Do individualism and collectivism on three levels (country, individual, and situation) influence theory-of-mind efficiency? A cross-country study

Gaps in clinical research in frontotemporal dementia: A call for diversity and disparities-focused research

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the leading causes of dementia before age 65 and often manifests as abnormal behavior (in behavioral variant FTD) or language impairment (in primary progressive aphasia). FTD's exact clinical presentation varies by culture, language, education, social norms, and other socioeconomic factors; current research and clinical practice, however, is mainly based on studies conducted in North America and Western Europe. Changes in diagnostic criteria and procedures as well as new or adapted cognitive tests are likely needed to take into consideration global diversity. This perspective paper by two professional interest areas of the Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment examines how increasing global diversity impacts the clinical presentation, screening, assessment, and diagnosis of FTD and its treatment and care. It subsequently provides recommendations to address immediate needs to advance global FTD research and clinical practice.

Prevalence, risk, and protective factors of self-stigma for people living with depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

People living with depression are subjected to widespread stigmatization worldwide. Self-stigma may negatively affect patients' treatment, recovery, and psychological well-being. This review aims to summarize and synthesize the evidence on the prevalence, risk, and protective factors of depression self-stigma.

METHODS

Four online databases, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Embase, were searched to identify eligible studies. Fifty-six studies involving a total of 11,549 samples were included in the final analysis. Four reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias in eligible studies. Pearson's r was chosen as the effect size metric of risk and protective factors.

RESULTS

The results showed that the global prevalence of depression self-stigma was 29 %. Levels of self-stigma varied across regions, but this difference was not significant. Two demographic factors were identified: ethnicity (r = 0.10, p < 0.05) and having a partner/married (r = -0.22, p < 0.001). Five risk factors were identified: depression severity (r = 0.33, p < 0.01), public stigma (r = 0.44, p < 0.001), treatment stigma (r = 0.46, p < 0.001), perceived stigma (r = 0.37, p < 0.001), and enacted stigma (r = 0.71, p < 0.001). Five protective factors were identified: quality of life (r = -0.38, p < 0.001), social relationship (r = -0.26, p < 0.05), self-esteem (r = -0.46, p < 0.001), extroversion (r = -0.32, p < 0.001), and social functioning (r = -0.49, p < 0.001).

LIMITATIONS

Heterogeneity was observed in some of the results. Causality cannot be inferred due to the predominance of cross-sectional designs among the included literature.

CONCLUSIONS

Risk and protective factors of depression self-stigma exist across many dimensions. Future research should examine the inner mechanisms and effectiveness of interventions to reduce stigma.

The influence of in-groups and out-groups on the theory-of-mind processing: evidence from different ethnic college students

According to previous studies of theory of mind (ToM), social environment and cultural background affect individuals' cognitive ability to understand other people's minds. There are cross-group differences in ToM. The present study aimed to examine whether social environment and culture affect the ToM in Uygur and Han groups and whether the individual's cognitive ToM and affective ToM show in-group advantages. Han and Uygur college students were recruited as participants. The "self/other differentiation task" was used to measure cognitive ToM (Study 1), and the "Yoni task" was used to measure both cognitive and affective ToM (Study 2). We found that Han participants processed the cognitive and affective states of others faster and more accurately than Uygur ones. Uygur and Han participants processed in-group members' cognitive and affective states faster and more accurately. Furthermore, Uygur participants were more accurate in the cognitive ToM processing of in-group members, while Han participants were faster in the affective ToM processing of in-group members. The findings indicated that ethnic culture and group identify might influence ToM processing. Strengthening exchanges between ethnic groups may enable individuals to better process out-group members' psychological states.

Teachers' contributions to the school climate and using empathy at work: implications from qualitative research in two European countries

This research aimed to reveal the factors that, based on their experiences, teachers consider important in their contribution to a positive school climate and in their relationship with students when it comes to using empathy. Teachers from two European countries-Latvia (n = 83) and Lithuania (n = 69)-participated in the research. Data were collected through focus group-based interviews and analyzed using latent qualitative content analysis. The results revealed the teachers' shared understanding of the importance of communication and professional development. However, only Lithuanian teachers emphasized strengthening institutional values and other more collectivistic aspects; the answers of Latvian teachers were specific and suggested more of an individualistic attitude, like allocating personal responsibility to use appropriate instructional strategies. This study draws attention to contextual and cultural factors of teachers' work and actualizes their educational needs.

