Taiwanese College Students Research Articles

Comparisons of Health-Related Quality of Life among Users of Different Types of Menstrual Products: A Study of Taiwanese University Students

Comparisons of Health-Related Quality of Life among Users of Different Types of Menstrual Products: A Study of Taiwanese University Students

Recruiting English teachers from the Outer Circle: perspectives of Taiwanese students

ABSTRACT This study explores Taiwanese university students' attitudes towards recruiting teachers from the Outer Circle (OC) in response to Taiwan's high demand for English teachers. Forty-six first-year non-English majors from a large university in northern Taiwan participated in the study, which used four instruments. Results showed that, given the choice between Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle teachers, Taiwanese freshmen students preferred teachers from the Inner and Expanding Circles over those from the OC. Despite this, interview data revealed that students would consider OC English teachers under certain conditions, such as those with less distracting regional accents. Other factors that positively impacted students' perception of OC teachers included their role in facilitating communication with native-English speakers and the cultural diversity they brought to the campus. However, students perceived OC English teachers' speech as unintelligible and believed that American English contributed most to international communication. The study's implications for teacher recruitment are discussed.

Associations between social media addiction, psychological distress, and food addiction among Taiwanese university students

BackgroundWorldwide, 60% of people use social media. Excessive and/or addictive use of social media termed “problematic social media use”, has been reported to negatively influence psychological and physiological health. Therefore, we proposed an illustrated model to investigate the associations between social media addiction, psychological distress and food addiction among Taiwanese university students.MethodsA total of 598 participants (mean age = 22.8 years) completed an online survey comprising the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) assessing social media addiction, the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) assessing psychological distress, and the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0) assessing food addiction.ResultsStructural equation modeling showed the significant associations between BSMAS and DASS-21 (standardized coefficient [β] = 0.45; p < 0.01) and between DASS-21 and YFAS 2.0 (β = 0.43; p < 0.01). In addition, mediation effect with 100 bootstrapping samples showed the indirect effect of DASS-21 in the association between BSMAS and YFAS 2.0ConclusionsThe present study details the relationships between social media addiction and psychological distress as well as food addiction. The results suggest the need for interventions aimed at reducing these negative outcomes. Coping strategies for improving self-control or reducing weight-related stigma, such as food consumption monitoring or mindfulness, could be adopted for at-risk individuals to address these problems.

A Study on the Mandarin Chinese Request Strategies of Taiwanese College Students under the Influence of Gender, Social Distance, and Social Power

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of Mandarin Chinese request strategies by Taiwanese college students, the participants of this study were 52 males and 48 females, and the testing instruments include nine role-plays and Discourse Completion Task (DCT). The classification of request strategies proposed by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) was used to analyze the collected data. The data indicate that the factor of gender and the gap in social power between requestors and requestees are not the main factors that affect college students’ use of request strategies, by contrary, the social distance between the two parties sometimes plays a primary role in influencing the use of the requestor’s request strategy.

Digital health literacy and well-being among university students: Mediating roles of fear of COVID-19, information satisfaction, and internet information search.

