ObjectivePrevious research has shown that adolescents in single-mother households are at heightened risk for adjustment problems. However, limited studies have investigated the mechanisms leading to adolescent problem behaviors in single-mother households. To address this research gap, this study applied the Family Stress Model to examine how single mothers’ material hardship is linked to adolescent problem behaviors, focusing on the mediating roles of mothers’ depression and mother-adolescent closeness. The moderating role of adolescent school connectedness in the relationships between mother-adolescent closeness and (...) school connectedness and between mothers’ depression and school connectedness was also investigated.Materials and methodsThe study analyzed data from 1,384 adolescents and their single mothers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study at Wave 6. The associations between study variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling by decomposing the direct, indirect, and total effects of material hardship on adolescent problem behaviors. School connectedness’s interactions with mother-adolescent closeness and mothers’ depression were also examined.ResultsResults showed a significant indirect relationship between material hardship and adolescent problem behaviors through sequential mediation of mothers’ depression and mother-adolescent closeness. Mothers’ depression also significantly mediated the relationship between material hardship and problem behaviors. Lastly, school connectedness moderated the relationship between mother-adolescent closeness and adolescents’ internalizing behaviors. The association between mother-adolescent closeness and adolescents’ internalizing behavior was weaker for adolescents with higher levels of school connectedness.ConclusionThe results indicate the important indirect effect of economic strain on adolescents’ problems behaviors in single-mother households, which has been less emphasized compared to the effects in earlier childhood. High rates of material hardship and adolescent problem behaviors in single-mother families call for multifaceted interventions focusing on family processes and protective factors, including school environment. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractA cell translocation mechanism displaces sporadic mutant cells from normal, suppressive epithelial environment during early steps of tumor initiation. This epithelial cell translocation process exerts a selective pressure on early mutant cells to survive and grow in new microenvironment outside of their native niches.

The present research seeks to utilize Implicit Theories of Intelligence and Achievement Goal Theory to understand students’ intrinsic motivation and academic performance in mathematics in Singapore. 1,201 lower-progress stream students, ages ranged from 13 to 17 years, from 17 secondary schools in Singapore took part in the study. Using structural equation modeling, results confirmed hypotheses that incremental mindset predicted mastery-approach goals and, in turn, predicted intrinsic motivation and mathematics performance. Entity mindset predicted performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Performance-approach goal was positively (...) linked to intrinsic motivation and mathematics performance; performance-avoidance goal, however, negatively predicted intrinsic motivation and mathematics performance. The model accounted for 35.9% of variance in intrinsic motivation and 13.8% in mathematics performance. These findings suggest that intrinsic motivation toward mathematics and achievement scores might be enhanced through interventions that focus on incremental mindset and mastery-approach goal. In addition, performance-approach goal may enhance intrinsic motivation and achievement as well, but to a lesser extent. Finally, the study adds to the literature done in the Asian context and lends support to the contention that culture may affect students’ mindsets and adoption of achievement goals, and their associated impact on motivation and achievement outcomes. (shrink)

Although healthcare workers play a crucial role in helping curb the hazardous health impact of coronavirus disease 2019, their lives and major functioning have been greatly affected by the pandemic. This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of Malaysian healthcare workers and its predictive factors. An online sample of 389 university-based healthcare workers completed questionnaires on demographics, clinical features, COVID-19-related stressors, psychological experiences, and perceived social support after the movement lockdown was lifted. All (...) domains of QoL were within the norms of the general population except for social relationship QoL, which was lower than the norm. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that COVID-19-related stressors and psychological sequelae predicted lower QoL. Conversely, greater perceived social support from friends and significant others predicted higher QoL. Clinical and demographic characteristics predicted QoL to a lesser extent: A history of pre-existing medical illness was associated only with lower physical health QoL, whereas older age and being single, divorced, or widowed were only predictive of higher environmental QoL. Efforts to enhance QoL among healthcare workers in response to the pandemic should focus on mitigating COVID-19-related stressors and psychological sequelae and facilitating social support. (shrink)

