Zhengkui Liu

Left Too Early: The Effects of Age at Separation From Parents on Chinese Rural Children's Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

OBJECTIVES We examined the effect of age at separation from parents on symptoms of anxiety and depression among children in rural communities in China whose parents migrated to cities in search of employment opportunities during the countrys rapid economic development. METHODS Students in 3 rural areas, Anhui, Chongqing, and Guizhou (N = 592; age = 10-17 years), completed questionnaires that asked about symptoms of state and trait anxiety, as well as depression and age at separation from parents. RESULTS Children who were separated from parents at a younger age had more symptoms of anxiety and depression. This effect was especially pronounced for children who were separated from their mothers or from both parents. CONCLUSIONS Chinas explosive economic growth appears to exact a significant toll on left-behind childrens mental health, particularly on children whose parents left early in their lives. The unintended consequences of the economic boom on child development need to be further examined in prospective studies.

Developing a Chinese PTSD Inventory (CPI) based on interviews with earthquake victims in Sichuan

Although some of the self-report scales for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are available in Chinese and are currently in use in China, cultural limitations exist. An indigenous Chinese PTSD self-rating scale-the Chinese PTSD Inventory (CPI)-has been developed. The item generation of the CPI was based on interviews of Sichuan earthquake victims. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of 313 earthquake victims, acquiring five factors with 27 items: Intrusion, Avoidance, Hyperarousal, Dysphoria, and Somatization. Another sample of 227 debris-flow victims was administered the 27-item CPI. It demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and the result of confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit for the five-factor model.

The Characteristics of Emotional Response of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Post-traumatic Growth among Chinese Adults Exposed to an Explosion Incident

Purpose Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-traumatic growth (PTG) are two different outcomes that may occur after experiencing traumatic events. Meanwhile, the traumatic exposure level and emotion response played an important role in the process. The present study first evaluated the relationship between PTSD, PTG, and traumatic exposure level and then compared the characteristics of emotional response through response time of the affective priming paradigm. Methods For the purpose of evaluating the relationship between PTSD, PTG, and trauma exposure level, a sample of 2,395 participants completed measures of posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and a trauma exposure-related survey, and Pearson’s correlation analysis for the scales were conducted. In order to compare the characteristics of emotional response between PTSD and PTG, we randomly selected 90 participants and divided them into groups of PTSD, PTG, and control according the scores of PCL-C and PTGI, then the 90 participants were asked to do the affective priming task and the response time was recorded, at last analysis of variance was employed to analyze the data. Results The results indicated that PTSD was not correlated with PTG. It was positively correlated with the traumatic exposure level, but PTG was not observed in this phenomenon. Finally, the data of response time showed that PTSD required more time to do the priming task and PTG demonstrated no difference compared to the control group. Conclusion Combined with previous research findings, the relationship between PTSD and PTG may depend on the type and severity of the trauma, the exposure level, and other such parameters. In terms of positive outcome of trauma PTG displayed no changes of emotional performance from the perspective of behavior. The preliminary results suggested that PTG was more related to a self-reported or self-experienced state.

Acute stress disorder as a predictor of posttraumatic stress: a longitudinal study of Chinese children exposed to the Lushan earthquake

This study examined the prevalence of acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children who experienced the Lushan earthquake in Sichuan, China, and assessed the ability of ASD to predict PTSD. The Acute Stress Disorder Scale (ASDS) was used to assess acute stress reaction within weeks of the trauma. The University of California at Los Angeles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (UCLA-PTSD) for children was administered at intervals of 2, 6, and 12 months after the earthquake to 197 students who experienced the Lushan earthquake at the Longxing Middle School. The results demonstrated that 28.4% of the children suffered from ASD, but only a small percentage of the population went on to develop PTSD. Among all of the students, 35.0% of those who met the criteria for ASD were diagnosed with PTSD at the 12-month interval. The severity of ASD symptoms correlated with later PTSD symptoms.

Critical and creative thinking as learning processes at top-ranking Chinese middle schools: possibilities and required improvements

Fostering and enabling critical and creative thinking of students is considered an important goal, and it is assumed that in particular, talented students have considerable potential for applying such high-level cognitive processes for learning in classrooms. However, Chinese students are often considered as rote learners, and that learning environments at Chinese schools will not allow thinking critically and creatively. The present exploratory study examines these assumptions with students at top-ranking middle schools in mainland China who have been selected for their high achievement scores in the examinations required for acceptance to such schools. Our findings in eight large mathematics classrooms (n = 381) strongly suggest that it is possible to acquire knowledge by thinking critically and creatively in these traditionally instructed classes, and that higher achieving students use such processes more intensively than lower achieving students. In addition, the study provides pathways for promoting these high-level cognitive processes for learning in particularly with lower achieving students. Finally, the results indicate that the extracurricular activities that are prescribed to all students at Chinese middle schools should be redesigned to offer more opportunities for critical and creative thinking.

Affective emotion increases heart rate variability and activates left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in post-traumatic growth

The present study evaluated the activities of heart rate variability (HRV) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in response to the presentation of affective pictures correlated with posttraumatic growth (PTG) among adults exposed to the Tianjin explosion incident. The participants who were directly involved in the Tianjin explosions were divided into control, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTG group according to the scores of PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version and PTG Inventory survey. All participants received exposure to affective images. Electrocardiogram recording took place during the process for the purpose of analyzing HRV. Meanwhile, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure DLPFC activity through hemodynamic response. Our results indicated that, while performing the negative and positive picture stimulating, PTG increased both in low and high frequency components of HRV compared with the control group, but PTSD was not observed in this phenomenon. Moreover, the fNIRS data revealed that PTG had an increased activation in the left DLPFC compared to the control in the condition of negative pictures stimulating, wheras PTSD showed a higher activation in the right DLPFC while receiving positive pictures stimulating. To our knowledge, this is the first study which provides the differences between PTSD and PTG in emotional regulation.