The Development of Response and Interference Inhibition in Children: Evidence from Serious Game Training.

A serious game titled "Crossing the Jungle" was developed in this study to train children's inhibition skills using the Stroop task. The effects of inhibitory control on children were tested by a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up test. In the control groups, children were asked to play a commercial game instead. In experiment 1, 48 participants chose either the training or control game voluntarily, whereas, in experiment 2, 44 participants were randomly assigned to either group. In both experiments, children exposed to the serious game demonstrated training effects from the Stroop spatial task and near-transfer effects from the Flanker task. However, transferring effects were not produced by the Go/No-go task. As a result, although the serious game "Crossing the Jungle" does not improve response inhibition, children aged 9 to 12 who play it may benefit from improved interference inhibition abilities. This provides evidence for the mutual independence of interference inhibition and response inhibition in children at this stage.

Navigating Uncertainty: Experiences of Older Adults in Wuhan during the 76-Day COVID-19 Lockdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world. Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, underwent a 76-day lockdown. Research has indicated that the lockdown negatively impacted the quality of life of older individuals, but little is known about their specific experiences during the confinement period. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 elderly residents of Wuhan, aged 65 to 85, who experienced mandatory isolation throughout the pandemic. The interviews centered around three stages of experiences: the Early Lockdown stage (the first week of lockdown after the government implemented the lockdown policy in January 2020), Infection During Lockdown stage (from February to April 2020 when participants were affected by the lockdown), and the Post-Lockdown stage (after April 2020 when the government lifted the lockdown policy). We found that older adults experienced different core themes during each lockdown stage. In the Early Lockdown stage, they felt nervousness and fear while searching for information. During the Lockdown and Infection Stage, they relied on reciprocal support and adjusted to new lifestyles. In the Post-Lockdown stage, they expressed cautions, trust, and gratitude. The finding highlights the evolving emotions and coping strategies of older adults throughout the lockdown phases. This study has yielded valuable insights into the adaptations of behavior and the importance of social interactions, specifically emphasizing the significance of healthcare among the elderly population.

Empowering Students against Ethnic Bullying: Review and Recommendations of Innovative School Programs.

Despite research on anti-bullying interventions, there is no systemic approach or resources for teachers to address ethnic and race-related bullying in schools. In this article, we selectively reviewed theories and programs to help teachers identify and address ethnic bullying in their classrooms. We provide recommendations for workshops (e.g., cultural awareness training, empathy-building activities, bystander intervention, and stigma-based intervention). These anti-ethnic bullying workshops should promote understanding of different cultures, strengthen empathy for those who are different, encourage bystanders to take action, and reduce stigma and stereotypes. Through the sharing of diverse perspectives, expertise, and experiences, we hope this article can cultivate interactive dialogues and collaborations between educators and researchers to effectively address ethnic and race-related bullying.

Effectiveness of Enhanced Self-Positivity Bias Training in Mitigating Depressive Mood following Negative Life Events.

The phenomenon of self-positivity bias refers to the common tendency for individuals to perceive themselves in a more positive light than is objectively warranted. The current study seeks to investigate the impact of enhanced self-positivity bias on depressive mood resulting from negative life events. The study included two experiments, a resistance experiment (exp. 1) and an improvement experiment (exp. 2), with 40 randomly selected college students randomly assigned to either a self-positive bias training group or a neutral training group in each experiment. In the resistance experiment, self-positive bias training was conducted before failure feedback, while in the improvement experiment, it was conducted after failure feedback. The results showed that failure feedback significantly increased depression levels among college students, and self-positive bias training improved the level of self-positive bias. In the resistance experiment, there was no significant difference between the self-positive bias training group and the neutral training group regarding depression. However, in the improvement experiment, being in the self-positive bias training group had a significantly greater effect on improving depression compared to the neutral training group. Overall, the findings suggest that while self-positive bias training cannot prevent depression caused by failure events, it has a positive effect on improving depression.

Data report on career adaptability, personal value, and motivational interview among at-risk Chinese college students.

The dataset provided here was partially associated with a published article on career adaptability [1]. The data set included 343 college freshmen who had difficulties in career decision-making. A self-report questionnaire on career adaptability (concern, control, curiosity, confidence), personal values (materialistic values, self-transcendence values, self-enhancement values), and demographic information was administered to all participants. In addition, a pre-selection of low career adaptability was performed. These participants scored below the 27th percentile in career adaptability. The career adaptability was administrated again two months later. We divided the data into two groups (intervention and control) and two time points (pre-test and post-test). Researchers can use the data to explore the relationship among career adaptability, personal values, and demographic information, as well as to compare interventions on career adaptability.