In recent years, foreign language learning has been proposed as a possible cognitive intervention for older adults. However, the brain network and cognitive functions underlying FLL has remained largely unconfirmed in older adults. In particular, older and younger adults have markedly different cognitive profile—while older adults tend to exhibit decline in most cognitive domains, their semantic memory usually remains intact. As such, older adults may engage the semantic functions to a larger extent than the other cognitive functions traditionally considered the (...) most important. Using anatomical measurements and a cognitive test battery, the present study examined this hypothesis in twenty cognitively normal older adults, who participated in a two-month Italian learning programme. Results showed that the immediate learning success and long-term retention of Italian vocabularies were most consistently predicted by the anatomical measures of the left pars orbitalis and left caudal middle frontal cortex, which are implicated in semantic and episodic memory functions. Convergent evidence was also found based on the pattern of cognitive associations. Our results are consistent with a prominent role of semantic and episodic memory functions in vocabulary learning in older learners. (shrink)

This article explains the attempts of nurses to practice humanistic, holistic care in line with their professionalizing strategy. Ideally, the intention of nurses is to broaden their concerns beyond the physiological needs of patients, thereby circumventing biomedical control over their work. However, the author argues that resource constraints, and the coalescing of biomedical and managerial definitions of patients, suggest that holistic notions of care are subjected to a new form of calculus and normalizing technology. Critically, nurses are more preoccupied with (...) the day-to-day struggle to free up resources for healthcare, in particular bed spaces, and to pre-empt the problem of bed blocking. Such work suggests that the ‘emptying of beds’ is not just a symbol of accomplishment for nursing work. From the governmentality theory of Foucault, the administration of ‘beds’ has become part of the managerial power/knowledge discourse and an instrument for making nurses toe the financial bottom-line. (shrink)

Traditionally, Zhu Xi’s Mencius-interpretation had enjoyed for a long time an authoritarian status. However, it is challenged by Mou Zongsan in modern scholarship. Mou revolutionarily identifies Lu Xiangshan instead as the authentic follower of Mencius. Given the significance of the famous debate between Zhu and Lu in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism in history of Chinese philosophy, it is especially of interest to explore the essential difference between these two Confucians’ Mencius-interpretations. In sum, this paper aims to show that in contrast to Lu’s (...) subjectivistic approach, Zhu opts for a communitarian and anti-idealistic understanding of Mencius’ philosophy. Whereas Lu’s image of Mencius is volitionistic, Zhu’s picture of Mencius is rationalistic. Methodologically, Zhu’s bottom-up orientation is more concrete. In term of a reconstruction of Zhu’s epistemology, it will develop a new defence of Zhu’s Mencius-interpretation against Mou’s misunderstanding. (shrink)

Laozi says, “The reason why I have great trouble is that I have a body.” Zhuangzi also asks us to forget the body. These seem to suggest that Daoism holds a negative view on the body. However, I will argue for a positive understanding of the Daoist doctrine of the body. In The Visible and the Invisible, the later Merleau‐Ponty aims to introduce an ontology of the flesh. With the help of his concept of the flesh of the world, one (...) can clarify and justify the positive relation between the Dao and the body from a phenomenological standpoint. (shrink)

This paper aims to bring Heidegger's thinking of Being and Liu Jishan's moral metaphysics into a dialogue, in order to particularly achieve a more comprehensive understanding of feeling and force. On the one hand, Liu Jishan's doctrine of pure feeling can radicalize Heidegger's idea of moral feeling. Moreover, Liu Jishan's emphasis on the creative character of the metaphysical force might supplement Heidegger's identification of Being as an ontological movement. On the other hand, Heidegger's thinking of Being can contribute to uncover (...) the ontological significance of Liu Jishan's notion of xing. It also helps to see that in Liu Jishan, the mind consists of inauthenticity and authenticity. As a whole, both Liu Jishan and Heidegger share the scheme of “manifesting xing/Being through mind /Dasein.”. (shrink)

