Critical thinking is widely recognized as an essential competency for 21st-century higher education and the cultivation of innovative talent. However, previous studies have yielded contradictory conclusions, leaving two key questions remain unknown: What is the overall level of critical thinking skills among Chinese students, and what accounts for the inconsistencies in prior findings? To address these questions, this meta-analysis synthesized 79 primary studies published between 2002 and 2025 that assessed Chinese students’ critical thinking skills using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test or its Chinese version, with a total sample size of 8,860 participants. The results revealed that the overall score for critical thinking skills among Chinese students was 0.426, with scores on the analysis, evaluation, and inference dimensions ranging from 0.374 to 0.461, all falling below the scale midpoint. Academic discipline demonstrated a significant moderating effect, with scores ranked from highest to lowest as follows: Medicine, Liberal Arts, Education, Engineering, and Science. This variation may partly reflect differences in discipline-specific curriculum design, learning tasks, opportunities for classroom interaction, and exposure to problem-based learning. Publication type also showed a significant moderating effect, with general journals reporting the highest effect sizes and dissertations the lowest. In contrast, the moderating effects of grade level and institution type were not significant. Some issues related with the theoretical, educational implications, and future study were also discussed.

The level of Chinese students’ critical thinking disposition has been widely debated for the past three decades, yet previous studies have reported inconsistent findings and lacked quantitative synthesis. To address this gap and clarify the current state of critical thinking dispositions among Chinese students, the present study conducted a meta-analysis of 491 primary studies, encompassing 688 independent samples and 146,625 participants. The analysis found that the averaged scores of Chinese students’ critical thinking disposition fluctuated between 3.684 and 3.909 on a six-point Likert scale. Moderator analyses revealed that grade level, major type, publication type, and university type significantly influenced effect sizes, whereas the methodological quality of the primary studies was not significantly associated with effect sizes. As the first global study to provide a precise estimate of Chinese students’ critical thinking disposition, it highlights key areas for further research and discusses relevant theoretical and educational implications.

Although tree imagery in projective drawing tests is a promising nonverbal tool for screening mental disorders, its clinical utility remains constrained by inconsistent predictor selection. To address this gap, the present systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes the characteristics of tree imagery linked to mental disorders and evaluates their predictive efficacy. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we analyzed 42 studies involving 8552 participants from English and Chinese databases published between 1948 and 2024. The results showed that 24 specific characteristics significantly predicted mental disorders (p < 0.05), which were classified into five distinct categories: blackened out (e.g., blackened tree, odds ratio [OR] = 2.01), scribbled lines (e.g., weak lines, OR = 2.82), oddly shaped (e.g., flattened crown, OR = 3.10), no vitality (e.g., very small tree, OR = 3.93), and overly simple (e.g., simplified drawing, OR = 7.07). Furthermore, subgroup analyses indicated that features such as "blackened tree" (OR = 1.71), "no motion" (OR = 3.34), and "excessive separation" (OR = 2.77) were significantly associated with affective disorders, whereas the presence of "roots" (OR = 4.89) was uniquely associated with the thought-disorder subgroup. Ultimately, tree imagery may offer a valuable nonverbal, adjunctive approach to screening for mental disorders, offering several statistically supported indicators that may effectively complement traditional assessment tools.

Digital-based interventions that promote students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) development have expanded, but their effectiveness and impact remain debated. This study aimed to estimate effects of digital-based interventions on three SEL outcomes: social emotional skills (SES), affect and attitudes (AA), and prosocial and antisocial behaviors (PB), and to examine moderators, including social impairment status, school level, device type, intervention duration, study design, intervention gamification design features, control condition, reporter type, and setting of the intervention. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched Web of Science, ASSIA, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, and ERIC through August 1, 2025, and IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library through January 5, 2026; included experimental and quasi-experimental studies; used random-effects models (Hedges’ g); assessed heterogeneity using Q and I²; and evaluated publication bias using Egger’s test and the trim-and-fill method. Thirty-seven studies (N = 4742) were included. In the primary meta-analysis, digital-based interventions showed positive effects across all three outcomes: SES (SMD = 0.631, 95

