Parental belief towards online-based language learning amidst the pandemic

The pandemic had impeded the accustomed, traditional face-to-face synchronous modality of instruction. Attributable to the impediment, a revolutionized modality of pedagogy had to be conceptualized and subsequently adopted to ascertain that education does not halt. To date, the state-of-the-art technology provides the optimal option as a route the education sector could take. Though indirectly, parents – being one of the stakeholders of education – had to be involved in the business of educating the next generation. Along these claims, the present study investigated the beliefs of parents towards online-based language pedagogy. A total of 120 respondents of varying educational attainments ranging from elementary, secondary, tertiary, and postgraduate were surveyed online via an adapted research instrument, named as PBOBLLQ. The current paper employed a descriptive quantitative method which aids in shedding light on the beliefs of parents towards online-based language instruction. Also, a significant difference in the parents’ beliefs across educational attainment was confirmed.

Experiences of preparing children for a death of an important adult during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods study

ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to investigate how families prepared children for the death of a significant adult, and how health and social care professionals provided psychosocial support to families about a relative’s death during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/settingA mixed methods design; an observational survey with health and social care professionals and relatives bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, and in-depth interviews with bereaved relatives and professionals were conducted. Data were analysed thematically.ParticipantsA total of 623 participants completed the survey and interviews were conducted with 19 bereaved relatives and 16 professionals.ResultsMany children were not prepared for a death of an important adult during the pandemic. Obstacles to preparing children included families’ lack of understanding about their relative’s declining health; parental belief that not telling children was protecting them from becoming upset; and parents’ uncertainty about how best to prepare their children for the death. Only 10.2% (n=11) of relatives reported professionals asked them about their deceased relative’s relationships with children. This contrasts with 68.5% (n=72) of professionals who reported that the healthcare team asked about patient’s relationships with children. Professionals did not provide families with psychosocial support to facilitate preparation, and resources were less available or inappropriate for families during the pandemic. Three themes were identified: (1) obstacles to telling children a significant adult is going to die, (2) professionals’ role in helping families to prepare children for the death of a significant adult during the pandemic, and (3) how families prepare children for the death of a significant adult.ConclusionsProfessionals need to: provide clear and honest communication about a poor prognosis; start a conversation with families about the dying patient’s significant relationships with children; and reassure families that telling children someone close to them is dying is beneficial for their longer term psychological adjustment.

Parental Beliefs and Actual Use of Corporal Punishment, School Violence and Bullying, and Depression in Early Adolescence

Prior studies on adverse outcomes of parental corporal punishment on children have focused on examining one of two broad domains of parental corporal punishment: parental beliefs or actual use. Recently, researchers have argued that parental belief and actual use of corporal punishment should work jointly to contribute to children’s depression and involvement in school violence. Yet, studies supporting this proposition are lacking. This study examined the indirect link from parental attitudes towards corporal punishment to children’s depression and school violence involvement through actual use of corporal punishment. Four hundred and thirty-three elementary school students and their parents in Taiwan participated in this study. The results indicate that positive parental attitudes towards corporal punishment do not predict children’s depression and involvement in school violence. However, parental attitudes towards corporal punishment had significant indirect relationships with depression and involvement in school violence through the actual use of corporal punishment. These findings applied to both genders. This study supports the proposition that parental attitudes and the actual use of corporal punishment could work together to predict children’s depression and school violence. Future intervention programs for decreasing children’s depressive symptoms and involvement in school violence might need to tackle corporal punishment in the family.

Parental Beliefs about Child’s Experience of Anxiety in Saqr Hospital Ras Al-Khaimah, U.A.E

Anxiety is a reaction of an individual to change or a stressful event. Separation anxiety, fear of darkness, stranger anxiety etc., are normal features of development during the initial part of life. However, if it persists and not identified at an early stage can lead to anxiety disorders in children. Parents play an important role in its identification at an early stage and management to protect the child from long term consequences of anxiety disorders. It imposes them to have an appropriate belief about the experience of their child’s anxiety. Cross sectional survey was conducted among 252 parents who visited Saqr hospital for various health care issues. Participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique. Data was collected with the use of a self-reported Parental Belief about child's anxiety questionnaire (PBA-Q). Majority (93.7%) of parents had a moderate level and 5.6% had a highly negative belief about the experience of their child’s anxiety. No significant association was observed between Parental Belief about a child's anxiety and demographic variables like age, gender, education. However, a significant association was observed with the household income of the family. Parents being the primary and most influential caregiver, play a significant role in the emotional health of the children. Findings of the present study strongly recommend regular assessment of parents belief about the experience of anxiety in children and provide guidance to minimize anxiety disorders in children. PBA-Q is a simple tool that can be used in day to day practice.

