Interpersonal relationship mindsets and rejection sensitivity across cultures: The role of relational mobility

Are teachers with better quality of work life more innovative? The mediating roles of psychological empowerment and teaching mindsets

Are teachers with better quality of work life (QWL) more innovative, and why? This study examined the relationship between teachers' QWL and their innovative behaviours, alongside the potential underlying mechanisms through psychological empowerment and teaching mindsets. A total of 321 elementary teachers completed a questionnaire. Path analysis demonstrated a significant positive association between QWL and innovative teaching behaviours. Moreover, both psychological empowerment and teaching mindsets significantly mediated this relationship. Specifically, teachers with higher QWL showed greater psychological empowerment and embraced stronger growth mindsets about their teaching abilities, which enables them to become more innovative in their teaching approaches. These findings suggest that quality of work life is not just a matter of teachers' well-being, but it also plays an important role in their teaching quality, which can ultimately benefit the institutions and the students.

Antecedents of social media addiction in high and low relational mobility societies: Motivation to expand social network and fear of reputational damage

Contrary to previous studies on the antecedent factors of social media addiction, we focused on the social environmental factor of relational mobility (i.e., the ease of constructing new interpersonal relationships) and investigated its relationship with social media addiction. People in low relational mobility societies have fewer opportunities to select new relationship partners and consequently feel a stronger need to maintain their reputation. We hypothesized that (1) people in low relational mobility societies are more strongly addicted to social media because they estimate that greater reputational damage will be caused by ignoring messages and (2) people in low relational mobility societies estimate greater reputational damage than actual damage. We conducted two online experiments with 715 and 1,826 participants. Our results demonstrated that (1) there is no relationship between relational mobility and social media addiction and (2) people in both high and low relational mobility societies overestimate reputational damage. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the social media addiction mechanism differs between societies: (3) people in low relational mobility societies estimate greater reputational damage, whereas (4) people in high relational mobility societies are more motivated to expand their social networks; both mechanisms strengthen their social media addiction. Based on these results, we propose interventions for moderating social media addiction in both high and low relational mobility societies.

The Structural Relationship Between Teacher Support and Willingness to Communicate: The Mediation of L2 Anxiety and the Moderation of Growth Language Mindset

The important role of willingness to communicate (WTC) in facilitating second language (L2) learning and use has been widely endorsed. However, few studies have examined how teacher support in an L2 class may predict students' L2 WTC. Such a relationship may also be mediated by learners' L2 anxiety, a typical predictor of L2 WTC, and moderated by learners' beliefs about the malleability of their language learning ability, a construct known as growth language mindset. Framed from the Control-Value Theory (Pekrun, in Educ Psychol Rev 18(4):315-341, 2006) and the Language-Mindset Meaning System (Lou and Noels, in: Lamb, Csizér, Henry, Ryan (eds) The Palgrave handbook of motivation for language learning, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019a, System 86:102126, 2019b), this study aimed to investigate the relationships between teacher support, L2 anxiety, growth language mindset, and L2 WTC. The data were collected from 551 English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners in Iran and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that teacher support was directly and positively associated with L2 WTC, and this relationship was significantly mediated by L2 anxiety. The relationship between teacher support and L2 WTC, however, was only significant among learners with medium and high levels of growth language mindset. In addition, growth language mindset also moderated the negative relationship between L2 anxiety and L2 WTC, with this relationship being weaker among learners with higher levels of growth language mindset. Finally, theoretical and pedagogical implications and directions for future research are presented.

Allostatic-interoceptive anticipation of social rejection

Anticipating social stress evokes strong reactions in the organism, including interoceptive modulations. However, evidence for this claim comes from behavioral studies, often with inconsistent results, and relates almost solely to the reactive and recovery phase of social stress exposure. Here, we adopted an allostatic-interoceptive predictive coding framework to study interoceptive and exteroceptive anticipatory brain responses using a social rejection task. We analyzed the heart-evoked potential (HEP) and task-related oscillatory activity of 58 adolescents via scalp EEG, and 385 human intracranial recordings of three patients with intractable epilepsy. We found that anticipatory interoceptive signals increased in the face of unexpected social outcomes, reflected in larger negative HEP modulations. Such signals emerged from key brain allostatic-interoceptive network hubs, as shown by intracranial recordings. Exteroceptive signals were characterized by early activity between 1-15 Hz across conditions, and modulated by the probabilistic anticipation of reward-related outcomes, observed over distributed brain regions. Our findings suggest that the anticipation of a social outcome is characterized by allostatic-interoceptive modulations that prepare the organism for possible rejection. These results inform our understanding of interoceptive processing and constrain neurobiological models of social stress.

