The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effects of teacher's gender on the perception of academic under-achievement in the elementary school setting. To examine if male-teacher and femaleteacher would have different perception on academic under-achievement by student's gender, specifically, male and female teachers were randomly assigned into two groups. While one group received scenarios describing male student showing the symptoms of academic under-achievement, the other group received scenarios describing female student showing the symptoms of academic under-achievement. After reading each scenario, teachers rated the degree of student's academic under-achievement. Male teachers who received female student scenario reported the highest possibility on student's academic improvement. That is, male teacher has gender stereotype regarding the student's gender. Based on the results of the current study, the implications for the school practitioners and the limitations of the current study were discussed.
This study aimed to construct a reliable and reasonable Children Depression Scale including core features and symptoms of children depression and test its reliability and validity. Clinical features revealed in the existing papers about children depression were derived and items already used in questionnaires were collected. These features and items were classified into emotion, cognition, physical-physiological symptoms, motivation, and peer relationship. 54 preliminary items that were drawn were administrated on 1,515 3rd ~ 6th grade students at 7 elementary schools, in Gyeongsangnam-do. Finally, 45 questions were determined through consideration of its skewness, kutosis, mean, standard deviation, item-total correlation, internal consistency, and meanings of the item. Reliability, internal consistency, convergence and discrimination validity of the items and subscales were tested and short form consisted with 25 items was constructed based on item-response theory. Range of internal consistency of Children Depression Scale was .88~.97, range of split-half reliability was .87~.95, range of test-retest reliability was .81 ~.90, Range of internal consistency of short form was .87 ~ .97, test-retest reliability was .86 ~ .94, Convergence and discrimination validity were also appropriate. Although main effect of gender and productive academic year was significant, interaction was not. Other implications of this study were discussed.
This study was conducted to examine the relations of middle school students' perceived instructional context, academic competence and academic achievement (i.e., mid-term and final exam scores in Korean, English, Math, Social Studies, and Science). Academic competence was construed as a multidimensional construct consisting of academic enablers (i.e., motivation, interpersonal relations, engagement, self-management) and academic skills (i.e., reading, writing, math, information processing). Paper-pencil questionnaires were administered to 295 seventh graders. The results of the structural equation modeling are summarized as follows. First, in the theoretical model with all the paths depicting the influences of each latent variable on the next, 'instructional context → academic skills J and 'academic enablers → academic achievement J paths were not significant. Second, the modified model with the two non-significant paths deleted fit the data better than the competitive model with the 'instructional context → academic achievement J path deleted besides the two paths. Third, in the modified model, both the mediating effect of academic enablers in the relation between instructional context and academic skills and that of academic skills in the relation between academic enablers and academic achievement were significant. Fourth, the direct effect of instructional context on academic achievement was negative; however, as academic enablers and academic skills were assumed as mediators, such negative effect was suppressed. These results imply that the positive influences of desirable instructional context upon students' academic achievement cannot be guaranteed without the mediation of academic enablers and academic skills. Therefore, efforts to enhance students' motivational, attitudinal and behavioral characteristics and use of academic skills are essential if teachers and other school personnel intend to increase students' academic achievement by altering instructional contexts.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the validity of the Korean version of the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire(RSLQ), a relatively new self-leadership scale developed by Houghton & Neck(2002) chat measures the 3 strategies(behavior-focused strategies, constructive thought patton strategies, and natural reward strategies) with 9 self-leadership factors. The Korean version of the RSLQ was examined in a Korean context using samples of 645 college students in Seoul, Kyungido, and Choongchungdo. The results of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as correlation analysis showed chat the scales of the Korean version of the RSLQ have acceptable psychometric properties, including acceptable internal-consistency reliabilities, factorial validity, low scale intercorrelations, low discriminant correlations, and significant incremental variance. In, conclusion, the Korean version of the RSLQ appears to be useful for researchers who want to measure the major dimensions of self-leadership for either theoretical or applied purposes. Finally, the limitations and future directions of the present study were discussed.
This study aimed to construct the Self Discrepancy measure(SDIS) in the domains of appearance, character and interpersonal relationship in high graded elementary school students, and to examine its reliability and validity estimates. Based on the Higgins' (1987) self discrepancy theory and the Multi-dimensional Self Discrepancy measure of Jeong(2004), a pool of preliminary items were selected and the content validity was established. To examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the SDIS, the scale was administered to 161 elementary school students. The results suggested that the SDIS was relatively reliable in terms of internal consistency (a= .87). Exploratory factor analyses revealed that SDIS consists of three factors, labeled 'Appearance' 'Character' and 'Interpersonal Relationship'. Relationships between the scale and conceptually related variables were examined to support for the estimates of convergent-discriminant validity and the results were positive as expected. This study ends with implications, limitations, and suggestions for future studies.