Fuzhi’s philosophies of qi. In this essay, both the strength and weakness of their interpretations will be critically examined. As a contrast, an alternative interpretation of the School of qi in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism will be outlined. This new interpretation will uncover that, like Leibniz, Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi introduced a non-substantivalist approach in natural philosophy in terms of an innovative concept of force. This interpretation not only helps to show the limitations of Mou Zongsan’s and Tang Junyi’s understandings of (...) Zhang Zai’s and Wang Fuzhi’s doctrines of qi, but also indicates a way to bridge the traditional Chinese philosophy of nature and modern physics. More generally, our critical discussions will bring to light a new angle with which to re-appreciate Mou Zongsan’s and Tang Junyi’s contributions to the development of Confucianism. (shrink)

This book examines the significance of balance between the opposites in order to understand God and the world. The author argues that opposites-the subject and object, mind and nature, good and evil, truth and falsehood-are not separated from each other but interdependent in the relational paradigm.

This book discusses the structure of Yijing in relation to ideas developed in the West and presents the Jeongyeok to overcome any hierarchical system implied by the Yijing. Both the Yijing and the Jeongyeok are also examined as textual sources for kindling a discussion about divine impersonality and personality for the meeting of East and West.

This chapter sheds new light on the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism by exploring and comparing the thoughts of the ninth century Huayan-Chan Buddhist Zongmi 宗密 and the twentieth century Neo-Confucian Mou Zongsan 牟宗三. It reveals the structural parallel between their opposing theories: both hold a doctrine of true mind as the central component, and both are influenced by the tathāgatagarbha 如來藏 doctrine of The Awakening of Faith. The former uses them to synthesize Huayan and Chan Buddhist soteriology; the (...) latter assimilates them into his framework of Neo-Confucian moral metaphysics. Seen as a response to Zongmi’s criticism of Confucian metaphysics in general, and the shortcomings of the mandate of heaven and the lack of causal theory in particular, Mou stresses the universality of the Confucian Dao, which is supported by the Song Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi’s unified ontological principle. Rather than appealing to the mandate of heaven, Mou makes clear in following Wang Yangming that the Confucian Dao can be manifested by the sage through his infinite intellectual mind, which is immanent in every human being, so as to solve the problem of the highest good without postulating a transcendent god nor appealing to the karmic causality. Mou’s response, supplemented by other Neo-Confucian theories such as Xiong Shili’s and Tang Junyi’s, is a prominent example of how Confucian tradition meets the challenge of Chinese Buddhism while absorbing Buddhist influence. However, the author also points out that Mou’s Neo-Confucian philosophy provides a possibility of defending Chinese Buddhism in face of the critique raised by Critical Buddhism. (shrink)

With the thesis that life is auto-affection, the French philosopher Michel Henry introduced a phenomenology of life. By disclosing the parallels between the Ming Neo-Confucian Liu Zongzhou's and Henry's philosophy, this article tries to develop a more radical understanding of the essential difference between Liu Zongzhou's and Wang Yangming's Confucianism. Moreover, it will show in what sense Liu Zongzhou's doctrine is a phenomenology of life. In contrast to Henry's founding of the phenomenology of life upon Christianity, Liu Zongzhou's approach is (...) nontheological. In recent years, Henry's theological phenomenology has been challenged. Particularly, Henry's Christian account for the possibility of selfhood is charged for lacking phenomenological evidence. It will show that such a difficulty might be overcome by Liu Zongzhou's thesis of the essential connection between pure feeling and the will. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to examine the current profile of bioethics education in the nursing curriculum as perceived by nursing students and faculty in Korea. A convenience sampling method was used for recruiting 1223 undergraduate nursing students and 140 nursing faculty in Korea. Experience of Bioethics Education, Quality of Bioethics Education, and Demand for Bioethics Education Scales were developed. The Experience of Bioethics Education Scale showed that the nursing curriculum in Korea does not provide adequate bioethics education. The (...) Quality of Bioethics Education Scale revealed that the topics of human nature and human rights were relatively well taught compared to other topics. The Demand for Bioethics Education Scale determined that the majority of the participants believed that bioethics education should be a major requirement in the nursing curriculum. The findings of this study suggest that bioethics should be systemically incorporated into nursing courses, clinical practice during the program, and during continuing education. (shrink)