Association between relational mobility, brain structure, and prosociality in adolescents

Trust plays a vital role in human society. Previous studies have suggested that trust comprises general trust and caution. General trust is a belief that others, in general, are trustworthy, and caution is a belief in the importance of vigilance in dealing with others. Adolescence is a critical period for establishing these psychological traits. It is a period of physical and mental development, and the social environment during this period influences adolescents' psychology, including their brain structures. In this study, we focus on relational mobility as a socio-environmental factor that influences the development of adolescents' psychology and the brain. Relational mobility refers to the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and consists of two subfactors (the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and the number of opportunities to meet new people). Accordingly, we analyzed each subfactor separately. Results showed that the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships was only negatively associated with caution and left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) volume in adolescents. Furthermore, the effect of the freedom to choose and replace social relationships on caution was significantly relevant to the left pSTG volume. In contrast, the degree of opportunities to meet new people was associated with neither general trust nor caution, whereas it was positively associated with the right supramarginal gyrus volume. This study suggests that the social environment during adolescence influences brain structures related to prosociality.

The casual effect of relational mobility on integration of social networks: An agent-based modeling approach

Despite converging evidence for the importance of relational mobility on shaping people's social experiences, previous work suggested mixed findings for its influence on the structure of sociocentric networks, which lays the basis for the development of all types of social relationships. Additionally, as it is timely and economically intractable to administer such longitudinal experiments in real-life settings, most previous work mainly relied on cross-sectional correlation analyses and provided limited causal evidence. The current research used an agent-based modeling approach to examine whether higher relational mobility (i.e., the number of opportunities to meet new people) would promote integration among social networks over time. Using parameters derived from survey data, we simulated how the integration of sociocentric social networks evolves under different levels of relational mobility. Based on the data of three network structural indicators, including modularity, global efficiency, and standard deviation of nodal betweenness, we obtained causal evidence supporting that higher relational mobility promotes greater network integration. These findings highlight the power of socioecological demands on our social experiences.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03130-x.

From dementia mindsets to emotions and behaviors: Predicting person-centered care in care professionals

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

High-quality care standards for dementia care are increasingly based on person-centered care principles. To better understand facilitating factors of person-centered care this research focuses on individual characteristics of care professionals. Applying mindset theory to dementia care, we examined dementia mindsets (viewing dementia symptoms as either malleable or fixed) in care professionals. We tested whether there is a positive relationship between a malleable dementia mindset and person-centered care as well as a negative relationship between a fixed dementia mindset and person-centered care. Moreover, we examined whether care professionals' emotional responses in care situations help explain associations between dementia mindsets and person-centered care.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD

In two cross-sectional studies, care professionals of long-term care facilities (total N = 370) completed a measure of dementia mindsets and reported their emotional and behavioral responses to five care scenarios. Regression and mediation analyses were performed.

FINDINGS

The tested hypotheses were partially supported. A fixed dementia mindset predicted reported person-centered care negatively, while a malleable dementia mindset did not. Mediation analyses suggest that reduced negative emotions may underlie the association between a malleable mindset and reported person-centered care, while reduced positive emotions in care situations may underlie the association of a fixed mindset and reported person-centered care. Study 2 partially replicated these findings. A fixed mindset and positive emotional responses were the most robust predictors of reported person-centered care.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

This study extends knowledge on facilitators (positive emotional responses to care situations) and barriers (fixed dementia mindset) to person-centered care in care professionals working with persons with dementia. We discuss how dementia mindsets and emotional responses to care situations may be a fruitful target for trainings for care professionals.

Freedom to Stay-at-Home? Countries Higher in Relational Mobility Showed Decreased Geographic Mobility at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this paper, we examine whether relational mobility (RM) (the ability for individuals to voluntarily form and terminate relationships within a given social environment) on a country level related to individuals' tendencies to restrict their movement following the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and following the issuance of stay-at-home orders in their country. We use data on geographic mobility, composed of records of geolocation information provided via mobile phones, to examine changes in geographic mobility at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that individuals in countries with higher RM tended to decrease their geographic mobility more than those in countries with lower RM following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar results were found for wealth gross domestic product (GDP), but were independent of RM. These results suggest that individuals in countries with higher RM were more responsive to calls to reduce geographic mobility.

Longitudinal Relations between Rejection Sensitivity and Adjustment in Chinese Children: Moderating Effect of Emotion Regulation

The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of emotion regulation in the longitudinal relations between rejection sensitivity and indices of adjustment among Chinese children. Participants were N = 590 children (M_age= 11.25 years, SD = 1.33) attending public elementary and middle schools in Shanghai, P.R. China. Measures of anxious rejection sensitivity and socio-emotional functioning were collected via self-reports and peer nominations. Among the results, rejection sensitivity significantly predicted higher levels of later internalizing problems. Moreover, emotion regulation significantly moderated (i.e. buffering effect) the relations between rejection sensitivity and later peer and emotional difficulties. The current findings suggest that rejection sensitivity poses developmental risk over time, but emotion regulation may serve as a protective factor for Chinese youth. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of rejection sensitivity and emotion regulation in Chinese culture.

