Raising Children in the Context of Rapid Social Change: Parenting Self-Efficacy of South Korean Mothers

Given recent sociocultural and economic changes that have created significant pressures on South Korean mothers, we were interested in understanding the factors that might contribute to their sense of competence in taking on the challenges of childrearing. We examined several family conditions theoretically supportive of mothers’ parenting self-efficacy (PSE), specifically whether mothers’ PSE was associated with their marital satisfaction and with their children’s competence (social and academic). We then examined whether PSE was related to life stress, as well as whether life stress moderated the relationship of PSE to the proximal marital and child variables. Participants included 234 South Korean mothers of pre-primary-aged children. Mothers completed a survey reporting on PSE, life stress, and marital satisfaction. Teachers provided ratings of children’s competence. Regression analyses indicated that mothers who experienced lower life stress reported higher PSE after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Neither marital satisfaction nor child competence was associated with PSE. A second set of regressions tested the same set of predictors, in addition to the interactions of life stress with marital satisfaction and of life stress with child competence. Results indicated that for mothers reporting lower life stress, greater marital satisfaction was associated with higher PSE. Unexpectedly, for mothers experiencing higher life stress, lower marital satisfaction was associated with higher PSE. These findings support theoretical formulations linking PSE with marital support and life stress, while suggesting a need to further investigate the association among these factors in a variety of situational contexts, particularly those that are appraised as stressful.

The Process of Prosocial Behavior Between Players/Characters in Digital Games

To understand the influence of video games on the player, several important questions must be answered. First, what accounts for the higher level of engagement in digital games relative to other entertainment media? Furthermore, what kind of experience does the player have during gameplay? Specifically, what does the player think when he or she interacts with other characters in the game? This study examines digital games with a focus on the interaction between the game itself and the person playing it. Among the various social behaviors elicited by digital games, much attention has been given to players' prosocial behavior within the context of a game's virtual world. A multidimensional view of behavior is used to analyze the game's situational contexts and players' interpretation of behavior.

The State Awaking Or Stealing?

The 2020 parliamentary elections in Croatia were held in an atmosphere marked by fear and anxiety because of negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, and riddled with other unresolved socio-economic and political issues. Therefore, choosing appropriate political slogans that would reflect positive messages of hope, encouragement, and safety to the Croatian people seemed of utmost importance. This paper identifies and discusses political discourse strategies behind the creation of selected billboard slogans used in the pre-election period by different political parties and platforms. Taking into account the results of the elections, the research focuses on the negative reactions to the content of the slogans in the Croatian public space. For this purpose, a corpus of readers’ online comments was built and subjected to a computer sentiment analysis. The results show that the majority of citizens in the research sample created negative mental images of political agents and the policies they promote. Further investigation of the reasons for the negative perception and evaluation revealed that the politico-historical and situational contexts play a significant role in shaping the public opinion, specifically in times of crises and threats to public health and wellbeing.

Effects of Aging Attitudes on Development in Old Age

This session will focus on aging attitudes and their effects on different aspects of development in old age (e.g., preparation, age stereotypes, age discrimination, and well-being). Cultural differences and how they shape individual aging are also explored. The first two presentations focus on cross-cultural differences in preparation for old-age. Nikitin et al. examine financial preparation and how expectations about support from the state influence it. People’s beliefs about the utility and the risk of aging preparation and their role in preparatory activities is investigated by Kim-Knauss et al. Tsang et al. explore age differences in pursuing autonomy and independence during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of perceived social obligation. Cultural differences in the accuracy between perceived retrospective changes in well-being and actual changes is explored by Park et al. The last presentation (de Paula Couto et al.) focuses on country- and age-related differences in personal experiences of age discrimination in different life domains. Taken together, findings suggest that attitudes toward, and preparation for aging, are not static. Situational contexts and personal assessments of the contexts can shape such attitudes and behavior.

A data fusion approach to the estimation of temporary populations: An application to Australia

This study establishes a new method for estimating the monthly Average Population Present (APP) in Australian regions. Conventional population statistics, which enumerate people where they usually live, ignore the significant spatial mobility driving short term shifts in population numbers. Estimates of the temporary or ambient population of a region have several important applications including the provision of goods and services, emergency preparedness and serve as more appropriate denominators for a range of social statistics. This paper develops a flexible modelling framework to generate APP estimates from an integrated suite of conventional and novel data sources. The resultant APP estimates reveal the considerable seasonality in small area populations across Australia’s regions alongside the contribution of domestic and international visitors as well as absent residents to the observed monthly variations. The modelling framework developed in the paper is conceived in a manner such that it can be adapted and re-deployed both for use with alternative data sources as well as other situational contexts for the estimation of temporary populations.