A three-level meta-analysis examined the association between teacher homework involvement and student learning outcomes and tested substantive and study-level moderators. Teacher homework involvement encompassed homework quality, autonomy support, content support, feedback quality, feedback quantity, and combined support, whereas learning outcomes encompassed motivational and affective, behavioral and self-regulatory, and academic outcomes. The analysis included 506 effect sizes from 29 independent studies involving 35,702 students. Teacher homework involvement had an overall small-to-moderate positive association with student learning outcomes (r = 0.246, p < .001), which remained stable under study-clustered CR2 inference and leave-one-study-out analyses. This association varied by involvement dimension, outcome type, geographical region, publication type, and publication year, but not by grade level or subject matter. Omnibus differences across involvement dimensions and outcome types remained statistically significant under study-clustered inference. The most consistent evidence indicated stronger associations for homework quality, feedback quality, and autonomy support than for feedback quantity. Across outcomes, autonomous motivation showed the largest association, suggesting that teacher homework involvement may be particularly relevant to whether students experience homework as personally meaningful, valued, and self-endorsed. Associations were also stronger in studies conducted in Asia than in those conducted in the United States or Europe. Overall, the findings highlight the potential value of well-designed assignments, high-quality feedback, and autonomy-supportive guidance.

Critical thinking among mainland Chinese students has drawn widespread scholarly attention. However, how students' critical thinking dispositions evolved over time – and the factors influencing these changes – remains unclear. To address these gaps, we conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 487 studies, comprising 681 independent samples and a total of 145,487 participants. The results revealed that: (a) the total dimension of critical thinking disposition, analyticity, systematicity, self-confidence, inquisitiveness, and maturity dimensions among mainland Chinese students declined significantly from 2000 to 2025; (b) the temporal effects on the truth-seeking and open-mindedness dimensions of critical thinking disposition are not significant; (c) annual college admission rates, time spent on mathematics homework, and time spent on English homework in a given year significantly negatively predicted the variances of critical thinking disposition in the same year. In contrast, the student–teacher ratio in the current year significantly and positively predicted the total score of critical thinking dispositions; (d) The student–teacher ratio and the educational expenditure (proportion of GDP) of five years prior significantly and positively predicted critical thinking dispositions. The theoretical and educational implications are discussed, along with directions for future research.

Background Tree imagery in drawing tests has demonstrated effectiveness in predicting mental disorders; however, there remains a lack of uniformity in the selection and interpretation of predictors. This study aimed to integrate various tree imagery characteristics in mental disorders through a systematic review and meta-analysis and to further identify valid indicators for predicting mental disorders. Methods A search of the following electronic databases was performed in May 2023: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang. Screening and checking of the literature were performed independently by two authors. A total of 42 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The strength of the association between drawing characteristics and mental disorders was measured by the ratio (OR) with a 95% CI. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot, Rosenthal’s fail-safe number (Nfs), and the trim and fill method. Results The analysis demonstrated a total of 45 drawing characteristics that appeared at least three times in previous studies, 24 of which were found to significantly predict mental disorders. The effective predictors could be categorized into five categories: blackened out, scribbled lines, oddly shaped, no vitality, and overly simple. Subgroup analyses indicated that “blackened tree”, “no motion”, and “excessive separation” were specific indicators of affective disorders, whereas “roots” was an indicator of thought disorders. Common indicators for mental disorders included “weak or intermittent tree lines”, “no additional decoration”, “simplified drawing”, “small drawing size” and “very small tree”. Conclusion This study confirms the value of drawing tests in screening for mental disorders, and provides reference for the selection and interpretation of drawing indicators.

BACKGROUND:Applying a three-level meta-analysis, the goal of our investigation was to examine the relationship between parental homework involvement and students’ achievement, and to investigate whether certain study features could have resulted in the inconsistent results relating to this relationship from prior studies. METHOD:We identified a total of 28 studies (32 independent samples) with 252 effect sizes for a total of 378222 participants. RESULTS:Our meta-analysis revealed an overall weak negative relationship between parental homework involvement and students’ achievement ( r = −0.064, p < 0.001). The overall relationship was moderated by the dimension of parental homework involvement. Specifically, students’ achievement was positively related to autonomy support, but largely unrelated to content support, parental control, frequency, and mixed. Additionally, the overall relationship was moderated by achievement measure, grade level, and parent gender. CONCLUSIONS:Given that parental autonomy support was the only dimension that was positively related to students’ achievement, it would be important to conduct qualitative research that provides longitudinal descriptions of parent-child interactions relating to homework tasks as children make their transition from elementary to middle and high school.

