Chyi-In Wu

Intergenerational Transmission of Harsh Parenting.

A social learning model was developed that portrayed four processes whereby harsh parenting might be transmitted across generations. The model was tested using a sample of 451 2-parent families, each of which included a 7th grader. Both parent self-report and adolescent-report measures were utilized for the harsh parenting construct.

Social network and marital support as mediators and moderators of the impact of stress and depression on parental behavior

Structural equation modeling was used with a sample of 451 2-parent families to test an elaboration of J. Belskys (1984) model of the determinants of parental behavior. Results largely supported the model. Economic pressure disrupted parenting by increasing depression and undermining access to spouse support. Spouse support had both a direct effect on parenting and an indirect influence through depression. For mothers, spouse support moderated the impact of economic strain on parenting by reducing the disruptive impact of depression parental behavior. Social network support only influenced parenting indirectly through depression. There was no support for the idea that social network support serves to buffer parental behavior against the adverse consequences of economic strain, nor was there evidence that it can compensate for low spouse support

A comparative study of media cultures among Taiwanese and Japanese youth

This study used nation-wide surveys to explore how different media usage patterns were shaped in Taiwan and Japan. Taiwanese youth use the Internet to a much greater extent than Japanese youth, even though broadband services are cheaper and faster in Japan. Japanese youth use text-messaging services featured on mobile phones more than their Taiwanese counterparts. Since the 1980s, Taiwan has witnessed the development of a unique BBS (bulletin board system) culture, and this culture has led the Taiwanese to have a comparatively stronger degree of trust in the Internet than the Japanese. The Internet culture in Japan is more individualized. Japanese adolescents and young adults tend to avoid direct communication, resulting in the promotion of a unique mobile media culture among the Japanese youth. The findings discussed here suggest that, despite the worldwide standardization of communication technologies, the culturally different personal relationship patterns in the two countries studied have created different media trends for their youth.

The Dynamic Relationships between Parenting and Adolescent Delinquency: A Group-Based Model Approach

Parenting has been found as a key factor for influencing adolescent delinquency. Past studies have shown that adolescents who expose to higher level of warmth, induction, and monitoring parenting would less likely be delinquents. However, most of these studies present the relationship between parenting and adolescent delinquency statically. That is, researchers show parenting measured at one time predicts adolescent delinquency at the same time or the other time. Researchers seldom demonstrate whether the change of parenting over time influences the change of adolescent delinquency. Theories of types of delinquents propose two types of delinquents in offender population (Patterson et al., 1992; Moffitt, 1993, 1997). Early starters show their delinquency in late childhood and persist into adulthood, while late starters show the behavior during mid-adolescence and desist after this period. Although researchers propose several predictions for distinguish types of delinquents and for explaining their developmental trajectories, parenting is the key factor among them. In predictor analysis, ineffective parenting in late childhood interacts with childs early temperament problems producing early starters. Several studies have demonstrated this argument (Fergusson et al., 2000; Nagin and Land, 1993; Wiesner and Silbereisen, 2003). In within delinquent group analysis, parenting has long been demonstrated its impact on adolescent delinquency (Lin, 2002). However, there is no research that systematically explores the relationship between parenting and delinquency over time under types of delinquents framework. In this study, we ask: How the change of parenting influences delinquent trajectories over time? Is there difference between different types of delinquents? Using 5-year panel data of adolescents in Taiwan, current study started from types of delinquents argument and provided a group-based model to distinguish groups of delinquents. Based on the delinquent groups, we presented a time-varying model for exploring the dynamic relationship between parenting and delinquent trajectories. The results showed two offender groups in the sample and correspond to theories of types of delinquents. We also found the dynamic effect of parenting over time when predicting delinquent trajectories. The parenting showed its prominent effect for late starters in the later waves, while for early starters parenting had intervention effect at every time point.

Protective Effect of Calcium Channel Blockers Against Frailty in Older Adults with Hypertension

change was small. It is likely that the short length of the workshop and the fact that the workshop was offered only once contributed to minimal changes seen on the ATHCT. Other limitations require acknowledgment. Despite the investigators’ attempt to standardize the teams, the composition depended largely on learner availability, leading to some variability. Because of logistics, the observer groups viewed the IP team meeting through a live video stream and therefore could not directly interact with the SPs. Finally, although the ATHCT is a validated tool, evaluation of workshop effectiveness was limited to self-report at the time of the workshop and did not address higher-order learning outcomes or track sustained effect over time.