Promoting Positive Social Interactions: Recommendation for a Post-Pandemic School-Based Intervention for Social Anxiety.

The purpose of this perspective article is to identify problematic behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend a school-based intervention (e.g., self-reflection, motivational interview, and workbook) to address post-COVID social anxiety among children and adolescents. The recommendations involve comparing students' social interaction behaviors pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post-pandemic, and evaluating any behavioral changes in social relationships six months later. We also discuss the evaluation criteria and surveys used to assess the impact of the intervention on behavioral changes. Our evaluation criteria are based on students' beliefs and abilities and aim to demonstrate that the intervention improves in-person social interactions and helps students adapt to the transition back to school. The proposed perspectives and strategies of the intervention can be modified to meet the needs of the researchers and professionals. By working together, global policymakers from the fields of education and public health can create school-based interventions that enhance students' physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This program aims to mitigate the negative effects of school closures and social isolation and to broaden the role of schools in supporting students in the challenging post-pandemic world by addressing their holistic needs.

Revisiting Social Value Orientations and Environmental Attitude-Identity-Intention in Decomposed Games.

Past research has identified social value orientation (e.g., prosocial vs. proself) as possible underlying facilitators of pro-environmental intentions. However, recent studies have failed to draw a causal relationship using an experimental design such as priming. The current study attempted to address this issue by revisiting the relationship using a decomposed game. In addition, the current study extended the relationship between social value orientation and different aspects of pro-environmentalism (e.g., environmental attitude, identity, and self-reported pro-environmental intention). The "Attitude-Identity-Intention" path was explored in prosocial and proself groups. One hundred and fifty participants completed the decomposed game (prosocial and proself value orientations) and their respective environmental attitude, identity, and self-reported pro-environmental intentions (PEIs) were compared. We found that prosocial participants had higher levels of environmental identity, attitude, and self-reported participatory PEIs than proself participants, but not on the leadership PEIs. In addition, environmental identity mediated the relationship between environmental attitude and self-reported PEIs. This mediation only existed among the prosocial participants. The results suggest that the decomposed game is still a valid measure in social value orientation and the relationship can be extended to different aspects of environmentalism.

Parental Participation in the Environment: Scale Validation Across Parental Role, Income, and Region.

Parental participation has gained significant attention in environmental psychology, which has revealed a need for an instrument that can measure parental participation with children regarding environmental issues. The present study met this need by validating the parental participation in the environment (PPE) scale. This process began with 45 Chinese parents participating in an individual interview and group discussions, which helped generate a list of eighteen parent-child environmental activities. The activities were then modified and validated in the current study with a diverse group of 969 parents recruited from six major Chinese cities. Both score structure evidence and generalizability evidence were obtained within this sample, and psychometric tests suggested a single factor construct with nine items. Once the PPE scale was revised, it showed measurement invariance across the parent who responded to the items (mother vs. father), across the child's primary caregiver (mother vs. father vs. grandparent), across the family's living region (North China vs. South China), as well as across the family's income group. Finally, evidence based on relations to other variables showed a relationship among parents' PPE, pro-environmental behavior, and connectedness with nature. As a result, the study provided a novel measure to assess pro-environmental socialization via parental participation.

The fear of COVID-19 scale: Its structure and measurement invariance across 48 countries.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countries (N = 14,558). The findings indicate that the FCV-19S has a somewhat problematic structure, yet the one-factor solution is replicable across cultural contexts and could be used in studies that compare people who vary on gender and educational level. The validity of the scale is supported by a consistent pattern of positive correlations with perceived stress and general anxiety. However, given the unclear structure of the FCV-19S, we recommend using latent factor scores, instead of raw scores, especially in cross-cultural comparisons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A Combined Effect of Self and Reward: Relationship of Self- and Reward-Bias on Associative Learning.

Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals process information related to themselves or a high reward quickly and have referred to this as self-bias or reward-bias. However, no previous study has presented self- and reward-bias simultaneously. The present study investigated perceptual processing using the associated learning paradigm when both self and reward were prioritized (condition of double salience) as well as when only self or reward was prioritized (condition of single salience). The present study established these two conditions by manipulating self-relevance (self vs. stranger in Experiment 1; self vs. friend in Experiment 2). The results showed that (1) when the self was pitted against a stranger and received a high or low reward, perceptual processing of the participants mainly involved self-bias (Experiment 1); (2) when the self was pitted against a friend, perceptual processing involved both self-bias and reward-bias (Experiment 2). The study revealed a complex relationship between self- and reward-bias, which depends on the degree of affinity between oneself and others.

Brief data report on parent-child pro-environmental engagement across five cities in China.