Self-Interested Framed and Prosocially Framed Messaging Can Equally Promote COVID-19 Prevention Intention: A Replication and Extension of Jordan et al.'s Study (2020) in the Japanese Context

How can we effectively promote the public's prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection? Jordan et al. (2020) found with United States samples that emphasizing either self-interest or collective-interest of prevention behaviors could promote the public's prevention intention. Moreover, prosocially framed messaging was more effective in motivating prevention intention than self-interested messaging. A dual consideration of both cultural psychology and the literature on personalized matching suggests the findings of Jordan et al. (2020) are counterintuitive, because persuasion is most effective when the frame of the message delivered and the recipient of the message are culturally congruent. In order to better understand the potential influence of culture, the current research aimed to replicate and extend Jordan et al. (2020) findings in the Japanese context. Specifically, we examined the question (1) whether the relative effectiveness of the prosocial appeal is culturally universal and robust, (2) which types of 'others' especially promote prevention intention, and (3) which psychological mechanisms can explain the impact of messaging on prevention intention. In Study 1 (N = 1,583), we confirmed that self-interested framed, prosocially framed, and the combination of both types of messaging were equally effective in motivating prevention intention. In Study 2 (N = 1,686), we found that family-framed messaging also had a promoting effect similar to that from self-interested and prosocial appeals. However, the relative advantage of prosocial appeals was not observed. Further, a psychological propensity relevant to sensitivity to social rejection did not moderate the impact of messaging on prevention intention in both studies. These results suggest that since engaging in the infection control itself was regarded as critical by citizens after public awareness of COVID-19 prevention has been sufficiently heightened, for whom we should act might not have mattered. Further, concerns for social rejection might have had less impact on the prevention intentions under these circumstances. These results suggest that the relative advantage of a prosocial appeal might not be either culturally universal or prominent in a collectivistic culture. Instead, they suggest that the advantages of such an appeal depends on the more dynamic influence of COVID-19 infection.

Rejection sensitivity and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: Mediation through depressive symptoms and moderation by fear of self-compassion

OBJECTIVES

Rejection sensitivity is a risk trait that contributes to the relationships between rejection experiences in various domains and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). However, research about the association between rejection sensitivity and NSSI has still been understudied. This study sought to examine the mediating role of depressive symptoms and the moderating role of fear of self-compassion in the association between rejection sensitivity and adolescent NSSI.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional correlational design was employed through which rejection sensitivity, depressive symptoms, fear of self-compassion, and NSSI experiences in the past year were measured.

METHODS

Seven-hundred twenty-eight Chinese secondary school students (51.1% females; mean age = 14.07, SD = 0.75) were included by convenient sampling.

RESULTS

Regression analyses revealed that depressive symptoms worked as a mediator in the association between rejection sensitivity and NSSI. It was also found that fear of self-compassion acted as a moderator, such that a higher level of fear of self-compassion strengthened the link between rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms and the direct link between rejection sensitivity and NSSI.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the need to address adolescents' rejection sensitivity, depressive symptoms, and fear of self-compassion in preventing and intervening NSSI.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

Focusing on rejection sensitivity might help understand the relationships between intra- and interpersonal distress and NSSI. The findings of this study evidenced the risk effect of adolescents' rejection sensitivity on NSSI and the partial mediation of depressive symptoms in the link. Targeting adolescents' rejection sensitivity will be beneficial in developing NSSI-related prevention and intervention programs. This study also found that adolescents' fear of self-compassion magnified the associations between rejection sensitivity, depressive symptoms, and NSSI. It suggests that targeting adolescent's fear of self-compassion will also be beneficial.

Chinese versions of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire: Psychometric properties, measurement invariance across gender and cultures

Associations between unmet interpersonal needs and different aspects of suicide have been observed in both Western and non-Western cultures using the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ). However, measurement invariance is a prerequisite for comparing differences between culturally different groups, and to date, no studies have examined measurement invariance of INQ across cultures. This study aimed to (a) validate Chinese versions of the INQ, (b) assess measurement invariance across gender for the Chinese INQ, (c) assess measurement invariance across Australian and Chinese cultures for the INQ, and (d) comprehensively assess the association of interpersonal needs with suicide ideation. A sample of 469 Australian undergraduates and a sample of 854 Chinese undergraduates were used in this study. For testing measurement invariance across gender, the sample of Chinese undergraduates was split by gender into the Chinese male and Chinese female samples. Five versions of INQ (10-, 12-, 15-, 18- and 25-item) were tested. The 10- and 15-item Chinese INQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties through various analyses (i.e., reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling) and also demonstrated measurement invariance across gender via multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The 10-item INQ demonstrated measurement invariance across Australian and Chinese cultures. Of the two interpersonal factors, only perceived burdensomeness was significantly associated with suicide ideation. Multigroup structural equation modeling demonstrated that perceived burdensomeness may be a greater risk factor of suicide among Australian undergraduates than among Chinese undergraduates. Practical and theoretical contributions of this study are discussed.

