The COVID-19 pandemic has created more occupational stressors, particularly work–family interface issues. The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of occupational stressors in ...the relationship between a personal resource (psychological capital) and family satisfaction. A cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 787 employees (367 males, 420 females) from the Greater Bay Area of China between October and November 2020. Participants completed an online survey which included the Chinese version of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, measures of occupational stressors from the Work Stress Management DIY Kit and a measure of family satisfaction. Latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that family satisfaction was positively associated with psychological capital and negatively associated with occupational stressors. Furthermore, occupational stressors weakened the positive association between psychological capital and family satisfaction. These findings provided empirical evidence for the work–home resources model and may suggest that it would be beneficial to boost psychological capital and reduce occupational stressors of employees.
This study aims at examining the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment Scale (IPCS), which measures the three components of love (intimacy, passion, ...and commitment) in the triangular theory of love. Participants were 263 Hong Kong Chinese (108 males and 155 females) aged from 17 to 57 years (
M
= 24.34,
SD
= 6.01), who were involved in heterosexual romantic relationships. As predicted, the results of parallel analysis suggested a three-factor solution. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable model fit for the hypothesized three-factor structure. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the factorial invariance of the three-factor model across gender. The intimacy, passion, and commitment subscales demonstrated high internal consistency reliability. The three factors had substantial associations with relationship satisfaction, indicating adequate concurrent validity. Overall, the findings of this study provide initial support for the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the IPCS.
Previous studies have consistently demonstrated the beneficial impacts of the acculturation strategy of integration and the detrimental impacts of the acculturation strategy of marginalization on ...adaptation outcomes. This study attempts to extend the existing literature by examining the potential moderating role of social support in the relationships between acculturation strategies and cross-cultural adaptation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that social support from family, local friends, and non-local friends would enhance the positive effects of the integration strategy and buffer the negative effects of the marginalization strategy on sociocultural and psychological adaptation. Participants were 188 Mainland Chinese sojourning university students in Hong Kong. Consistent with our predictions, social support from local friends was found to significantly moderate the effects of the integration and marginalization strategies on sociocultural and psychological adaptation. Unexpectedly, it was shown that social support from non-local friends significantly weakened the positive effect of the integration strategy on psychological adaptation. In addition, further analyses on the potentially domain-specific effects of acculturation strategies and social support on psychological adaptation showed that social support from local friends and non-local friends and acculturation strategies of integration and marginalization interacted to influence only one specific domain of psychological adaptation (mutual trust and acceptance). Implications of this study and possible explanations for the discordant findings are discussed.
Correlates of sleep irregularity in schizophrenia Chung, Ka-Fai; Poon, Yvonne Patricia Yuan-Ping; Ng, Ting-Kin ...
Psychiatry research,
December 2018, 2018-Dec, 2018-12-00, 20181201, Volume:
270
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
•We examine the correlates of sleep irregularity in 66 patients with schizophrenia.•Positive, depressive and insomnia symptoms are associated with sleep irregularity.•Irregular social rhythm and ...delayed sleep phase disorder are other correlates.•Others include lifestyle factors and lower hypnotic and antipsychotic dosages.•A multimodal intervention for sleep irregularity in schizophrenia may be needed.
Circadian rhythm disruption, manifested as circadian misalignment, difficulty initiating sleep, and sleep-wake irregularity, is often left unrecognized in patients with schizophrenia. Studies have shown multiple adverse consequences of sleep irregularity, but limited data is available on schizophrenia. This is a secondary analysis of a case-control study of 66 schizophrenia patients with delayed sleep-wake phase (with or without meeting criteria for the disorder) and normal sleep-wake phase (mean age = 44.08 years; 45.45% males). Potential correlates included sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, social rhythms, chronotype, psychiatric symptoms, psychosocial functioning, metabolic index, cognitive function, and sociodemographic, lifestyle and pharmacological factors. Square successive difference (SSD) scores, derived from 1-week sleep diary and actigraphy, were indexes of sleep irregularity. Multilevel modeling analysis, with SSD scores as level-1 measures and the hypothesized correlates as level-2 measures, was performed. Statistical significance was Bonferroni-adjusted. Higher SSD scores of sleep diary and actigraphy variables were significantly associated with positive and depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, irregular social rhythm, evening chronotype, delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, later caffeine use and dinner time, greater cigarette use, and lower dosages of hypnotics and antipsychotics. Our findings highlight the implications of sleep irregularity in schizophrenia and the need for a multimodal intervention.
Objectives: This study endeavors to advance the current literature by examining the gender differences in the caregiving experiences and the stress-buffering role of positive aspects of caregiving ...(PAC) among Chinese spousal caregivers of frail elders in Hong Kong.
Method: Forty-nine husband caregivers and 121 wife caregivers of frail elders in Hong Kong (N = 170) responded to the Positive Aspects of Caregiving (PAC) scale, the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21), and demographic questions. These spousal caregivers were diverse in age, and their care receivers were diverse in terms of age and health condition.
Results: As predicted, there were significant gender differences in the moderating effects of PAC on the relationships of caregiving burden to depression, anxiety, and overall psychological distress. While PAC significantly buffered the effects of caregiving burden on depression, anxiety, and overall psychological distress for wife caregivers, the moderating effects of PAC were not significant for husband caregivers. Unexpectedly, wife caregivers reported lower PAC, higher caregiving burden, and higher psychological distress.