IntroductionThe Ecological Systems Model of Creativity Development (ESMCD) proposes that parental involvement positively impacts student creativity. However, prior empirical studies present mixed results, including positive, negative, and no correlations between these variables.MethodsTo synthesize these inconsistent primary studies, the current study conducted a systematic meta-analysis synthesizing 30 primary studies involving 37 independent samples with 70 effect sizes and a total N = 20,906 participants.ResultsThe results demonstrated: (1) an overall significant small, positive correlation (r = 0.101) between parental involvement and student creativity; (2) significant small, positive correlations between specific involvement types (autonomy support r = 0.144; behavioral control r = 0.133; content support r = 0.131) and creativity, alongside a significant small, negative correlation between psychological control and creativity (r = −0.117); (3) no statistically significant moderating effects of student grade level, parental gender, region, or publication type.DiscussionThis systematic meta-analytic review consolidates empirical evidence indicating that parental involvement positively predicts students’ creativity, while highlighting the detrimental impact of psychological control on creative outcomes. Further research elucidating the mechanisms underlying these relations is critical for informing parenting approaches and education policies seeking to foster creativity development among students.

Theoretical models have predicted a positive association between anxiety and Internet use disorders.However, the findings of previous studies are conflicting, with some reporting a positive association and others proposing no relationship between the two.To explore the true relationship between the two and analyze the reasons for the differences, 100 primary studies involving 108,539 subjects were entered into a meta-analysis.The results showed that (1) there was a significant positive correlation between students' anxiety and Internet use disorder (r = 0.330); (2) the moderating effect of anxiety type was significant.(3) The moderating effects of the measurement instrument for Internet use disorder, the measurement instrument for anxiety, the subject's grade level, the subject's region, and the type of publication were not significant.The question of how the different anxiety types of students and IUD have different mechanisms of action needs to be further explored.

愤怒是因愿望落空、目标受挫或边界被犯而产生的负性情绪，指向他人的愤怒即为人际愤怒。人际愤怒对接收者的影响有争议，有人认为人际愤怒弊端极大，有人认为人际愤怒是可资利用的工具。这种分歧可能源于评价指标、参照对象和应用场景的不同，有必要用元分析系统考察人际愤怒的利与弊。本研究对67篇文献，总样本量为15462人的185个效应值进行了分析，结果发现：人际愤怒会让接收者让步更多、亲社会行为减少、问题解决行为提升，同时情境不公平感增加，对愤怒表达者的态度和能力评价均降低，这些效应受接收者文化背景和相对权力大小的调节。这提示人际愤怒利弊相依，能改变愤怒接收者的某些行为，却增加对表达者的消极评价，应视情景谨慎使用。

Objective: Body-esteem is an important indicator of the psychological benefits of physical exercise. To integrate inconsistent findings from previous literature, this study aimed to explore the reasons for the inconsistency. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to analyze 90 original studies published between 2008 and 2022, involving 98 independent samples and 29,251 participants. Results: (1) There was a significant positive correlation between physical exercise and body-esteem (r = 0.421, 95%CI [0.368, 0.472]), with a moderate effect size. (2) There were also significant positive correlations, with moderate effect sizes, between exercise duration (r = 0.386, 95%CI [0.235, 0.520]), exercise intensity (r = 0.355, 95%CI [0.227, 0.470]), exercise frequency (r = 0.405, 95%CI [0.291, 0.507]), and body-esteem. (3) Group type effects moderated the relationship between physical exercise and body-esteem (Qb = 8.088). (4) Exercise type effects partially moderated the relationship between physical exercise and body-esteem (Qb = 10.057), physical self-worth (Qb = 10.015), and physical attractiveness (Qb = 7.823). (5) Publication type effects were not significant (Qb = 2.795). (6) Exercise measurement type effects moderated the relationship between physical exercise and body-esteem (Qb = 10.304). Conclusion: (1) There is a moderate positive correlation between physical exercise and body-esteem. (2) Research characteristics, such as group type, exercise type, and exercise measurement type, can affect the relationship between physical exercise and body-esteem, with small to moderate moderation effects.