Digital health literacy (DHL) enables healthy decisions, improves protective behaviors and adherence to COVID-19 measures, especially during the era of the "infodemic", and enhances psychological well-being. We aimed to explore the mediating roles of fear of COVID-19, information satisfaction, and the importance of online information searching on the association between DHL and well-being. A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among 1631 Taiwanese university students, aged 18 years and above, from June 2021 to March 2022. The collected data include sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, social status, and financial satisfaction), the importance of online information searching, information satisfaction, fear of COVID-19, DHL, and well-being. A linear regression model was utilized to investigate factors associated with well-being, followed by a pathway analysis to assess the direct and indirect relationship between DHL and well-being. The scores of DHL and overall well-being were 3.1 ± 0.4 and 74.4 ± 19.7, respectively. Social status (B = 2.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.73-3.07, p < 0.001), DHL (B 0.29, 95% CI 0.10-0.49, p < 0.001), importance of online information searching (B = 0.78, 95% CI 0.38-1.17, p < 0.001), and information satisfaction (B = 3.59, 95% CI 2.22-4.94, p < 0.001) were positively associated with well-being, whereas higher fear of COVID-19 scores (B = -0.38, 95% CI -0.55-(-0.21), p < 0.001) and female (B = -2.99, 95% CI -5.02-0.6, p = 0.004) were associated with lower well-being, when compared with lower fear scores and male, respectively. Fear of COVID-19 (B = 0.03, 95% CI 0.016-0.04, p < 0.001), importance of online information searching (B = 0.03, 95% CI 0.01-0.05, p = 0.005), and information satisfaction (B = 0.05, 95% CI 0.023-0.067, p < 0.001) were significantly mediated the relationship between DHL and well-being. Higher DHL scores show direct and indirect associations with higher well-being scores. Fear, importance of online information searching, and information satisfaction significantly contributed to the association.

Universality? Cross-linguistic influence?

Abstract The present study investigated the use of apology response (AR) strategies by L1-Chinese L2-English learners and L1-English L2-Chinese learners from a cross-linguistic perspective. A total of 18 Taiwanese college students who were learning English as a foreign language and 18 foreigners in Taiwan who were learning Chinese as a second language were recruited to complete an oral discourse completion task both in Chinese and English. The major findings are as follows: First, the two groups showed no significant difference in their choice of AR strategies, both favoring Acceptance and Minimization, two face-preserving types, to show politeness. Second, cross-linguistic influence was found to affect our participants’ AR performances. Both positive and negative influences occurred. Finally, regarding the use of multiple strategies, both groups of participants tended to combine Acceptance with other strategies to maintain social relationships. The results showed both language universal and language-specific features in the AR realizations in Chinese and English. The dominant use of positive response strategies, namely Acceptance and Minimization, highlights the profound influence of politeness principles.

Association of Digital Health Literacy with Future Anxiety as Mediated by Information Satisfaction and Fear of COVID-19: A Pathway Analysis among Taiwanese Students.

Digital Health Literacy (DHL) helps online users with navigating the infodemic and co-existing conspiracy beliefs to avoid mental distress and maintain well-being. We aimed to investigate the association between DHL and future anxiety (FA); and examine the potential mediation roles of information satisfaction and fear of COVID-19 (F-CoV). A web-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among 1631 Taiwanese university students aged 18 years and above from June 2021 to March 2022. Data collected were socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, social status, university location), information satisfaction, F-CoV, DHL and FA (using Future Dark scale). The linear regression model was used to explore factors associated with FA. The pathway analysis was further used to evaluate the direct and indirect relationship between DHL and FA. A higher score of DHL (B = -0.21; 95% CI, -0.37, -0.06; p = 0.006), and information satisfaction (B = -0.16; 95% CI, -0.24, -0.08; p < 0.001) were associated with a lower FA score, whereas a higher F-CoV score was associated with a higher FA score (B = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.36, 0.50; p < 0.001). DHL showed the direct impact (B = -0.1; 95% CI, -0.17, -0.04; p = 0.002) and indirect impact on FA as mediated by information satisfaction (B = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.06, -0.01; p = 0.002) and F-CoV (B = -0.06, 95% CI, -0.08, -0.04; p < 0.001). Strategic approaches to promote DHL, information satisfaction, lower F-CoV are suggested to reduce FA among students.