The Evolution of Adolescent's Friendship Networks with Body Mass Index

The goal of the present study is to analyze the evolution of friendship network and body mass index (BMI) for adolescents in 3 different types of class—boy only, girl only, and boy and girl mixed. Complicated network surveys were administrated in classrooms on several high schools in Southern Taiwan. The participants are the students who attend these three types of class. Sociometric data were collected by having each student nominate up to 16 intimate classmates. Panel data was collected 7 times across 2 school semesters from Sep. 2008 to Jun. 2009. The program for dynamic social network analysis, SIENA, was applied to estimate the models for the evolution of adolescent’s friendship networks and BMI. The result showed that BMI has effect on girls’ class, but not boys’. In brief, the different composition of gender in a class will construct social norm about BMI and exerts different effect on network evolution. It is helpful for intervention plan focused on norms.

Evolution of Social Networks and Body Mass Index for Adolescence

We hypothesized that social norm for BMI has effect on the evolution of social networks. The goal of the present study is to analyze the evolution of friendship network and body mass index (BMI) for adolescent in 3 different classes—boys’ and girls’ class, boys’ class, and girls’ class. A network survey was carried out in classrooms of high schools. The participants came from 3 classes. Sociometric data were collected by having each student nominate up to 16 intimate classmates. Panel data was collected 7 times across 2 semesters from Sep. 2008 to Jun. 2009. The program SIENA was applied to estimate the models for the evolution of social networks and BMI. The result showed that BMI has effect on girls’ class, but not boys’. In conclusion, the different composition of gender in a class will construct social norm about BMI and exerts different effect on network evolution. It is helpful for intervention plan focused on norms.

Exploring the Antecedents and Effects of Structural Holes in Teenagers’ Friendship Networks

In the past two decades, the theory of structural holes that was proposed by Burt has become one of the most influential ideas in the field of social network analysis and has produced a great resonance in such existing literature, and yet its validity in other contexts such as that of adolescents has yet to be systematically examined. Moreover, while scholars from the sociology of education and stratification have mainly focused on the beneficial impact of tripartite network cohesion between parents, teachers, and students, the impact of the brokerage network position that adolescents occupy also remains unexplored. In this study, we aim to fill this gap and conduct a multifaceted test on the idea by identifying the antecedents and effects of structural holes in teenagers’ friendship networks. Our empirical data show that structural hole levels are higher for boys, and that gender variation in this kind of network tendency appears to begin to form during adolescence. Analyses of psychological state have also found that the higher the level of teenagers’ structural holes, the greater the self-affirmation, the greater the liking of being the focus of a group, the greater the sociability, and the greater the personal tendency to enjoy generating a group atmosphere. Moreover, our empirical analyses also show a positive influence of structural holes network upon academic performance and the psychological well-being of teenagers. All these features conform with those of the entrepreneurial social character as well as the instrumental effect of network position of which Burt spoke. Finally, we tried through path analysis on two psychological items to confirm the dialectical causal direction between structural position and personal psychological features, an issue that is unsettled within the literature or social networks. The evidence provides favorable but inconclusive support for the structural position. Overall, our empirical analyses largely confirm the major claims of Burt’s structural holes theory in the context of teenagers and supplement the tripartite cohesion argument of social capital from the Coleman research tradition.

Deviant Peers and Delinquency: The Influence of Classroom Context

In recent years, researchers have looked toward distinguishing the routes whereby some daily social contexts influence adolescent development. In considering these contexts, this study identified three hypotheses to illustrate the theoretical assumptions related to the mechanism for adolescents to develop delinquency. The results, essentially, fully supported the theoretical hypotheses. The most important finding of the results is that, for Taiwanese adolescent students, the classroom context did have a crucial influence on their development of conduct problems. In addition, the HLM analyses indicated that individual-level deviant peers is positively associated with adolescent students’ delinquency. Furthermore, we also found that the effect of classroom-level delinquency amplifies the effect of deviant peers on adolescents’ delinquency. These findings offer insight into understanding the importance of classroom contexts for Taiwanese and even for East Asian students in general.