Background:The house-tree-person (HTP) drawing test has received growing attention from researchers as a common projective test. However, the methods used to select and interpret drawing indicators still lack uniformity.Objective:This study aims to integrate drawing indicators into the process of screening for or classifying mental disorders by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of the application of the HTP test.Methods:A search of the following electronic databases was performed in May 2022: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang. Screening and checking of the literature were performed independently by two researchers. The empirical studies published on the use of the HTP test in mental disorders and studies providing specific data on the occurrence frequency of drawing characteristics were analyzed. A total of 30 studies were included in the meta-analysis, including 665 independent effect sizes and 6,295 participants. The strength of the association between drawing characteristics of the HTP test and the prevalence of mental disorders was measured by the ratio (OR) with a 95% CI. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot, Rosenthal's fail-safe number (N fs), and the trim and fill method.Results:The results revealed 50 drawing characteristics that appeared at least three times in previous studies, of which 39 were able to significantly predict mental disorders. The HTP test can be divided into the following four dimensions: house, tree, person, and the whole. These dimensions reflect the structure, size, and other characteristics of the picture. The results showed that the greatest predictor of mental disorders was the whole (OR = 4.20, p < 0.001), followed by the house (OR = 3.95, p < 0.001), the tree (OR = 2.70, p < 0.001), and the person (OR = 2.16, p < 0.001). The valid predictors can be categorized into the following four types: item absence, bizarre or twisted, excessive details, and small or simplified. The subgroup analysis showed that the affective-specific indicators included no motion, leaning house, and decorated roof; thought-specific indicators included excessive separation among items, no window, loss of facial features, and inappropriate body proportions; and common indicators of mental disorders included no additional decoration, simplified drawing, very small house, two-dimensional house, and very small tree.Conclusion:These findings can promote the standardization of the HTP test and provide a theoretical reference for the screening and clinical diagnosis of mental disorders.

During the past several decades, the previous studies have been focusing on the related theoretical issues and measuring tool of homework behaviors (mainly including homework time, completion, and homework creativity). However, the effects of these homework behaviors on general creativity remain unknown. Employing a number of questionnaires, this study investigated two samples from middle schools of Mainland China. The results showed that (1) the eight-item version of Homework Creativity Behaviors Scale had acceptable validity and reliability; (2) compared with homework completion and homework time, homework creativity explained less variety of academic achievement (3.7% for homework creativity; 5.4% for completion and time); (3) homework creativity explained more variance of general creativity than that of homework completion and homework time accounted (7.0% for homework creativity; 1.3% for completion and time); and (4) homework creativity was negatively associated with grade level. Contrary to the popular beliefs, homework completion and homework creativity have positive effects on the students' general creativity. Several issues that need further studies were also discussed.

随着人工智能时代的来临,5G、大数据、云计算、虚拟现实等新技术正在引发一场新的教育革命,催生了智能作业,影响和改变了学生学习的习惯与方式,同时也对传统纸笔作业造成了一定冲击.