Prospective Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Predictors of Initiation and Cessation of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury among Chinese Adolescents

(1) Purpose: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) possibly emerges as well as remits in adolescence. To explore the development and transition of NSSI, this study examined the association between a wide range of interpersonal and intrapersonal predictors of NSSI initiation and cessation. (2) Methods: Chinese adolescents (N = 913) completed self-reported surveys at baseline and at a six-month follow-up. The sample included 625 adolescents who reported no NSSI and 288 adolescents who reported engagement in NSSI at baseline. (3) Results: Among the adolescents without NSSI at baseline, 24.3% engaged in NSSI at follow-up (NSSI initiation group). Among the adolescents with NSSI at baseline, 33.3% reported no NSSI at follow-up (NSSI cessation group). Loneliness, beliefs about adversity, problem behavior, and prosocial behavior were the significant factors in predicting subsequent NSSI initiation. None of the potential predicting factors were associated with subsequent NSSI cessation. (4) Conclusions: These results indicate the importance of intrapersonal factors in Chinese culture, which could be used to identify at-risk adolescents and to design interventions.

Does your trust in strangers or close acquaintances promote better health? Societal residential mobility matters

Some studies indicated that different types of trust are qualitatively different psychological experiences, which may lead to different health outcomes. The present study examined the effect of two types of trust, i.e., generalized trust and interpersonal trust, on promoting physical health and subjective well-being in regions varying in societal residential mobility. The data from a nationally representative sample, including 10,968 participants from 28 provinces/municipalities in China, were analyzed. The results showed that the negative relationship between generalized trust and depressed mood was stronger in the regions with higher societal residential mobility whereas the positive relationship between interpersonal trust and physical health and the negative relationship between interpersonal trust and depressed mood were stronger in the regions with lower societal residential mobility. These results highlight the importance of socio-ecological characteristics in understanding the adaptive functions of different types of social capital on health outcomes. (143 words; max: 150 words).

Universals and variations in moral decisions made in 42 countries by 70,000 participants

We report the largest cross-cultural study of moral preferences in sacrificial dilemmas, that is, the circumstances under which people find it acceptable to sacrifice one life to save several. On the basis of 70,000 responses to three dilemmas, collected in 10 languages and 42 countries, we document a universal qualitative pattern of preferences together with substantial country-level variations in the strength of these preferences. In particular, we document a strong association between low relational mobility (where people are more cautious about not alienating their current social partners) and the tendency to reject sacrifices for the greater good—which may be explained by the positive social signal sent by such a rejection. We make our dataset publicly available for researchers.

When do people find it acceptable to sacrifice one life to save many? Cross-cultural studies suggested a complex pattern of universals and variations in the way people approach this question, but data were often based on small samples from a small number of countries outside of the Western world. Here we analyze responses to three sacrificial dilemmas by 70,000 participants in 10 languages and 42 countries. In every country, the three dilemmas displayed the same qualitative ordering of sacrifice acceptability, suggesting that this ordering is best explained by basic cognitive processes rather than cultural norms. The quantitative acceptability of each sacrifice, however, showed substantial country-level variations. We show that low relational mobility (where people are more cautious about not alienating their current social partners) is strongly associated with the rejection of sacrifices for the greater good (especially for Eastern countries), which may be explained by the signaling value of this rejection. We make our dataset fully available as a public resource for researchers studying universals and variations in human morality.

Empathy and social closeness toward refugees from Syria: The mediating role of cultural intelligence

The predictors of social closeness toward refugees are rarely examined. In this study (N = 337), higher cultural intelligence (CQ) and higher empathy were defined as predictors of higher social closeness (lower social distance [the Social Distance Scale] and warmer feelings [the Feeling Thermometer]) toward refugees from Syria. This is the target group of prejudice and intensive coverage in the European mass media. The obtained results indicated that other-oriented empathy (empathic concern and perspective taking) and the motivational CQ predicted higher social closeness and warmer feelings toward refugees from Syria. Empathic personal distress predicted lower social closeness and colder feelings toward this group. Motivational CQ consistently served as the mediator of the relationship between empathy dimensions and social closeness toward Syrian refugees. Our findings reveal the previously unexplored correlations between empathy dimensions and cultural intelligence factors, including the mediational effects in predicting social closeness toward Syrian refugees.