Conclusion: As these findings suggest that PAC is lower but more beneficial for Chinese wife caregivers than Chinese husband caregivers, helping professionals are recommended to use strengths-based interventions that target PAC when working with Chinese wife caregivers.
Subjective methods are often employed for sleep assessment due to their ease of use, but the results may not concur with objective findings. This discrepancy may be present in schizophrenia; however, ...limited data are available. We performed a secondary analysis to evaluate the agreement between 1-week actigraphy and sleep diary-derived parameters and factors that contribute to subjective-objective sleep discrepancy.
66 outpatients with schizophrenia (mean age = 44.08 years; 45.45% males).
Agreement between subjective-objective parameters was assessed using two-way repeated measures ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and Bland-Altman plot. The magnitude of discrepancy was quantified using Cohen's d. Pearson's correlation was used to determine the significant factors of subjective-objective sleep discrepancy. Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment was performed to account for multiple testing.
On average, sleep diaries overestimated sleep onset latency by 20.45 min, total sleep time by 37.63 min, and sleep efficiency by 4.29%, but underestimated wake after sleep onset by 33.28 min. Cohen's d ranged between 0.61 and 1.41. Subjective-objective discrepancies were significantly associated with marital and employment status, self-reported sleep disturbance, delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, chronotype, and psychosocial functioning (r = 0.32-0.44; Benjamini-Hochberg corrected p < .05).
Our findings show that differences between subjective and objective measurements of sleep are present in schizophrenia. Although actigraphy is not a standard procedure for sleep disturbance in schizophrenia, clinical judgment should be used if patients are suspected to have overestimated their sleep difficulties. Further studies should examine whether feedback based on actigraphy can benefit patients with schizophrenia and comorbid sleep disturbances.
The current study intended to examine whether the relationship between university students' striving to avoid inferiority (SAI) and procrastination was serially mediated by stress and self-control. ...The sample consisted of 154 Hong Kong university students. Their levels of striving to avoid inferiority, stress, self-control, and procrastination were measured by the
, the stress subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ), and the General Procrastination Scale (GPS), respectively. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that SAI positively predicted stress, stress negatively predicted self-control, and self-control negatively predicted procrastination. SAI did not directly predict procrastination. The results of bootstrapping analyses supported the hypotheses that the effect of stress on procrastination was mediated by self-control, the effect of SAI on self-control was mediated by stress, and more importantly, the effect of SAI on procrastination was serially mediated by stress and self-control. Further research is suggested to investigate the thoughts and feelings pertinent to procrastination and the actual duration of procrastination among university students.
Past research has shown that psychological states tend to fluctuate across the days of a week, which is referred to as the day-of-week (DOW) effect. This study investigated the DOW effect on ...liberalism-conservatism among Chinese people by testing two competing hypotheses. According to the cognitive states hypothesis, it was predicted that liberalism would be high on Mondays but gradually decrease to Fridays due to the depletion of cognitive resources over the weekdays. In contrast, the affective states hypothesis predicted the opposite, considering the more positive affect brought by the approaching weekends. Both hypotheses predicted the level of liberalism would peak at weekends.
Data (
= 171,830) were collected via an online questionnaire, the Chinese Political Compass (CPC) survey, which includes 50 items to measure people' liberalism-conservatism in three domains (i.e., political, economic, and social).
The results showed the level of liberalism decreased gradually from Mondays until Wednesdays, rebounded from Wednesdays to Fridays, and peaked at weekends.
The V-shaped pattern suggested that the DOW fluctuation in liberalism-conservatism could derive from the synergy of both cognitive and affective processes, instead of either one alone. The findings have important implications for practice and policy-making, including the recent pilot scheme of 4-day workweek.
To date, scholars have rarely applied institutional anomie theory to gambling-related crime. Using time series data on the rates of illegal gambling, money laundering, organised crime, and ...drug-related crime, as well as various indicators of the economy and noneconomic social institutions, this study tested the applicability of institutional anomie theory to gambling related crime. The study found that unemployment positively related to organised crime and drug-related crime. GDP per capita is positively associated with illegal gambling crime, organised crime, and drug-related crime. However, all social institutional variables failed to predict gambling-related crime. Moreover, for the interaction effects, this finding also provided limited and mixed support for the theory. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Abstract Using data of 200, 522, 572, and 287 Chinese from Australia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively, this study aimed at comparing the mental health literacy of Chinese people from ...different communities, and between Chinese communities and the Australian general public. The participants were asked questions that assessed their recognition of depression and schizophrenia. Compared with the Australians, much lower percentages of Chinese in the four Chinese communities could correctly identify depression and early schizophrenia. Commonalities in the preference for ‘psychiatrist’, ‘psychologist’, ‘Chinese medical doctor’, and ‘Chinese traditional healer’, a lack of knowledge of medications, and a higher likelihood of endorsement of traditional Chinese medicines were found among the four Chinese communities. Differences in the preference for ‘general practitioner’ and ‘social worker’, and a higher percentage of endorsement of herbal medicines were observed among the different Chinese communities. Cultural factors such as Chinese perceptions of mental illness, and socio-contextual factors such as differences in mental health care system in the four communities were offered to explain these commonalities and differences. Mental health promotion programmes for Chinese people may need to consider the above-mentioned cultural and socio-contextual factors so that specific promotion programmes can be developed.
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