Sequentially mediated effects of weight-related self-stigma and psychological distress in the association between perceived weight stigma and food addiction among Taiwanese university students: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundWeight-related stigma has negative physiological and psychological impacts on individuals’ quality of life. Stigmatized individuals may experience higher psychological distress and therefore increase the potential risk to develop obesity and/or food addiction. The present study examined the associations and mediated effect between perceived weight stigma, weight-related self-stigma, and psychological distress in explaining food addiction among Taiwanese university students.MethodsAll participants (n = 968) completed an online survey which included the Perceived Weight Stigma Questionnaire, Weight Self-Stigma Questionnaire, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21, and Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.ResultsAfter controlling for demographic variables, significant associations were found in the paths from (1) perceived weight stigma to weight-related self-stigma (beta = 0.23), psychological distress (beta = 0.35), and food addiction (beta = 0.23); (2) weight-related self-stigma to psychological distress (beta = 0.52) and food addiction (beta = 0.59); and (3) psychological distress to food addiction (beta = 0.59) (all p-values < 0.001). The mediation model showed the sequential mediated effect of weight-related self-stigma and psychological distress in the association between perceived weight stigma and food addiction.ConclusionsThe results provide novel insights that weight-related self-stigma and psychological distress sequentially mediated the relationship between perceived weight stigma and food addiction among Taiwanese university students. The findings of the present study could be implemented into interventions that aim to reduce food addiction derived from weight-related stigma. Future studies should consider group analysis to consider confounding factors or other populations to provide more evidence regarding the mechanism of weight-related stigma.

Relationship Between Language Anxiety and English Speaking Performance

This study investigated the relationship between language language anxiety and English speaking performance among Taiwanese college students. The participants were 59 students attending a one-semester course entitled English Speaking Communication at a university in central Taiwan. They underwent computer-based oral proficiency tests and completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation. The English majors experienced moderate levels of anxiety when taking the computer-based speaking test, and a negative but nonsignificant correlation was discovered between foreign language anxiety and speaking performance on the computer-based exam. Pedagogical suggestions for second-language educators are presented herein.&amp;nbsp;

University Student Transition to Remote Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The View from Taiwan

This study examined Taiwanese university students’ transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student participants completed a semi-structured questionnaire about their experience with remote learning in 2021. Questions were formulated with the goal to understand their comfort level in engaging via video conferencing, the effect of the residential environment on learners’ motivation, and the unique challenges faced as they quickly learned to adapt to digital classrooms.

Role of COVID-19 Risk Perception and Organizational Safety Climate in Preventing COVID-19 Among Taiwanese University Students.

Role of COVID-19 Risk Perception and Organizational Safety Climate in Preventing COVID-19 Among Taiwanese University Students.

Identifying university students’ online academic help-seeking patterns and their role in Internet self-efficacy

The main purposes of this study were, first, to identify Taiwanese university students’ online academic help-seeking (OAHS) patterns and further to compare their Internet self-efficacy (ISE) among the identified patterns. A total of 366 Taiwanese university students were invited to fill out two questionnaires to understand their OAHS and ISE, respectively. The results revealed that three OAHS patterns, adaptive, self-reliant, and socially-affiliated, were characterized based on the cluster analysis. The differences in the students’ various ISE dimensions among the three patterns were then compared. The adaptive students, who commonly adopted all types of OAHS behaviors, tended to be the most efficacious in the seven measured ISE dimensions. The self-reliant students, highlighting that they mainly sought help by searching for relevant information online, showed higher confidence in the ISE dimensions of “Usage,” “Application,” and “Learning” than did the socially-affiliated students (i.e., those who tended to use formal and informal queries to seek academic help online). The socially-affiliated students only showed higher confidence in sharing online information than the self-reliant students. However, in the “Communication,” “Verifying,” and “Metacognition” ISE dimensions, there were no significant differences between the socially-affiliated and self-reliant students.

Metacognition and Approaches Regarding Internet-Based Learning in Taiwanese University Students

While learning in Internet-based environments, students rely on metacognitive knowledge to organize, record, monitor, and review their learning path. In this experience, they may reveal either a "surface" or "deep" approach. In this study, 509 university students were administered the adapted versions of the ‘Metacognitive Knowledge regarding Internet-based Learning' questionnaire and of the ‘Approaches to Internet-based Learning' questionnaire. Positive correlations between metacognitive knowledge and approaches to Internet-based learning environments emerged: The metacognitive attitude was associated to a concerned and critical approach to learning whereas the negative attitude about Internet-based learning was associated to the surface approach. Students showed a global understanding of the peculiarities and opportunities of Internet-based learning environments rather than empathize a single cognitive or metacognitive feature.

