Measuring parental and family efficacy beliefs of adolescents' parents: Cross-cultural comparisons in Italy and Portugal.

The goal of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Perceived Parental Self-Efficacy (PPSE) and Perceived Family Collective Efficacy (PFCE) revised scales in the Portuguese and Italian contexts. To this aim two studies were conducted: the first reported the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with Portuguese samples, whereas the second addressed the cross-cultural invariance of PPSE and PFCE (Portugal and Italy). Results of the first study showed the appropriate fit of the unifactorial model of both scales to Portuguese data. The invariance analyses performed in the second study attested to the PPSE and PFCE's configural, metric and scalar invariance in both countries. The correlations of PPSE and PFCE with communication, management of conflict and children's school achievement further attested to their construct and practical validity. Thus, PPSE and PFCE proved to be suitable to further use in research and psychological assessment fields.

Neural correlates of merging number words.

Complex number words (e.g., "twenty two") are formed by merging together several simple number words (e.g., "twenty" and "two"). In the present study, we explored the neural correlates of this operation and investigated to what extent it engages brain areas involved processing numerical quantity and linguistic syntactic structure. Participants speaking two typologically distinct languages, French and Chinese, were required to read aloud sequences of simple number words while their cerebral activity was recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Each number word could either be merged with the previous ones (e.g., 'twenty three') or not (e.g., 'three twenty'), thus forming four levels ranging from lists of number words to complex numerals. When a number word could be merged with the preceding ones, it was named faster than when it could not. Neuroimaging results showed that the number of merges correlated with activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus and in the left inferior parietal lobule. Consistent findings across Chinese and French participants suggest that these regions serve as the neural bases for forming complex number words in different languages.

Psychometric and cross-cultural generalizability outcomes of the Chinese version of the Kids-Palatable Eating Motives Scale (K-PEMS-C).

Overeating for non-homeostatic needs contributes to childhood obesity. However, validated measures or eating motives and cross-cultural comparisons are limited. This study aimed to validate the Kids-Palatable Eating Motives Scale (K-PEMS) and its association with body mass index z score (BMIz) in China, and further assess its generalization across Chinese and American youth. Data were from participants aged 8-18 years from Hangzhou, China (n = 426) and Birmingham, AL, U.S (n = 73). The K-PEMS had sound reliability and validation (Cronbach's α = 0.920 and all factor loadings >0.50) in the Chinese sample. Multi-group nested models CFAs showed that the ∆CFI of model comparisons of measurement weights and structural covariance, variance, and means were ⩽0.01, and ∆TLI of measurement intercepts ⩽0.05. Linear regressions revealed that frequency of consuming palatable foods and drinks for Coping, Reward Enhancement, and Conformity, but not Social motives, were positively associated with BMIz. The K-PEMS had good cross-cultural generalization and could be useful in treating obesity by identifying specific motives for consuming excessive calories.

Psychometric validity and measurement invariance of the caring for Bliss Scale in the Philippines and the United States.

The Caring for Bliss Scale (CBS) is a new measure that assesses an individuals' capacity to cultivate inner joy and happiness. Developed in the United States, its generalizability remains unknown in non-Western contexts. This research explored the scale's cross-national invariance among college students in the Philippines (n = 546) and the United States (n = 643). A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation showed that the unidimensional model of caring for bliss exhibited configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across the Filipino and the U.S. samples. This scale also had good internal consistency estimates in both settings. In both contexts, caring for bliss was positively correlated with well-being and negatively correlated with different negative quality of life indicators (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression). This study offered preliminary evidence regarding the cross-national applicability of the CBS in different cultural settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A universal reading network and its modulation by writing system and reading ability in French and Chinese children.

Are the brain mechanisms of reading acquisition similar across writing systems? And do similar brain anomalies underlie reading difficulties in alphabetic and ideographic reading systems? In a cross-cultural paradigm, we measured the fMRI responses to words, faces, and houses in 96 Chinese and French 10-year-old children, half of whom were struggling with reading. We observed a reading circuit which was strikingly similar across languages and consisting of the left fusiform gyrus, superior temporal gyrus/sulcus, precentral and middle frontal gyri. Activations in some of these areas were modulated either by language or by reading ability, but without interaction between those factors. In various regions previously associated with dyslexia, reading difficulty affected activation similarly in Chinese and French readers, including the middle frontal gyrus, a region previously described as specifically altered in Chinese. Our analyses reveal a large degree of cross-cultural invariance in the neural correlates of reading acquisition and reading impairment.

Development and Validation of Social Motivation Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Information-seeking (IS) and emotion-regulatory (ER) motivation play meaningful roles in age-related changes in social interaction across adulthood. This study aimed to develop and validate the Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) to assess these two types of motivation. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Ten items were selected from a pool as the candidate items of SMQ and were administered to 480 German adults (20-91 years old) for validation. These items were also administered to 150 U.S. (18-40 years old) and 131 Hong Kong younger adults (18 to 26 years old) for cultural-invariance examination. RESULTS: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that a two-factor, eight-item structure fits the German adults' data well with satisfactory reliability. Multigroup comparisons showed cross-age invariance among younger, middle-aged, and older German adults, as well as cross-cultural invariance among German, U.S., and Hong Kong younger adults. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: A new questionnaire, SMQ, was developed and validated to measure IS and ER social motivation across adulthood and across cultures.