Exploring Malaysian parents' and teachers' cultural conceptualization of adolescent social and emotional competencies: A qualitative formative study

Introduction

Global implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) has been suggested to incorporate a systematic cultural adaptation process which relies on ground-up empirical data of a target cultural group in tailoring a culturally sensitive SEL intervention. Preliminary formative studies among local parents and educators were done to explore the conceptualization of social and emotional competencies (SECs) in various cultural settings, such as the continent of Africa and among the indigenous and refugee groups. Unfortunately, little scholarship has been devoted to studying the SEL adaptation process in Southeast Asian regions. This formative study aimed to explore Malaysian parents' and teachers' cultural conceptualization of adolescent SECs.

Methods

This qualitative study interviewed 12 Malaysian parents and 10 Malaysian teachers comprising of Malay (82%), Chinese (9%) and Indian (9%) races in an online focus group discussion. Sampling is purposive to parents of adolescents and teachers at secondary school only. Data were analyzed thematically to determine the culturally sensitive SEL constructs for Malaysian adolescents.

Results

All themes and sub-themes of SEC regarded as crucial for Malaysian adolescents are aligned with CASEL's five domains of competencies. Our findings extended the conceptualization of subskills under CASEL's relationship skills and responsible decision-making domains, which reflect Asian cultural values. The main themes of social competency: (a) preserving interpersonal relationships, (b) utilizing intrapersonal skills, and (c) communicating effectively, are shared with the established CASEL constructs. However, the underlying subthemes denote the unique cultural manifestation of social competency in Malaysia. Two of the emotional competency themes represent the established CASEL constructs: (a) practicing self-regulation, (b) demonstrating help-seeking behavior, and the other two themes signify Asian values: (c) upholding altruism, and (d) maintaining cultural display rules.

Discussions

This formative study revealed the habitual use of experiential and expressive suppressions as adaptive emotion regulation strategies in Malaysian collectivist culture and offered a potential alternative emotion regulation pathway suitable for Malaysian adolescents. It also informed the feasibility of implementing SEL modules developed based on the CASEL framework in Malaysia and suggested two key lessons to enhance the cultural sensitivity of SEL in Malaysia: effective, respectful communication and expressive writing.

Ethnic differences in names in China: A comparison between Chinese Mongolian and Han Chinese cultures in Inner Mongolia

I propose two suggestions on Stojcic et al.’s (2020) Study 3, which examined ethnic differences in individualism between Chinese Mongolian and Han Chinese cultures in China. The authors analyzed the names of all residents in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China and found that the percentages of common names among Chinese Mongolians were smaller than those among Han Chinese. The authors concluded that Chinese Mongolians are more independent than Han Chinese. However, two questions remain unanswered. First, although the authors analyzed the names of people in all age groups together and did not analyze the names by birth year, how was the effect of time controlled? Second, although the authors treated name indices, which have been used as group-level indicators in previous research, as individual-level indicators, how did the authors confirm whether name indices can be used as individual-level indicators? Addressing these two questions would contribute to a better understanding of ethnic differences in individualism in China.

Motivation-Achievement Cycles in Learning: a Literature Review and Research Agenda

The question of how learners’ motivation influences their academic achievement and vice versa has been the subject of intensive research due to its theoretical relevance and important implications for the field of education. Here, we present our understanding of how influential theories of academic motivation have conceptualized reciprocal interactions between motivation and achievement and the kinds of evidence that support this reciprocity. While the reciprocal nature of the relationship between motivation and academic achievement has been established in the literature, further insights into several features of this relationship are still lacking. We therefore present a research agenda where we identify theoretical and methodological challenges that could inspire further understanding of the reciprocal relationship between motivation and achievement as well as inform future interventions. Specifically, the research agenda includes the recommendation that future research considers (1) multiple motivation constructs, (2) behavioral mediators, (3) a network approach, (4) alignment of intervals of measurement and the short vs. long time scales of motivation constructs, (5) designs that meet the criteria for making causal, reciprocal inferences, (6) appropriate statistical models, (7) alternatives to self-reports, (8) different ways of measuring achievement, and (9) generalizability of the reciprocal relations to various developmental, ethnic, and sociocultural groups.

