Only Children and Sibling Children in Urban China: A Re-examination

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyin Chen ◽  
Kenneth H. Rubin ◽  
Bo-shu Li

Four hundred and ninety-eight only children and 67 sibling children, aged 8 and 10 years of old, residing in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, were administered a peer assessment measure of social behaviour and a sociometric nomination measure of peer acceptance. Teachers were requested to complete a behavioural rating scale for each participant. Data concerning children's academic achievement, normative school behaviour, and excellent scholarship (honourship) were obtained from the school administrative records. Unlike previous reports (e.g. Jiao, Ji, & Jing, 1986; Tao & Chiu, 1985), the results of the present study indicated that there were nonsignificant differences between only children and sibling children in urban China in the areas of social behaviour, peer relationships, school-related social competence, and academic achievement. The difference in results reported in the present and earlier studies may be the result of social-historical changes in recent years.

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyin Chen ◽  
Qi Dong ◽  
Hong Zhou

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles and social and school adjustment in Chinese children. A sample of second grade children, aged eight years, and their parents in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, participated in this study. The children were group administered a peer assessment measure of social behaviour and a sociometric nomination measure. Teachers completed a rating scale on school-related social competence and problems for each child. Data concerning child-rearing practices were obtained from parents. In addition, information on children’s academic and social competence was obtained from school records. It was found that authoritarian parenting was associated positively with aggression and negatively with peer acceptance, sociability-competence, distinguished studentship and school academic achievement. In contrast, parental authoritative style was associated positively with indices of social and school adjustment and negatively with adjustment problems. The results indicated that, inconsistent with the argument in the literature (e.g. Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992), authoritative and authoritarian parenting practices were relevant to social and academic performance in Chinese children.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1637-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura O. Gallardo ◽  
Angel Barrasa ◽  
Fabricio Guevara-Viejo

We explored peer acceptance and friendships during adolescence, and their relationship with subsequent changes in the level of adolescents' academic achievement. Participants were 447 students (51% girls) aged from 11 to 16 years. The students completed sociometric assessments of their peer acceptance and friendships during the autumn semester (Time 1). Academic achievement data were also obtained from students' report-card grades at Time 1 as well as during the spring semester (Time 2) of the same academic year. Regression analysis indicated that peer acceptance positively predicted subsequent academic achievement. This relationship was also moderated by age, with the effect of peer acceptance on subsequent academic achievement being greater during early adolescence than in midadolescence. This research deepens understanding of the mechanisms by which positive peer relationships influence adolescents' academic achievement.


Methodology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose A. Martínez ◽  
Manuel Ruiz Marín

The aim of this study is to improve measurement in marketing research by constructing a new, simple, nonparametric, consistent, and powerful test to study scale invariance. The test is called D-test. D-test is constructed using symbolic dynamics and symbolic entropy as a measure of the difference between the response patterns which comes from two measurement scales. We also give a standard asymptotic distribution of our statistic. Given that the test is based on entropy measures, it avoids smoothed nonparametric estimation. We applied D-test to a real marketing research to study if scale invariance holds when measuring service quality in a sports service. We considered a free-scale as a reference scale and then we compared it with three widely used rating scales: Likert-type scale from 1 to 5 and from 1 to 7, and semantic-differential scale from −3 to +3. Scale invariance holds for the two latter scales. This test overcomes the shortcomings of other procedures for analyzing scale invariance; and it provides researchers a tool to decide the appropriate rating scale to study specific marketing problems, and how the results of prior studies can be questioned.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Noorlela Binti Noordin ◽  
Abdul Razaq Ahmad ◽  
Anuar Ahmad

This study was aimed to evaluate the Malay proficiency among students in Form Two especially non-Malay students and its relationship to academic achievement History. To achieve the purpose of the study there are two objectives, the first is to look at the difference between mean of Malay Language test influences min of academic achievement of History subject among non-Malay students in Form Two and the second is the relationship between the level of Malay proficiency and their academic achievement for History. This study used quantitative methods, which involved 100 people of Form Two non-Malay students in one of the schools in Klang, Selangor. This study used quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical inference with IBM SPSS Statistics v22 software. This study found that there was a relationship between the proficiency of Malay language among non-Malay students with achievements in the subject of History. The implications of this study are discussed in this article.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Sunni L. Sonnenburg-Winkler ◽  
Zohreh R. Eslami ◽  
Ali Derakhshan

AbstractThe present study investigates variability among raters from different linguistic backgrounds, who evaluated the pragmatic performance of English language learners with varying native languages (L1s) by using both self- and peer-assessments. To this end, written discourse completion task (WDCT) samples of requesting speech acts from 10 participants were collected. Thereafter, the participants were asked to assess their peers’ WDCTs before assessing their own samples using the same rating scale. The raters were further asked to provide an explanation for their rating decisions. Findings indicate that there may indeed be a link between a rater’s language background and their scoring patterns, although the results regarding peer- and self-assessment are mixed. There are both similarities and differences in the participants’ use of pragmatic norms and social rules in evaluating appropriateness.