Implicit pattern learning predicts individual differences in belief in God in the United States and Afghanistan

Most humans believe in a god, but many do not. Differences in belief have profound societal impacts. Anthropological accounts implicate bottom-up perceptual processes in shaping religious belief, suggesting that individual differences in these processes may help explain variation in belief. Here, in findings replicated across socio-religiously disparate samples studied in the U.S. and Afghanistan, implicit learning of patterns/order within visuospatial sequences (IL-pat) in a strongly bottom-up paradigm predict 1) stronger belief in an intervening/ordering god, and 2) increased strength-of-belief from childhood to adulthood, controlling for explicit learning and parental belief. Consistent with research implicating IL-pat as a basis of intuition, and intuition as a basis of belief, mediation models support a hypothesized effect pathway whereby IL-pat leads to intuitions of order which, in turn, lead to belief in ordering gods. The universality and variability of human IL-pat may thus contribute to the global presence and variability of religious belief.

Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in China: A Scoping Review of Chinese Scholarship

Despite the well-developed Chinese National Immunization Program, vaccine hesitancy in China is rising. As part of the response, Chinese scholars have studied determinants and proposed solutions to vaccination hesitancy. We performed a scoping review of Chinese literature (2007–2019), drawn from four Chinese databases. We mapped relevant information and presented a systemic account of the proposed determinants and responses to vaccine hesitancy in China. We identified 77 relevant studies that reveal four approaches to vaccine hesitancy. Most Chinese studies define vaccine hesitancy as a problem of vaccine safety and vaccine incident response and place accountability on the level of governance, such as regulation deficits and inappropriate crisis management. A first minority of studies tied vaccination hesitancy to unprofessional medical conduct and called for additional resources and enhanced physician qualifications. A second minority of studies positioned vaccination hesitancy as a problem of parental belief and pointed to the role of media, proposing enhanced communication and education. Chinese literature ties vaccine hesitancy primarily to vaccine safety and medical conduct. Compared to international research, parental concerns are underrepresented. The Chinese context of vaccination scandals notably frames the discussion of vaccination hesitancy and potential solutions, which stresses the importance of considering vaccination hesitancy in specific social and political contexts.

Pengaruh Parental Belief terhadap Curiosity Anak Usia Sekolah Dasar pada Masyarakat Betawi

Curiosity in Indonesian children is considered lacking, indicated by their reluc-tance to ask question and low critical thinking skill. One factor which is often as-sociated with children’s curiosity development is their relationship with authority figure. This study aims to gain information about which aspect of parental belief that is seen as more important (especially related to autonomy and conformity), and how it affects children’s curiosity. This study involved 32 pairs of parent and child from Betawi society, as parental belief and curiosity are influenced by culture and Betawi society was deemed as the prototype of Indonesian society in the future. Parental belief was analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and Bonferroni while curiosity was analyzed using multiple regression. Results shows that Betawi parents in general believe that autonomy is as important as conformity (p = 0,897 >0,05 with problem solving skills, p = 1,000 >0,05 with practical skills, and p = 0,261 >0,05 in academic objectives aspect), except in socialization at school con-text (p = 0,008 <0,05), and parental belief has no significant effect on children’s curiosity (p values are in range 0,284-0,982 >0,05).

Parental Belief dan Self-Esteem Anak: Studi pada Budaya Betawi

Self-esteem is one aspect that can affect the mental development of children and will further affect the well-being of individuals. One of the factors that can influence is parenting from parents. Parental belief is one of the factors that play a role to underlie the behavior of parents to children. This study aims to see the picture of the dimensions that on parental belief variable, that is child rearing of belief scale, attribute of intelligence, and educational goals, as well as its influence on the development of self-esteem in elementary school-age children, especially in grade 3, 4 and 5 elementary school children on the people of the Betawi culture. Betawi culture is used as a special context in this study because it has unique characteristics when compared to other cultures in Indonesia. The number of participants included in this study were 36 participants spread across several areas of Jakarta. The parental belief in Betawi culture according to the dimensions in PBQ is obtained in the dimensions of the child rearing belief scale, the highest subdimension is developing practical skills; on the dimensions of attributes of intelligence, the highest subdimension is motivation for school tasks; and on the dimensions of the educational goals, the highest subdimension is emphasize conformity. To see the effect of dimensions on parental belief in self esteem, researchers use multiple regression methods. The results obtained there were no significant effects of each dimension of parental belief in children self-esteem.