The Paths to Connectedness: A Review of the Antecedents of Connectedness to Nature

Although many philosophers and environmental psychologists agree that progress toward a more ecologically conscious society depends upon individuals developing a sense of connectedness to nature, such agreement is of limited use if we do not understand how connectedness forms. The purpose of this review is to delineate the state of the psychological literature concerning the antecedents of connectedness to nature. The literature review is organized into three main sections: (1) situational contexts that influence connectedness; (2) individual difference predictors, such as demographic group membership, personality, or beliefs; and (3) internal psychological states that may explain psychological processes that result in connectedness. Major critiques of the extant literature and future directions are presented in a discussion following the body of the review. The primary implications highlighted by the review are a greater need for theories delineating the formation of connectedness, a greater focus on process, and increased differentiation between similar antecedents of connectedness.

Sociolinguistic Awareness of Spanish Speakers on the Mexican Border with Belize

The border society of Chetumal is studied in order to know how the speakers of this linguistic community conceive their ways of speaking Spanish in different situational contexts (home or work), before different people (employers, friends or subordinates) and with it get to check the degree of linguistic awareness they possess; that is, if the social boundaries present in their speech exist and are recognized as such by all speakers. This study is based on just over 100 questionnaires applied to the same number of Spanish-speakers born in Chetumal in 2019, who were registered according to the traditional sociolinguistic factors of age, sex, and socio-cultural level, the latter calculated basically on the individual's education index. The conclusions reflect the linguistic reality of Spanish speakers on the southern border of Mexico in which Caribbean and English elements are palpable in the lexical sector of the language.

Incremental Learning in Multiple Limb Positions for Electromyography-Based Gesture Recognition using Hyperdimensional Computing

<div>Prosthetic control for rehabilitation, among many other applications, can leverage in-sensor hand gesture recognition in which lightweight machine learning models for classifying electromyogram (EMG) signals are embedded on miniature, low-power devices. While research efforts have demonstrated high accuracy in controlled settings, these methods have yet to make a significant commercial or clinical impact due to the wide variety of scenarios and situational contexts that are faced during everyday use. Typical static models suffer from the effects of EMG signal variation caused by changing contexts in which they are deployed. Here, we propose an incremental learning algorithm using hyperdimensional (HD) computing that can efficiently learn gesture patterns performed in new limb positions, a context-change which normally significantly degrades classification accuracy. A prototype-based learning algorithm, HD computing enables memory- and computation-efficient incorporation of new training examples into the model, while preserving information about already learned contexts. We present various configurations of the incremental HD classifier, allowing system designers to trade classification performance for implementation efficiency as measured through memory footprint. Incremental learning experiments with data from 5 subjects show that HD computing can achieve similar accuracies as incrementally trained SVM and LDA classifiers while requiring a fraction of the memory allocation. </div>

Incremental Learning in Multiple Limb Positions for Electromyography-Based Gesture Recognition using Hyperdimensional Computing

<div>Prosthetic control for rehabilitation, among many other applications, can leverage in-sensor hand gesture recognition in which lightweight machine learning models for classifying electromyogram (EMG) signals are embedded on miniature, low-power devices. While research efforts have demonstrated high accuracy in controlled settings, these methods have yet to make a significant commercial or clinical impact due to the wide variety of scenarios and situational contexts that are faced during everyday use. Typical static models suffer from the effects of EMG signal variation caused by changing contexts in which they are deployed. Here, we propose an incremental learning algorithm using hyperdimensional (HD) computing that can efficiently learn gesture patterns performed in new limb positions, a context-change which normally significantly degrades classification accuracy. A prototype-based learning algorithm, HD computing enables memory- and computation-efficient incorporation of new training examples into the model, while preserving information about already learned contexts. We present various configurations of the incremental HD classifier, allowing system designers to trade classification performance for implementation efficiency as measured through memory footprint. Incremental learning experiments with data from 5 subjects show that HD computing can achieve similar accuracies as incrementally trained SVM and LDA classifiers while requiring a fraction of the memory allocation. </div>

Situational Embarrassment and Its Relationship to Social Anxiety in Adults Who Stutter

Purpose Adults who stutter (AWS) have increased risk of comorbid social anxiety about speaking in social contexts. AWS also report experiencing embarrassment in different social situations; however, research has rarely been conducted on embarrassment and its relationship to social anxiety in AWS. Method AWS ( N = 200) reported their level of embarrassment on four 10-point Likert items when speaking in four situational contexts: at home, to an individual important to them, in social groups, and at work. Participants were also assessed for sociodemographic, stuttering, and anxiety variables. Construct validity for the four embarrassment items was examined, the extent of embarrassment established in the four contexts as a function of age and sex, and the relationship of embarrassment to social anxiety evaluated. Results Evidence of acceptable construct validity and reliability is presented for the four embarrassment Likert items. Sixty-five percent of the sample experienced high levels of embarrassment when speaking in groups or at work, while 35.5% experienced high levels when speaking at home or to an individual important to them. Participants were significantly more embarrassed ( p < .01) when speaking at work or when socializing in groups. Embarrassment was lowest when speaking in the home. Younger females were significantly more embarrassed when speaking at work or when socializing in groups. Those with high embarrassment scores on all four items were more likely to have elevated social anxiety scores ( p < .001). Conclusion These preliminary results suggest that the assessment of situational embarrassment could be an important clinical measure that may help improve stuttering treatment outcomes that also target social anxiety.