Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Mindfulness Training for School Teachers in Difficult Times: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: Research in recent years has shown that mindfulness-based interventions can enhance teachers' mental and physical health. However, the existing studies were predominantly conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies. As a randomized controlled trial in a non-WEIRD society, the present study examined the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness training for Hong Kong teachers in difficult times.

Acceptance of outgroup members in schools: Developmental trends and roles of perceived norm of prejudice and teacher support.

Background: Schools around the world are increasingly diverse in ethnicity. Given the importance of peer acceptance in children's well-being and development, it is a pressing concern for educators to promote intergroup acceptance in schools.

Aims: First, to examine the developmental trends of acceptance of outgroup members in both the ethnic minority and majority students.

A comprehensive service delivery model for preschoolers with special educational needs: Its characteristics and effectiveness.

Background: The compartmentalization between early intervention services and early childhood special education programs is a worldwide phenomenon, which results in the fragmentation of services for preschoolers with special educational needs (SEN).

Aims: To address this fragmentation of services, an intervention program in Hong Kong adopted a comprehensive service delivery model with six characteristics: 1) multidisciplinary approach, 2) integration of services across different contexts, 3) multimodal intervention with direct and indirect services, 4) capacity building for systems, 5) inclusive environment, and 6) high program intensity.

Methods: The program evaluation was a quasi-experiment with a control group (n = 60) matched to the experimental group (n = 60).

Mediator or moderator? The role of mindfulness in the association between child behavior problems and parental stress.

Background: Raising a child with intellectual disability (ID) may be stressful for parents. Previous studies have suggested the mediating role of mindfulness in the association between child behavior problems and parental stress.

Aims: The present study examined whether this mediating role is a result of parents' self-report bias.

The Role of Mothers' Child-Based Worth in Their Affective Responses to Children's Performance.

This research examined whether American and Chinese mothers' tendencies to base their worth on children's performance contributes to their affective responses to children's performance. Study 1 used daily interviews to assess mothers' warmth (vs. hostility) and children's school performance (N = 197; M  = 12.

Will Victims Become Aggressors or Vice Versa? A Cross-Lagged Analysis of School Aggression.

Peer aggression and victimization are ubiquitous phenomena in schools which warrant the attention of educators and researchers. The high connection between aggression and victimization behooves researchers to look into how the comorbidity of them develops over time. The present study investigated the associations between aggression and victimization over 3 years in early adolescence and whether these associations are moderated by gender and teacher support.

Understanding response patterns in dyadic conflict: An interactive approach combining self-construal and opponent's dominance-submissiveness.

Previous works on the effect of self-construal in interpersonal behaviours tend to adopt a main effect approach. The present research proposes an interactive approach in understanding two response patterns in dyadic conflict by combining self-construal and the stance of the opponent. Independent self-construal was hypothesised to be associated with a self-centred pattern of conflict response, which is characterised by taking contending responses regardless of whether the stance of the opponent is dominant or submissive.

Cultural universality and specificity of student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries.

Background: A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives.

Aims: This study investigated how student engagement in school is associated with grade, gender, and contextual factors across 12 countries. It also investigated whether these associations vary across countries with different levels of individualism and socio-economic development.

Understanding and measuring student engagement in school: the results of an international study from 12 countries.

The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internationally to measure affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of student engagement. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined with data of 3,420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) from 12 countries (Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The intraclass correlation of the full-scale scores of student engagement between countries revealed that it was appropriate to aggregate the data from the 12 countries for further analyses.

A latent class growth analysis of school bullying and its social context: the self-determination theory perspective.

The contribution of social context to school bullying was examined from the self-determination theory perspective in this longitudinal study of 536 adolescents from 3 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Latent class growth analysis of the student-reported data at 5 time points from grade 7 to grade 9 identified 4 groups of students: bullies (9.8%), victims (3.

Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries.

This study examined gender differences in student engagement and academic performance in school. Participants included 3420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th graders) from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results indicated that, compared to boys, girls reported higher levels of engagement in school and were rated higher by their teachers in academic performance.

How parents perceive and feel about participation in community activities. The comparison between parents of preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The present study compared how parents of preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) perceived and felt about participation in community activities. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 380 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers with ASD and 214 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers without ASD. The two groups were not different in their willingness and frequency of participation in community activities.

Classroom discourse analysis and educational outcomes in the era of education reform.

Background: In the era of education reform when new teaching approaches are being advocated, it is important to investigate how different classroom discourse patterns are related to different educational outcomes.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to analyse the whole classroom discourse of two teacher interns' writing classes. It was conducted against a background of education reform in which teachers were being encouraged to make major changes in their teaching approaches.

Who makes the choice? Rethinking the role of autonomy and relatedness in Chinese children's motivation.

The importance of autonomy for children's motivation in collectivistic cultures has been debated hotly. With the understanding that autonomy is not equivalent to freedom of choice, 4 studies addressed this debate by investigating how socioemotional relatedness, choice, and autonomy were related to Chinese children's motivation. Study 1 (N = 56, mean age = 10.

European American and Chinese parents' responses to children's success and failure: implications for children's responses.

The authors examined cultural differences in parents' responses to their children's performance. In Study 1 (N = 421), Chinese 5th graders reported that their parents de-emphasized their academic success and emphasized their academic failure, whereas their American counterparts reported that their parents did the opposite. This partially accounted for Chinese (vs.

When high achievers and low achievers work in the same group: the roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project-based learning.

Background: There has been an ongoing debate about the inconsistent effects of heterogeneous ability grouping on students in small group work such as project-based learning.

Aim: The present research investigated the roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project-based learning. At the student level, we examined the interaction effect between students' within-group achievement and group processes on their self- and collective efficacy.

Effects of competition on students' self-efficacy in vicarious learning.

Background: Vicarious learning is one of the fundamental sources of self-efficacy that is frequently employed in educational settings. However, little research has investigated the effects of competition on students' writing self-efficacy when they engage in vicarious learning.

Aim: This study compared the effects of competitive and non-competitive classrooms on students' writing self-efficacy when they engaged in vicarious learning.

Self-construal and social comparison effects.

Background: Social comparison research usually demonstrates that students will have higher self-evaluation in downward comparison but lower self-evaluation in upward comparison. However, the existence of this contrast effect may depend on people's self-construal. The contrast effect may exist only for people with independent self-construal.

The effects of competition on achievement motivation in Chinese classrooms.

Background: Laboratory studies have consistently found that competition induces performance goals and affects learning motivation. However, the ecological validity of these results is yet to be established. There is a need for investigation of whether the results hold in both the classroom context and non-Western culture.