The Effect of Positive Intervention Dosing Frequency: Fixed Intervals May Decrease More Depression than Flexible Ones.

Positive interventions (PIs) that are based on the theory of positive psychology have proven to be effective in improving well-being and alleviating depression. However, little research has explored the effect of dosing intervals on experimental effects. As such, this study designed strength-based PIs using cognitive reframing theory and compared flexible and fixed dosing intervals to find out which one could more effectively reduce depression with equal total amounts of dosing. The 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (8-item CES-D) and the Positive reframing scale (PRS) were adopted as research instruments. A total of 193 Taiwanese college students were recruited as the research sample and they were randomly assigned to experimental Group A (fixed dosing intervals), experimental Group B (flexible dosing intervals), and the Control Group. The research participants received 17-day interventions with follow-up tests administered in the seventh week of the experiment. Ultimately, 157 participants completed the experiment. According to the ANCOVA results, participants in experimental Group A showed significantly lower degrees of depression than those in the Control Group in both post-test and follow-up stages and displayed greater effect size in the follow-up stage than in the post-test stage. The results indicated that the design of fixed dosing intervals enabled the participants to effectively integrate reflections on reframing learned during PIs into their life. On the contrary, participants in experimental Group B exhibited no significant difference in the degree of depression from those in the Control Group during either the post-test or follow-up stage and manifested poorer effects in the follow-up stage than in the post-test stage. These results demonstrated that fixed dosing intervals achieved better effects than flexible dosing intervals. Participants receiving fixed dosing intervals could more effectively execute cognitive reframing and showed longer-lasting experimental effects, whereas participants using the design of flexible dosing intervals were more prone to forget to implement PIs and attain less positive effects as a result.

Relationship between demoralization of the college student with their individual- and social-oriented self.

Demoralization has become increasingly prevalent among college students who have lost motivation in life and feel hopeless about their future. Many college students who demonstrate symptoms of demoralization are neglected because they might fail to typical symptoms of depression. Taiwanese college students are simultaneously influenced by bicultural-self system, such as individual- and social-oriented views of self, which vary considerably in the view of self, achievement motivation, and the value of self-realization, and may even create contradictory expectations and behavioral standard. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of the relationship between attitude towards demoralization, individual- and social-oriented views of self. Three-hundred fifty-six college students completed the online questionnaire, which was designed to explore their demoralization status and cultural differences. Four groups were divided into bicultural self, individual-oriented self, social-oriented self, and unintegrated self. Bicultural group demonstrated significantly lower demoralization overall scores than other groups. Moreover, the five dimensions of demoralization in college students were mostly significantly and negatively correlated with individual- and social-oriented views of self, indicating that college students' bicultural views of self may contribute to or prevent demoralization.

Beyond online search strategies: The effects of internet epistemic beliefs and different note‐taking formats on online multiple document reading comprehension

AbstractBackgroundProcessing and comprehending information from multiple sources have been a primary means of learning and are essential 21st‐century skills to construct knowledge for a deeper understanding.ObjectivesThis study examined students' individual differences in search strategies and internet epistemic beliefs as well as the effect of distinct note‐taking formats on students' online multiple‐document reading about measurement scales and statistical graphs, considering students' gender and prior knowledge.MethodsParticipants were 124 Taiwanese university students (79% female) taking the Educational Statistics course in three different classes. I used a quasi‐experimental design to test the effect of different note‐taking formats on online multiple document reading. Three classes of students were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions with sourcing cues: the individual note taking with multiple tabs, the collaborative note taking with multiple tabs, or the individual note taking in a single tab.Results and conclusionThe study showed that the uncertainty belief about Internet‐based information and note‐taking formats predicted students' online multiple document reading. A stronger belief that the internet information is uncertain and may change with time positively predict online multiple document reading comprehension. Moreover, individuals taking notes in a single tab outperformed those taking notes individually in separate tabs.Major takeaways from the studyImplications for instruction were made to foster students' uncertainty belief and teach them how to construct pre‐outlined tables with sourcing cues to collect the contextual information and reflect on the source information to streamline learners' online multiple document reading comprehension.

