Psychometric validation of the risk propensity scale among Chinese young people

ABSTRACTSocial media are influential sociocultural forces that construct and transmit information about gender, health and bodies to young people in the digital age. In health and physical activity, Chinese people are often represented and positioned differently to other (minority) ethnic groups. For example, Black young people are often understood as having low academic motivations and aspirations but as ‘natural’ athletes; in contrast, Chinese young people, seen as the ‘model minority’ who excel in STEM subjects, are fragile, reserved and disinterested in physical movements. These public forms of representation may sit in opposition to the young people’s embodied identity. When these misrepresentations are internalised, issues such as micro-aggression and racism may have an impact on Chinese young people’s health and wellbeing. This paper aims to examine how Chinese bodies are gendered and racialised in contemporary social media sites (e.g. Google News, LiveJournal, Medium, Wordpress). Drawing on critical discourse analysis and Foucault’s concepts of normalisation and discursive practice, the paper will problematise the often taken-for-granted gendered and racialised stereotypes related to Chinese physicality and health on social media sites. Implications for developing future research and teaching resources in critical media health literacy for young people on issues related to gender and equity will be provided. The results affect how we understand, represent, and discuss Chinese (young) people on social media sites, thereby how Chinese young people engage, construct, and perform their embodied identities in Western, English speaking societies.

Deloitte’s 2016 Millenial Survey suggests that millennials are poor candidates for organizational loyalty since 66 percent of them expect to leave their current employer within the next five years. China is also mentioned with her 65 percent. This dissertation provides evidence that loyalty is not altogether gone from the workplace. Whereas corporate loyalty determined by tenure may be disappearing, a new form of workplace loyalty that is attuned to both macro-level contemporary conditions and individual circumstances is still there. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics teaches us that our “state of character” is influenced by the kind of society which we live in by means of habit: we “do” or “exercise” virtues or vices in an environment conducive to them. Social science scholars have sought to examine more closely the qualities of character acquired through practical experience within social contexts. We are particularly indebted to Pierre Bourdieu for helping us to better understand the relationship between social arrangements and people’s tendency to appreciate and display certain virtues and vices. His work shows that differences in people’s perceptions, actions, and aspirations stem from their different habitus or dispositions, which reflect and are structured by objective conditions of their social position. Here is an example of objective societal circumstances due to which long-term employment with one company has become an unreasonable and impossible aspiration for many people. Media do not stop reporting layoffs, plant closures and relocations both in China and across the world in response to economic slowdowns and competitive pressures. Temporary employment comprises one-tenth of work worldwide and two-thirds of work in developing countries. Precariat probably accounts for more than half of China’s total urban workforce. Today’s high fluidity of jobs certainly emboldens a great many Chinese millennials to keep looking for their next opportunity, which may even turn out to be a secure one. Another explanation is that the promises of freedom, choice, achievement, and happiness lure these young people into quitting jobs that are not meaningful and fulfilling. This short illustration raises the following questions: In what ways do young Chinese people understand and demonstrate their organizational loyalty? What values hold them to their organizations? Using Bourdieu’s habitus as methodological tool, this dissertation reveals the virtues that young Chinese people perceive as important parts of their moral selves and put into use in their pursuit of economic security and self-fulfillment. Organizational loyalty is regarded as a cultivated disposition that generates virtuous perceptions and actions and is used by individuals as type of moral capital to realize the desired values. My research also sheds light on the uncomfortable yet fundamental aspect of this double pursuit: occupational position and habitus join forces to prevent many young Chinese people from escaping the poverty trap and leading a fulfilling life. As a result, people performing blue-collar jobs, which bring little or no respect and are not personally rewarding, provide alternative definitions of virtuousness and valued rewards in their struggle to improve the moral worth of their occupation and maintain their self-esteem. The current study expands previous research on moral significance of class in organizational context by providing an authentic account of Chinese blue- and white-collar employees’ moral perception of workplace loyalty and moral value of their work. This dissertation also considers former and present experiences that shape, reinforce, or transform these young people’s moral dispositions.