With the advent of the post PC era and the popularity of mobile intelligent terminals, the way people receive and feedback information has changed significantly, which also promotes the development of learners’ learning mode. At present, China is gradually promoting the application of information technology in the field of education. In this case, homework App is favored by more and more learners for its practicality, convenience, interaction and other characteristics. With each App as the analysis unit, the content analysis method is used to discuss the general situation, main functions and user evaluation. Under the condition of establishing a coding system of 7 dimensions and 21 details, the current status of the homework Apps is systematically sorted out. At the same time, the paper discusses the possible problems in these three aspects, and puts forward corresponding suggestions for the design and development of future operational Apps.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Currently, only symptomatic management is available, and early diagnosis and intervention are crucial for AD treatment. As a recent deep learning strategy, generative adversarial networks (GANs) are expected to benefit AD diagnosis, but their performance remains to be verified. This study provided a systematic review on the application of the GAN-based deep learning method in the diagnosis of AD and conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate its diagnostic performance. A search of the following electronic databases was performed by two researchers independently in August 2021: MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Web of Science. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool was applied to assess the quality of the included studies. The accuracy of the model applied in the diagnosis of AD was determined by calculating odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A bivariate random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled sensitivity and specificity with their 95% CIs. Fourteen studies were included, 11 of which were included in the meta-analysis. The overall quality of the included studies was high according to the QUADAS-2 assessment. For the AD vs. cognitively normal (CN) classification, the GAN-based deep learning method exhibited better performance than the non-GAN method, with significantly higher accuracy (OR 1.425, 95% CI: 1.150–1.766, P = 0.001), pooled sensitivity (0.88 vs. 0.83), pooled specificity (0.93 vs. 0.89), and area under the curve (AUC) of the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) (0.96 vs. 0.93). For the progressing MCI (pMCI) vs. stable MCI (sMCI) classification, the GAN method exhibited no significant increase in the accuracy (OR 1.149, 95% CI: 0.878–1.505, P = 0.310) or the pooled sensitivity (0.66 vs. 0.66). The pooled specificity and AUC of the SROC in the GAN group were slightly higher than those in the non-GAN group (0.81 vs. 0.78 and 0.81 vs. 0.80, respectively). The present results suggested that the GAN-based deep learning method performed well in the task of AD vs. CN classification. However, the diagnostic performance of GAN in the task of pMCI vs. sMCI classification needs to be improved.Systematic Review Registration: [PROSPERO], Identifier: [CRD42021275294].

大学生身体自尊是如何随年代变化的呢?研究对2004年至2016年107篇使用身体自尊量表的研究进行了横断历史研究,涉及大学生30738名.结果 显示:(1)我国大学生身体自我价值感、运动能力和身体素质与年代有着显著正相关关系;(2)男女大学生身体自尊水平都有了一定提升;(3)男生在身体自尊各个因子的得分高于女生0.2 ～0.3个标准差,显示出了大学生在身体自尊水平上的性别差异;(4)从大学生整个群体来看,经济因素、高等教育因素与大学生身体自尊具有显著相关,而从不同性别群体来看,经济因素与人口压力对于男大学生的身体自尊影响更为明显.

Education actively helps us develop our well-being and health, but postgraduate students are at high risk of depression. The prevalence of depression symptoms varies from 6.2% to 84.7% among them, and its changes throughout the years remains unclear. The present study aimed to estimate the real prevalence of depression symptoms among postgraduate students and the changes from 1980 to 2020. Thirty-seven primary studies with 41 independent reports were included in the meta-analysis (none reports were in high-quality, three were medium-to-high quality, 20 were low-to-medium quality, and 18 were low-quality), involving 27,717 postgraduate students. The pooled prevalence of overall, mild, moderate, and severe depression symptoms was 34% (95% CI: 28-40, I2  = 98.6%), 27% (95% CI: 22-32, I2  = 85.8%), 13% (95% CI: 8-21, I2  = 97.3%), and 8% (95% CI: 6-11, I2  = 81.0%), respectively. Overall, the prevalence of depression symptoms remained relatively constant through the years following 1980 (overall: β = -0.12, 95% CI: [-0.39, 0.15], p = 0.39; mild: β = 0.24, 95% CI: [-0.02, 0.51], p = 0.07; moderate: β = -0.24, 95% CI: [-0.75, 0.26], p = 0.34; severe: β = 0.13, 95% CI: [-0.25, 0.51], p = 0.50). Doctoral students experienced more depressive symptoms than did master's students (43% vs. 27%; Q = 2.23, df = 1, p = 0.13), and studies utilising non-random sampling methods reported a higher prevalence of mild depression and lower moderate depression symptoms than those that used random sampling (overall: 34% vs. 29%; Q = 0.45, df = 1, p = 0.50; mild: 29% vs. 21%; Q = 1.69, df = 1, p = 0.19; moderate: 16% vs. 25%; Q = 1.79, df = 1, p = 0.18; severe: 8% vs. 9%; Q = 0.13, df = 1, p = 0.72) despite these differences was not statistically significant. The prevalence of depression symptoms was moderated by the measurements and the quality of primary studies. More than one-third of postgraduates reported depression symptoms, which indicates the susceptibility to mental health risk among postgraduates. School administrators, teachers, and students should take joint actions to prevent mental disorders of postgraduates from increasing in severity.