The purpose of this study was to explore whether maladaptive affect regulation(particularly brooding which is a type of rumination and emotion suppression) contributes as a mediator between attachment dimensions(attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) and depression. 200 undergraduate students participated in this study and were asked to complete the Experience in Close Relationship Scale(ECRS), Ruminative Response Scale(RRS), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire(ERQ), The center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression(CES-D). The data were analyzed using Structural equation modeling. The result showed that (1) brooding significantly mediated the relationship between the attachment anxiety and depression and (2) the significant relationship between attachment avoidance and depression was not mediated by emotion suppression. The implications and limitations of this study, and directions for future study were discussed.
This study was conducted to examine the mediating effects of social support and perfectionism on the link between parental achievement pressure and adolescents' test anxiety. The participants were 372 first and second year junior high school students in Daegu. The instruments used for measuring were the Parental Achievement Pressure Scale, the Test Anxiety Inventory-Korea, the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale, and the Social Support Scale. Structural Equation Modeling using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were utilized for data analysis. The major findings were as follows: First, perfectionism and social support completely mediated the link between the parental achievement pressure and test anxiety. Second, all variables such as parental achievement pressure, perfectionism, and social support were found to influence junior high school students' test anxiety both positively and negatively. The findings suggest that all kinds of variables causing test anxiety, including personal characteristics and socio-environmental causes, should be considered in designing effective prevention and intervention programs for the test anxiety of junior high school students.
This study investigated the relationship between informant discrepancies of children's psychological problems and self-regulation of children. A total of 418 elementary school students participated in this study and completed a questionnaire assessing their self-regulation. Psychological problems were assessed by the participants' parents and teachers. Using cluster analyses, the groups with greater and lower levels of self-regulation were defined. Correlation analyses and Fishers' z test were conducted to calculate the consensus of the parent and teacher ratings and compare the differences in their consensus between groups with greater and lower level of self-regulation. The results showed that the informant discrepancies were greater in the group with a higher level of self-regulation than in the group with a lower level of self-regulation. Subsequently, the same procedure was performed with subgroups that were distinguished by the severity of problems measured by CBCL and TRF, respectively. The subsequent analyses with the groups experiencing greater severity defined by CBCL or TRF failed to find significant correlation between CBCL and TRF regardless of the level of self-regulation. However, the analyses performed with the groups having less severe problems on the ratings of CBCL or TRF indicated possible interaction effect between the rating type used to define the problem severity and the level of self-regulation on CBCL-TRF correlation. The implications and limitations were discussed.
The number of Chinese students in Korean universities are on rapid rise for several years. The current study tried to understand their life by analyzing the psychological maladjustments they experience and their relevant factors. Two subscales of SCL-90-R were used to measure the level of depression and anxiety. We also investigated socio-individual and psychological factors influencing the level of psychological maladjustments. Socio-psychological factors were age, sex, duration of stay m Korea, economic status of family, self- reported proficiency of Korean language, residential type, and health condition. Psychological factors were self-esteem, self-efficacy, and the perceived level of social support. The significant influencing factors on psychological maladjustments were health condition and self-efficacy. Surprisingly, many relevant factors did not show meaningful influence on psychological maladjustments. Further analysis indicates that Chinese students tend to maintain a cultural island where Chinese students mingle mainly with other Chinese. Those living in the cultural island tend to report high level of psychological maladjustments.
The purpose of this study is to identify the constructs of 13 items Marlowe-Crowne social desirability(SD) scale in korean adolescence. 507 adolescent students conducted this scale with a confidence inventory and self-rated daily life satisfaction scale. The results showed 1 factor model was superior to 2 factors model which assumed self-deception and other-deception(impression management) in confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS 7.0. SD showed significant correlation with confidence . 19, and daily satisfaction .23 on each. Adolescents who scored upper 3% SD score showed higher results in confidence and daily satisfaction significantly compared to the other 97% students. It means MC-13 SD score had somewhat different interpretation in relation to positive personality traits or response bias tendency. It showed the meaning of SD were changeable with its' measurement devices. If the SD scale have few items and somewhat nonobvious item contents, it would be likely to show 1 factor construct compared to the SD scales have a few items and more obvious items. Lastly we discussed the limits of this study and the suggestions for facilitating more studies for the SD.