Background: The olfactory function of Chinese people has not been evaluated adequately. Additionally, many diseases may affect olfactory function. Therefore , it is necessary to develop a practicable olfactory test to study olfaction in our people. Methods: The phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA) odor detection threshold test was used to evaluate the olfactory thresholds of normal non-smoking Chinese young people. 40 male and 40 female non-smoking young Chinese were included in this study. Their ages ranged from 18 to 25 years old. Results: The mean (±SD) PEA thresholds of Chinese young men were -6.894 ± 1.369 log for the right nasal cavity, -7.066 ± 1.193 log for the left nostril, and -7.369 ± 0.992 log when bilateral nostrils were tested together. On the other hand, the average (±SD) PEA thresholds of Chinese young women were -6.919 ± 1.357 log for the right nasal cavity, -6.975 ± 1.471 log for the left nostril, -7.253 ± 1.158 log for bilateral nostrils. Conclusions: In this study, the olfactory threshold of normal non-smoking Chinese young people was established by PEA odor detection threshold test and the results were shown above. (J Otolaryngol Soc ROC 1998; 33:615-624)

Background: With the rapid development in recent years, virtual reality technology has been applied in many life scenes. Young people in China have also establish a basic cognition of virtual reality through these. However, the depth of cognition still varies between different people. In order to further analyze, this article conducted relevant research. Method: Based on the survey data obtained from the 2023 “Chinese Young People’s Awareness and Acceptance of Virtual Reality Technology”, this article collected information on the application patterns of virtual reality in various fields and negative feedback from Chinese young people on virtual reality technology. The article analyzed the sources of Chinese young people’s cognition of virtual reality and the reasons for the varying levels of cognitive depth. Result: Chinese young people’s understanding of virtual reality comes from virtual reality technology applied in fields such as entertainment, home furnishings, education, and healthcare. The reasons for uneven cognitive levels can be divided into internal and external factors. Internal factors include expensive and difficult to carry VR devices, difficult to find suitable scenes, and unsatisfactory promotional effects. On the other hand, external factors include the prevalence of other equipment in the same industry, low cost-effectiveness in development, and users’ persistent doubts.

The influence of sociocultural attitudes toward the body on young people’s physical activity has received increasing attention. However, there is a lack of cross-cultural research in this area. The main aim of this research was to identify the similarities and differences in the sociocultural attitudes toward the body of Polish and Chinese young people who grew up in European and Asian cultures and to analyze their effect on the motivation for physical activity. A cross-sectional research study was conducted among 18- to 30-year-old Polish (n = 259) and Chinese (n = 208) young people. The variables were measured using the Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance Questionnaire 3 (SATAQ 3) and the Inventory of Physical Activity Objectives (IPAO). Descriptive and comparative statistics, Spearman’s rho, and the stepwise multiple regression analysis were used. The main analysis showed There are both similarities and significant differences in the performance of young Polish and Chinese men and women on the variables studied; Internalization-Athlete, Pressures, and Internalization-General are universal sociocultural predictors of motivation for physical activity among young people in Poland and China; Information is a specific sociocultural predictor of motivation for physical activity in Polish young people. The cultural nuances need to be considered in understanding young people’s Motivation for undertaking physical activity.

This paper examines Chinese migrant young people's lifestyles and physical activity experiences in relation to the values and cultural investments of their families in Australia. The data in this paper were taken from a larger-scale study underpinned by a critical and interpretive ethnographic method conducted in two school sites. The young people's lives were significantly shaped by dominant Chinese cultural norms and traditional notions of gender. Bourdieuian concepts are drawn upon to explain the (re)production of the Chinese young people's habitus cultivated at home. Based on the young people's pursuit of cultural capital as a consequence of familial values, discussion also focuses on the agency of these young people in relation to their lifestyle choices. Dominant discourses in the ‘talk’ of these young people included their notions of excelling, hyper-investment in academic success and, especially for the girls, skin colour and safety. Traditional Chinese family power relations limited the choices these young people had regarding physical activity which was complicated by the cultural and social fluidity of their lived experiences. The inter-generational flow of habitus and capital of these Chinese migrant young people's families tended to privilege a particular set of discourses based on gender, race, social class and hierarchical practices that resonated with traditional Confucian philosophy.

