nine studies met the inclusion criteria and consisted of 236 participants. Studies were principally examined for psychological and physiological outcomes, such as anxiety, depression, and pain level. VR-based mindfulness interventions were generally associated with positive outcomes in relation to most measures. Nevertheless, there is an argument regarding the effectiveness of VR-based mindfulness interventions compared with traditional mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Overall, VR-based mindfulness interventions do not have the potential to exert a positive impact on individuals' psychological and physiological outcomes. However, the absence of follow-up studies might not allow sufficient time to illustrate the psychological and physiological outcome changes or catch the potential long-term effectiveness of VR-based mindfulness interventions. Therefore, further long-term randomized controlled trials with standardized psychometric measures are required., Author(s): Shuo Zhang [sup.1] , Mingxiu Chen [sup.2] , Ning Yang [sup.3] , Shuang Lu [sup.4] , Shiguang Ni [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.12527.33, 0000 0001 0662 3178, School of [...]

Over the past four decades, obesity in children of all ages has increased worldwide, which has intensified the search for innovative intervention strategies. Serious games, a youth-friendly form of intervention designed with educational or behavioral goals, are emerging as a potential solution to this health challenge. To analyze the effectiveness of serious games in improving body composition, physical activity, and dietary change, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Scopus databases. Pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated for 20 studies (n = 2238 the intervention group; n = 1983 in the control group) using random-effect models. The intervention group demonstrated a slightly better, although non-significant, body composition score, with a pooled SMD of −0.26 (95% CI: −0.61 to 0.09). The pooled effect tends to be stronger with longer duration of intervention (−0.40 [95% CI: −0.96, 0.16] for >3 months vs. −0.02 [95% CI: −0.33, 0.30] for ≤3 months), although the difference was not statistically significant (p-difference = 0.24). As for the specific pathways leading to better weight control, improvements in dietary habits due to serious game interventions were not significant, while a direct positive effect of serious games on increasing physical activity was observed (pooled SMD = 0.61 [95% CI: 0.04 to 1.19]). While the impact of serious game interventions on body composition and dietary changes is limited, their effectiveness in increasing physical activity is notable. Serious games show potential as tools for overweight/obesity control among children and adolescents but may require longer intervention to sustain its effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageism is a common phenomenon in the workplace, despite being unethical. Although previous studies have explored the many negative effects of ageism on employees, employee silence has rarely been empirically tested as a negative outcome. Therefore, we explored the positive relationship between ageism and employee silence and its underlying mechanism. A total of 416 working adults completed two time-lagged surveys, with items measuring ageism, work alienation, organizational commitment, and employee silence, administered four weeks apart. The results indicate that work alienation and organizational commitment have serial mediating effects on the relationship between ageism and employee silence. Ageism led to employees experiencing more work alienation, leading to harmful consequences for their organizational commitment and to employee silence. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to investigate the salience of mothers' emotional expressivity and its links with adolescents' emotional wellbeing and expressivity in an urban society endorsing more individualism and a rural society ascribing to more collectivism. By comparing Chinese urban (N = 283, M age = 14.13) and rural (N = 247, M age = 14.09) adolescents, this research found that urban mothers' expression of positive-dominant and positive-submissive emotions (PD and PS) were more common while expression of negative-dominant (ND) emotions was less common than rural mothers'. PD and PS had significant links with urban and rural adolescents' increased emotional expressivity and self-esteem, however, only significantly related to urban adolescents' decreased depression but not with rural adolescents'. ND had significant links with both urban and rural adolescents' expression of negative emotions, however, only significantly correlated with urban adolescents' less level of self-esteem and rural adolescents' more expression of positive emotions. No significant difference was found in the salience of urban and rural mothers' expression of negative-submissive (NS) emotions, which positively related to both urban and rural adolescents' depression and emotional expressivity. Moreover, we found that adolescents' emotional wellbeing (i.e., self-esteem and depression) mediated the relationship between mothers' emotional expressivity and adolescents' expressivity in both societies. Overall, the study findings document that the salience of mothers' emotional expressivity and its relations with adolescents' emotional adjustment differ between urban and rural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]