The data presented here was partially published in the article "Action, Communication, and Engagement: How Parents "ACE" Children's Pro-Environmental Behaviors" [1]. The data was collected from 23 elementary summer schools across five cities in China. Two data files were presented: Child's Dataset, and Parent's Dataset. The Child's Dataset included children's parents' pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), children's perception of parental PEBs, children's report of parent-child communication toward environmental issues. The Parent's Dataset included parents' PEBs and parental report on parent-child pro-environmental engagements. Demographic information was presented in each dataset. The datasets can be used for reproducibility, reanalysis, longitudinal follow-up studies, and cross-cultural comparisons.

Meaning in Life Mediates the Association between Environmental Engagement and Loneliness.

Although the positive outcomes of human-environment interactions have been established, research examining the motivation between engagement in pro-environmental activities and psychological well-being is limited. In this mixed-methods study, the relationship between pro-environmental engagement, meaning in life, and well-being, including loneliness and depression, were investigated in a sample of 112 young adults in Canada. It was found that engaging in pro-environmental activities was negatively associated with loneliness. This association was mediated by meaning in life (e.g., an intrinsic motive of caring for future generations). In addition, qualitative analyses explored how engaging in pro-environmental activities has a meaningful impact on meaning in life, and on well-being. A thematic analysis generated three unique themes: (1) responsibility to teach the next generation about the environment, (2) deep appreciation for and connection to nature, and (3) renewed agency through self-directed learning. Overall, findings suggest that meaning in life is a core motive that underlies the association between environmental engagement and loneliness. The present study enriched the relationship between pro-environmentalism and well-being with a mixed-methods perspective.

Self- and other-evaluative moral emotions in prosocial contexts: A comparison of Chinese and Canadian adolescents.

This study investigated adolescents' self- and other-evaluative moral emotions in prosocial contexts across cultures (Chinese and Canadian). The sample consisted of 341 adolescents from three age groups: early adolescents (Grade 7-8), middle adolescents (Grade 10-11), and late adolescents (1st-2nd-year university). Approximately equal numbers of participants were recruited across genders, age groups, and cultures. Participants were presented eight different scenarios depicting the self or others in prosocial contexts. Moral emotions were assessed following each scenario by asking participants to rate the intensity of both self-evaluative (pride, satisfaction, guilt, and shame) and other-evaluative (admiration, respect, anger, and contempt) moral emotions. The results indicated that Chinese early adolescents rated more intense other-evaluative emotions than the same age group in Canada. Chinese middle and late adolescents rated less intense self-evaluative emotions than the same age groups in Canada. Overall, the results revealed both cultural differences and similarities in self- and other-evaluative moral emotions. The present study also suggests a cross-cultural investigation of moral emotion from a developmental perspective.

The codevelopment of community involvement and generative concern pathways in emerging and young adulthood.

In this longitudinal Canadian study, we investigated the relationship between the developmental trajectories of community involvement and generative concern measured at ages 23, 26, and 32. Participants completed a questionnaire on youth involvement, the Youth Involvement Inventory (YII), and the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) at all 3 ages. A latent growth model (LGM) of community involvement predicting time-specific variance in the LGS revealed that: (a) higher levels of community involvement at age 23 predicted greater generative concern at ages 23 and 26, but not at age 32; (b) there were 3 specific indirect paths linking age 23 community involvement to age 32 generativity through earlier assessments of age 23 and age 26 generative concern; and finally (c) a more positive slope of community involvement over time predicted higher levels of generative concern at age 32. These findings suggest that early involvement in community commitments, and increases in community involvement across emerging adulthood, may lead individuals down a path toward a more generative personality in young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Brief data report on prototype of moral personality and environmentalism.

The data presented here was partially published in the article "Are Environmental Issues Moral Issues? Moral Identity in Relation to Protecting the Natural World" (Jia et al., 2017) [1]. The data was collected at State University of New York at Oneonta in 2016. It included a self-report questionnaire of moral identity, generativity, community engagement, environmental involvement, environmental identity, and demographic information.

Recognizing Moral Identity as a Cultural Construct.

Current research on moral identity shows that moral identity predicts moral action in Western cultures but not in non-Western cultures. The present paper argues that this may be due to the fact that the concept of moral identity is culturally biased. In order to remedy this situation, we argue that researchers should broaden their scopes of inquiry by adding a cultural lens to their studies of moral identity. This change is important because although some concept of moral identity likely exists in all cultures, it may function in different ways and at different levels in each place. We propose that moral identity is a context-dependent construct tied to varying social and cultural obligations. We argue that Western moral identity stresses an individually oriented morality, whereas, people from Eastern cultures consider a highly moral person to be societally oriented. We conclude by discussing the implications of this view for future research.