BackgroundThe internet has been widely accessible and well accepted by young people; however, there is a limited understanding of the internet usage patterns and characteristics on issues related to health problems. The contents posted on online health communities (OHCs) are valuable resources to learn about youth's health information needs.ObjectiveIn this study, we concurrently exploited statistical analysis and topic analysis of online health information needs to explore the distribution, impact factors, and topics of interest relevant to Chinese young people.MethodsWe collected 60,478 health-related data sets posted by young people from a well-known Chinese OHC named xywy.com. Descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis were applied to find the distribution and influence factors of the information needs of Chinese young people. Furthermore, a general 4-step topic mining strategy was presented for sparse short texts, which included sentence vectorization, dimension reduction, clustering, and keyword generation.ResultsIn the Chinese OHC, Chinese young people had a high demand for information in the areas of gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine, dermatology, plastic surgery, and surgery, and they focused on topics such as treatment, symptoms, causes, pathology, and diet. Females accounted for 69.67% (42,136/60,478) and young adults accounted for 87.44% (52,882/60,478) of all data. Gender, age, and disease type all had a significant effect on young people's information needs and topic preferences (P<.001).ConclusionsWe conducted comprehensive analyses to discover the online health information needs of Chinese young people. The research findings are of great practical value to carry out health education and health knowledge dissemination inside and outside of schools according to the interests of youth, enable the innovation of information services in OHCs, and improve the health literacy of young people.

Although a substantial body of research has analyzed the effectiveness of cigarette package warning labels in tobacco control, the very general health warnings messages (HWMs) on cigarette packaging in China have shown limited effectiveness in deterring youth from smoking. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of specific and more detailed warning text messages on Chinese young people's risk perception of smoking and their intention to quit. We employed a randomized survey experiment to examine the impact of specific text-based warning labels on Chinese young people's risk perception of smoking and intention to quit. The total effective sample size was 1064 participants. The subjects were divided into three groups: the first group served as the control group, which was shown the existing cigarette package warning labels; the second group was shown cigarette package warning labels related to cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory diseases; and the third group was shown cigarette package warning labels related to sexual dysfunction. The respiratory disease-related warnings significantly increased young people's awareness of smoking-related respiratory risks (p<0.01). The impact of warning labels for the three common diseases on enhancing young people's overall risk perception of smoking (p<0.05) and their intention to quit exhibited only weak statistical significance (p<0.05). In contrast, warning labels related to sexual dysfunction significantly increased young people's risk perception of smoking (p<0.001) and their intention to quit (p<0.001), with a much higher level of statistical significance compared to those related to the other three common diseases. Detailed descriptions of the risks associated with all four diseases were positively correlated with awareness of smoking-related harm and the intention to quit. However, warnings related to sexual dysfunction had a greater level of statistical significance compared to those related to the other three common diseases. This stronger significance may be attributed to young people's heightened concern about sexual dysfunction.

The earlier and unprotected sexual behaviour of young Chinese, and the consequences of these actions, have become a health concern, posing a challenge to traditional Chinese concepts. The aim of the present study was to investigate changes in sexual behaviour and associated risks among adolescents and young people in mainland China over the past three decades. A meta-analysis was undertaken to comprehensively review the sexual behaviour of Chinese young people (aged from 10 to 24 years) over the past 30 years. Relevant data published from 1979 to 2009 in the Chinese literature database were identified and retrieved. Analysis was performed based on set criteria. Seventy-five studies were identified that were published after 1990. Overall, the estimated prevalence of sexual intercourse among young people was 12.6%, with an average age at sexual debut of 19.4 years. The rate of condom use at sexual debut was 37.2%; 53.6% of young people reported not using a condom during the most recent act of sexual intercourse. The rates of unintentional pregnancy and abortion among the sexually active were 15.1% and 10.8%, respectively. Reviewing the data according to decades revealed that the number of young people engaging in sexual intercourse decreased from 14.3% in 1990-1999 to 11.8% in 2000-2009. However, these rates are higher than the prevalence of sexual activity reported before 1990, which, according to sporadic studies, did not exceeded 1%. There have been increases in sexual activity and high-risk sexual behaviour in Chinese young people in the decades since the adoption of the open door policy in China, particularly since the mid-1990s. High-risk sexual behaviours have contributed to certain adverse consequences in adolescents and young people, such as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmissible infection. Thus, efficacious intervention strategies need to be developed and implemented.