2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irismar Reis de Oliveira ◽  
Paulo Menezes Nunes ◽  
Domingos Macedo Coutinho ◽  
Eduardo Pondé de Sena

OBJECTIVE: To review the efficacy of placebo in comparison with atypical and typical antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder and to evaluate the pertinence of using placebo in clinical trials with antipsychotics. METHOD: Trials in which the atypical antipsychotics were compared with typical antipsychotics and placebo were included. A search was conducted using the terms "amisulpride", "aripiprazole", "clozapine", "olanzapine", "quetiapine", "risperidone", "sertindole", "ziprasidone" and "zotepine". Main efficacy parameters were calculated using the proportion of "events" (defined as a deterioration or lack of improvement by at least 20% in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale or Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) and the pooled relative risk with random effects, with their respective 95% confidence intervals. We also calculated the necessary sample sizes in studies in which the study drug is compared to a typical antipsychotic or placebo. RESULTS: The pooled efficacy rates observed were 40.8%, 34.9% and 21.3% for the atypical antipsychotics, typical antipsychotics and placebo, respectively. One hundred and sixty six patients would have to be included when a new drug is compared with placebo if calculation is based on a difference of 20% found between the atypical antipsychotic and placebo and 2,054 if the difference sought were that found between the atypical antipsychotic and the typical antipsychotic, i.e. 6%. The estimated therapeutic failures would be 115 of the 166 patients when the study drug is compared with placebo, and 1,274 failures in the 2,054 patients when the study drug is compared to the typical antipsychotic. CONCLUSIONS: Placebo controlled studies may reduce the number of individuals exposed to the harmful effects of ineffective drugs.


2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coletta Hobbs ◽  
Christopher Tennant ◽  
Alan Rosen ◽  
Lesley Newton ◽  
Helen M. Lapsley ◽  
...  

Objective: The closure of a long-stay psychiatric hospital in Sydney caused the transfer of an initial 40 very long-term patients to four community residences, each with 10 beds, for a continuing process of deinstitutionalisation. Community psychiatric service support and 24-h supervision were provided. This paper describes the residents' clinical progress which was assessed over a 2-year period. Method: This study employed a quasi-experimental longitudinal design. Evaluation commenced prior to discharge and continued for 2 years following community relocation using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Life Skills Profile, Social Behaviour Scale, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale and Quality Of Life measures. Readmission, demographic, case history and medication data were also collected. Results: Of the 40 patients initially transferred to the community, seven required long-term readmission to hospital (either prior to or after amalgamation) and one patient died of medical causes. Additional patients transferred from the hospital to the community following the readmissions. Three of these additional patients had achieved a 2-year community tenure during the study period and were included in the clinical evaluation. The 35 residents in total who remained in the community for 2 years, demonstrated a significant improvement in psychotic symptoms, without significant change in the level of neuroleptic medication. Importantly, the 2 years of community living resulted in a significant increase in the residents' life satisfaction. There were no statistically significant changes in residents' living skills, depressive symptoms or social behaviour problems over the 2 years, indicative of the need for supervision and community service support following deinstitutionalisation. Over the 2-year period, some 37% of the residents required temporary readmission. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the clinical effectiveness of deinstitutionalisation, when planned within a mental health system with adequate community resources.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 944-952
Author(s):  
Brian Y. Hong ◽  
Emily S. Ho ◽  
Elizabeth Zellner ◽  
John H. Phillips ◽  
Christopher R. Forrest

Introduction: Assessment of cranial dysmorphism in sagittal synostosis is often subjective but objective measures can be applied. These include cephalic index (CI) and midsagittal vector analysis (MSVA). Objective: To assess discriminant validity, construct validity, and responsiveness of CI and MSVA measured from computed tomography (CT) in patients with sagittal synostosis. Methods: Patients with nonsyndromic isolated sagittal synostosis with complete preoperative (n = 30) and postoperative (n = 13) CT data were included. Age-matched control group (n = 24) comprised of normocephalic patients who underwent CT for reasons related to trauma. Outcome Measures: Retrospective CT evaluation of CI and MSVA was conducted and correlated with a dysmorphism numeric rating scale (D-NRS) that measured surgeon-rated severity of sagittal synostosis. Responsiveness of CI and MSVA was evaluated using dysmorphism global rating of change (D-GRC). Results: Thirty patients with sagittal synostosis were demographically similar to 24 normocephalic patients. The difference in CI and MSVA was statistically significant between normocephalic and scaphocephalic patients. Cephalic index had a good correlation with D-NRS ( r = −0.665, ρ = −0.667), but not with MSVA ( r = 0.250, ρ = 0.203). Change in CI ( r = 0.738, ρ = 0.657) was well correlated with D-GRC, but not with MSVA ( r = −0.409, ρ = −0.301). Conclusion: Cephalic index appears to quantify the severity of sagittal synostosis better than MSVA. Cephalic index also has better responsiveness than MSVA to measure a reduction in severity of disease; however, MSVA is a better descriptive craniometric measurement. Midsagittal vector analysis was able to quantify the shift in morphology in sagittal synostosis following surgical treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Xin Qu

The present study was executed with the purpose of validating ELT Certificate Lesson Observation and Report Task (ELTC-LORT), which was developed by China Language Assessment to certify China’s EFL teachers by performance-based testing. The ELT Certificate has high-stakes considering its impacts on candidates’ recruitment, ELT in China and quality of education, so it is crucially important for its validation so as to guarantee fairness and justice. The validity of task construct and rating rubric went through a process suited for many-facet Rasch measurement supplemented with qualitative interviews. Participants (N = 40) were provided with a video excerpt from a real EFL lesson, and required to deliver a report on the teacher’s performance. Two raters graded the records of the candidates’ reports using rating scales developed to measure EFL teacher candidates’ oral English proficiency and ability to analyze and evaluate teaching. Many-facet Rasch analysis demonstrated a successful estimation, with a noticeable spread among the participants and their traits, proving the task functioned well in measuring candidates’ performance and reflecting the difference of their ability. The raters were found to have good internal self-consistency, but not the same leniency. The rating scales worked well, with the average measures advancing largely in line with Rasch expectations. Semi-structured interviews as well as focus group interviews were executed to provide knowledge regarding the raters’ performance levels and the functionalities of the rating scale items. The findings provide implications for further research and practice of the Certificate.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document