Sibling bullying among Vietnamese children: the relation with peer bullying and subjective well-being.

BACKGROUND: Siblings play an important role in a child's life. However, many children often experience sibling bullying. This study investigates differences in sibling victimization by sex, age, a parent's absence from the home due to employment, or a child's privacy and the relationship between sibling victimization, peer victimization, and the child's well-being. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: Participants were Vietnamese children participating in the third wave of the International Survey of Children's Well-Being. The study included 1537 children (811 boys and 726 girls) attending public schools, age 10-14 years (M = 11.29, SD = 1.15). RESULTS: The results show that over half of children with siblings in this study reported being victimized by a sibling. Younger children were bullied more often than older children. Children whose father worked away from home reported an increase in bullying behavior from their siblings. Children sharing a room with siblings reported being bullied more by siblings. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated a positive correlation between sibling victimization and peer victimization and a negative relationship between being bullied and a child's subjective well-being.

Psychological Risk Factors for the Development of Restrictive and Bulimic Eating Behaviors: A Polish and Vietnamese Comparison.

The aim of this paper is to identify psychological factors which are culture specific or common predictors for restrictive and bulimic behaviors towards eating for young women raised in different cultures. The study included 661 young women from Poland (n = 233) and Vietnam (n = 428). Subjects filled-in the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-3) and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS), and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Women form Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than were their Polish peers, but Vietnamese showed a lower level of preoccupation with being overweight and fear of obesity. Intercultural differences indicate that Vietnamese women show greater intensities for psychological variables, connected with restrictive and bulimic eating behaviors, verified in the research model: low self-esteem, personal alienation, interpersonal insecurity, interpersonal alienation, emotional dysregulation, interoceptive deficits, perfectionism and asceticism, and anxiety.

Body Dissatisfaction, Restrictive, and Bulimic Behaviours Among Young Women: A Polish-Japanese Comparison.

The growing number of women, who are characterized by restrictive and bulimic behaviours towards their own body is observed especially in countries influenced by Westernalization. However, there is a lack of cross-cultural studies in this area. The main aim of the present study was to examine the psychological and socio-cultural risk factors for eating disorders in Polish and Japanese women. A cross-sectional research study was conducted among 18- to 29-year old Polish (n = 89) and Japanese (n = 97) women. The variables were measured using the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale SATAQ-3, and the Eating Disorders Inventory EDI-3. The descriptive and comparative statistics, Spearman's rho, and the stepwise regression analysis were used. The global internalization of socio-cultural standards of body image proved to be a significant predictor of Body Dissatisfaction among Polish and Japanese women. The main analysis showed a significant relation between the Drive for Thinness and Interoceptive Deficits in the group of Japanese women, as well as a correlation between Drive for Thinness and Asceticism in the group of Polish women. The obtained results could improve the prevention aimed the dysfunctional eating behaviours. However, the cultural nuances need to be considered in understanding the risk factors for eating disorders.

The Implications of Filial Piety in Study Engagement and Study Satisfaction: A Polish-Vietnamese Comparison.

Even in psychological literature, which describes many determining variables related to the school domain, few studies have investigated the universal (i.e., etic) mechanism underlying parent-child relations, which is a prototype matrix for future student-teacher relations. The role of the imprinted schema of children's obligations toward parents seems to be crucial for school functioning in classroom society. The Dual Filial Piety Model (DFPM; Yeh, 2003) is comprised of two higher-order factors that correspond to the two focal filial piety attributes: reciprocal (need of interpersonal relatedness) and authoritarian (need of social belonging and national identity), which have been shown to have distinct implications on social adaptation and individuals' psychological functioning. In this study, we investigate the relationship between filial piety and student attitudes (study engagement and satisfaction) in a more individualistic and egalitarian culture (Poland, N = 310) and in a more collectivistic and hierarchical society (Vietnam, N = 297). The measurement invariances of three scales, i.e., the Vietnamese adaptation of DFP Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-S9), and the Study Satisfaction Scale, were improved in the MLM analyses. Our results show that in more individualistic cultures, the RFP (reciprocal mode) is a stronger predictor of study engagement and study satisfaction; however, the AFP (authoritarian mode) is a better factor to predict study engagement in more collectivistic cultures. What is more, only RFP positively correlates with study satisfaction in individualistic culture. Our findings revealed that in different cultures, different aspects of filial piety should be emphasized by parents in the context of the future academic achievements of their children. The conclusion is that the prevention and intervention strategies or techniques intended for children with school problems should be culturally appropriate and addressed to the parents of kindergarten and later to very early-stage education teachers. The results of studies based on the DFPM may stimulate practical applications and policy development within the domain of success and failure in the academic environment.

The Body as an Object of Stigmatization in Cultures of Guilt and Shame: A Polish-Vietnamese Comparison.

The aim of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in body stigmatization between the individualistic Christian culture of guilt (Poland) and the collectivistic Buddhist/Confucian culture of honor and shame (Vietnam). The study included 1290 university students from Poland (n = 586) and Vietnam (n = 704). Subjects filled in the body esteem scale and the perceived stigmatization questionnaire, and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Participants from Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than their Polish peers. Men in both countries assessed themselves more favorably. No anthropometric index predicted body esteem in Vietnamese women, while only indices related to fat levels were predictors in Polish women. Men with a V-shaped body assessed themselves as stronger and as having a better physical condition. A possible explanation of the observed cross-cultural differences is that interdependent self-construal makes young adults in collectivistic societies more susceptible to criticism, and the Confucian values of modesty and shame lead to them not perceiving their bodies as sexual objects. The Christian sense of guilt does not influence the perception of sexuality. Absence of friendly behavior mediated the relation between anthropometric indices and body esteem in both cultures.

Psychometric properties of the MHC-SF: An integration of the existing measurement approaches.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study is to test the factorial structure of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) in Asian population. METHOD: The study was conducted across three different Vietnamese samples (N = 2741). We present a comparison of the existing measurement models of the MHC-SF using two methodological approaches: confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) (both in exploratory-using bi-geomin rotation; and in confirmatory variant-using target rotation). RESULTS: The current report supported the targeted bifactor ESEM solution as better describing the factorial structure of the MHC-SF than the originally assumed three-factor solution in all samples. CONCLUSION: The structure of the MHC-SF is best represented as combination of the bifactor and ESEM model.