Threats Posed by Social Media and Computer and Video Games from the Perspective of Sport Education

Sedentary behaviors are increasingly common, exerting a heavy financial burden on society and becoming a risk factor for chronic diseases and mor-tality. Taiwan has one of the highest obesity prevalence rates among Asian countries. This cross-sectional study investigated the correlation of socio-demographic characteristics and PE enrollment with the time spent on vari-ous sedentary behaviors. The valid responses of 1,195 Taiwanese university students on a survey were analyzed. They were recruited between May and June 2019 using cluster sampling. The survey inquired into demographic characteristics and the self-reported time spent on various sedentary behav-iors. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, a t test, and effect size analysis were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that univer-sity students in Taiwan were sedentary for an average of 474 minutes per day, with use of social media being the most prevalent sedentary activity at 123 minutes per day. The severely overweight group was most sedentary, and female students and students that were not enrolled in a PE class tended to spend more time on video games and social media.

Factors Affecting Problematic Internet Shopping

The study aimed to examine internet shopping patterns and factors affecting problematic online shopping behavior among university students. A total of 364 Taiwanese university students were conveniently recruited online using the Online Shopping Addiction Scale (OSAS) to assess the severity of problematic internet shopping. Fisher’s exact test and hierarchical regression analysis were used to examine the difference among internet shoppers and explore the determining factors for problematic internet shopping. Results revealed that 2.47% of the students in our sample suffered from problematic internet shopping. Hierarchical regression analysis suggested that internet experience has an inverse significant influence on problematic internet shopping. Furthermore, daily internet shopping usage and frequency appear to be the most critical determinants of problematic internet shopping (p&amp;lt;.01). The current study has provided some worthwhile insights which can serve as a guideline to more elaborate studies.

The Impact of Online Learning on Physical and Mental Health in University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Higher education organizations have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. During school closures, online teaching and learning has become a new routine that may lead to changes in lifestyles and adversely affect university students’ health. Therefore, this study was to understand the potential impact of online learning on physical and mental health by investigating the differences in physical activity, psychological distress, and student life stress in Taiwanese university students between the in-class learning and online learning periods. A total of 181 students were recruited from a local university. All participants were requested to complete an online survey and self-report physical activity, psychological distress, and life stress in the in-class learning and online learning periods, respectively. The results indicated a significant reduction in physical activity of various intensities (p < 0.05). Specifically, male university students showed a greater decrease in vigorous physical activity compared to their female peers. Yet, there was no significant increase in psychological distress and life stress from the in-class learning period to the online learning period. In summary, physical activity drastically reduces during the online learning period in Taiwanese university students. Notably, male students may be at greater risk of insufficient participation in vigorous physical activity.

Examining Taiwanese university students’ multimodal multiple text comprehension: individual differences and epistemic prompting

ABSTRACT This study investigated multimodal multiple text comprehension (MMTC) among forty-eight Taiwanese university students, considering their cognitive and affective characteristics. A randomized trial with pre- and post-tests design was applied. The experiment group received a browser-embedded note-taking device along with epistemic prompting. The control group was provided with the browser-embedded note-taking device only. The results showed that situational interest, prior knowledge level, and cognitive load were associated with learners’ MMTC. Besides, prior knowledge and cognitive load moderated the effect of epistemic prompting on MMTC. Students with low prior knowledge scored significantly lower in MMTC without graphics than those with medium or high prior knowledge in the control group. Moreover, the cognitive load had a stronger negative influence on participants’ MMTC without graphics in the control group, but the negative impact was negligible on those in the experimental group. The contributions and implications of the findings were discussed regarding the MMTC intervention and instruction.