Background: In China, suicide is one of the major causes of death among adolescents and young adults. Various factors affect suicidal ideation. Aim: The current study examined how psychological strains affected suicidal ideation. Method: A questionnaire survey study was conducted in a Chinese university, with a large sample of 979 undergraduate students. The multiple linear regression analysis was used to exam the possible risk factors for suicidal ideation. Results: Grade, religion, course attendance, appearance self-evaluation, depression, social support and psychological strains measured by differential values strain and relative deprivation strain were significantly associated with suicidal ideation. Conclusions: Chinese young people’ psychological strains were predictors of suicidal ideation with the important demographic variables controlled for.

BackgroundAdolescence and young adulthood are considered the peak age for the emergence of many psychiatric disorders, in particular major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous research has shown substantial heritability for MDD. In addition, the brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is known to be associated with MDD. However, there has been no study conducting targeted sequencing of the BDNF gene in young MDD patients so far.MethodTo examine whether the BDNF gene is associated with the occurrence of MDD in young patients, we used targeted sequencing to detect the BDNF gene variants in 259 young Chinese Han people (105 MDD patients and 154 healthy subjects).ResultsThe BDNF variant rs4030470 was associated with MDD in young Chinese Han people (uncorrected p = 0.046), but this was no longer significant after applying FDR correction (p = 0.552, after FDR correction). We did not find any significant differences in genotype or haplotype frequencies between the case and control groups, and furthermore discovered no rare mutation variants any of the 259 subjects.ConclusionOur results do not support an association of the BDNF gene variants with MDD in young people in the Chinese Han population.

Recent literature on ‘new ethnicities’ in contemporary Britain has yet to address the experiences of young people of Chinese origin in great depth. This article focuses on the part played in identity formation by the employment of young Chinese people as counter staff in family‐owned ethnic catering businesses. Two‐thirds of Chinese young people grow up having to juggle employment and educational responsibilities. The dispersed settlement pattern of the Chinese community and the isolated location of the take‐away exposes young women in particular to forms of verbal and physical harassment. The encounters across the counter are often both racialised and gendered, drawing on a long legacy of stereotypical representations. These have important consequences for cultural identity, and the sense of being confined to take‐away employment often precludes young Chinese people from interethnic peer groups. Consequently, the forms of syncretic British‐based culture noted in African‐Caribbean and South Asian...

The present article, based on a survey conducted in 2016 in five cities of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Changchun, Dalian), discusses the similarities and differences in attitudes, aspirations and value orientations of Chinese young people. The survey respondents were 650 ethnic Chinese young people (314 males and 336 females), mostly under the age of 25. The questionnaire was comprised of 22 questions, grouped into four sections. The first section contained questions designed to reveal the attitudes of Chinese young people to life, including their most common aspirations and values; the second section focused on the Chinese young people’s relationships with parents and friends. The third section targeted the attitudes of Chinese young people to employment issues, and, finally, the aim of the fourth section was to specify the social portrait of the respondents of the questionnaire. The responses to each question of the questionnaire were statistically analyzed and presented in graphs. The results of the present survey reveal that life aspirations and values of young Chinese males and females are similar in many aspects. More similarities than differences between the two sexes were identified, and the ethnic factor proved to be more important in determining life attitudes and values than the gender factor. Yet, a number of gender differences were detected. The survey results reveal that young Chinese males – in contrast to females – have advanced further along the path of westernization and demonstrate greater willingness to revise many traditional Chinese values. The Chinese females’ responses, on the other hand, are characterized by greater conservatism in daily life, and a stronger inclination towards traditional family values. Nevertheless, females demonstrated more egocentric tendencies than males in regard to finding employment and choosing working conditions.

Chinese young people’s attitudes towards translanguaging in self-praise on social media

Considering food consumption as an important daily practice, this article explores how and why Chinese young people consume takeaway food – a typical type of convenience food – and whether this food practice creates a wasteful urban lifestyle, drawing on a qualitative analysis. The key finding of this research suggests that Chinese young people have normalised takeaway food consumption and have their own strategies to reduce food/food-related waste after consumption. Such a dynamic process of takeaway food consumption reflects young people’s lifestyle in urban China: an individualised or self-centred, technology-dependent and fast-paced lifestyle. Moreover, this research suggests that social studies on household food practices should take household sizes and patterns into more considerations. This research can be read as a contribution to the existing body of literature on convenience food and its environmental consequences within and beyond the family space from a non-Western perspective.