Nurses' Qualitative Descriptions of the Organizational Climate of Hospitals

PURPOSE

To explore nurses' perceptions of the organizational climate in general hospitals in Myanmar.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Using a qualitative descriptive design, data were purposively collected from all levels of registered nurses in eight general hospitals across Myanmar during August to October 2019. Seventeen individual in-depth interviews and eight focus group discussions with 65 nurses were undertaken and analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman's qualitative content analysis.

FINDINGS

Four categories of organizational climate from a Myanmar nursing context emerged: organizational uniqueness, organizational alignment, sense of empowerment, and the reinforcing organization. Organizational uniqueness included the subcategories of perception of features and orientation of the organization, whilst organizational alignment comprised the three subcategories of the values inherent in the management process, the criteria of success, and strategic emphasis. The sense of empowerment category embraced the subcategories of the perceptions of the decision making and roles of leaders or managers; the last category, the reinforcing organization, incorporated the subcategories of bonding and recognition of the organization.

CONCLUSIONS

This was the first qualitative nursing study on nurses' perceptions of organizational climate in Myanmar hospitals. Participants revealed a rich source of information that needs to be considered by hospital administrators and other policymakers to enhance quality clinical care by nurses, and their overall well-being and working conditions. The emphasis on the holistic nature of this concept points to further investigations of working conditions, the lives of nurses, and management of nurses within the hospital environments in Myanmar hospitals, and can inform other countries.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Nurses revealed a rich understanding of what an organizational climate represents or should represent, and they need to work with hospital administrators and managers to contribute to the development of positive organizational climate, which in turn should increase nurse retention and the efficacy of health care provided in hospitals.

Cross-cultural differences in intercultural mindreading: Evidence from a sample of Palestinian, Italian, and German adolescents

Despite the fact that the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (RMET) is now available in more than 20 languages, there are only very few cross-cultural researchers using this test, and these researchers generally focus on North American versus East Asian cultures. Considering that the RMET stimuli were selected and constructed in the United Kingdom, this research explored cross-cultural differences in intercultural mindreading with a large sample of adolescents from Palestine (PAL), Italy (ITA), and Germany (GER). In addition to significant main effects of age (younger < older) and gender (male < female), we found a significant main effect of country (PAL < ITA < GER) and a significant interaction between gender and country. Individualism was not related to mindreading in any of the three countries whereas collectivism was positively related in PAL, but not in ITA or GER, accounting only for a very small amount of the variance. Our results suggest that (a) there may be cultural ingroup effects on mindreading, (b) the known female superiority in mindreading may be moderated by cultural factors, and (c) depending on cultural factors, individualism and collectivism may be differently related to mindreading.

Structural Factors Responsible for Universal Health Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Results From 118 Countries

Background: Demography, politics, economy, and governance appear to be the major structural factors for health and well-being. These factors have a significant role to play in achieving universal health coverage (UHC). The majority of previous studies did not highlight those factors. The aim of this study is to explore the basic structural factors (political stability, demography, gross national income, governance, and transparency) associated with a UHC index of low- and middle-income countries because for a long time there has be a stagnation achieving universal health coverage. Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional study applying multiple indices as variables. Low- and middle-income countries' selected indicators were the study variables. Data concerned the current political stability, sociodemographic status, gross national income (GNI), and governance status as independent variables and the UHC index of the countries as the dependent variable. Mean and standard deviations were used for the average values of the variables, a raw correlation was shown among variables and a hierarchical linear regression model was used for multi variate analysis. Results: Government health expenditure is 6% out of the total budget in upper middle countries (UMIC) and ~5% in lower middle countries (LMIC) and low-income countries (LIC), population below poverty line is more than 2-fold higher in LIC in comparison with high income countries, UHC index, and socio-demographic index (SDI) index is similar in LMIC and LIC and slightly higher in UMIC. There is a positive association between government health expenditure, governance index, stability index, the SDI index, and GNI per capita and a negative association between populations below poverty line with UHC index. According to our full regression analysis model, governance, stability, and SDI index were associated with a significantly increased UHC index by 0.33, 0.41, and 0.57 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: To achieve UHC, good governance, political stability, and demographic balance are prerequisites and addressing these factors would help to meet by 2030 across countries.