This study examined gender differences in couple satisfaction and communication patterns between women in cross-national marriages and their Korean husbands, couple satisfaction levels varying by communication patterns, and the mediating effect of intimacy on the relationship between communication and couple satisfaction. The study sample is 161 couples of women in cross-national marriages and their Korean husbands residing in Gyeongnam Province, South Korea. Women in cross-national marriages reported significantly lower couple satisfaction and revealed more negative communication patterns compared to their Korean husbands. Couples where both spouses engaged in positive communication experienced the highest levels of couple satisfaction. Multi-group structural equation modeling suggested the mediating effect of intimacy on the relationship between communication and couple satisfaction for both women in cross-national marriages and Korean husbands. These findings have implications for developing policy and practice interventions enhancing couple satisfaction among women in cross-national marriages and their Korean husbands through improved communication and intimacy.

Cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms are major concerns for children and adolescents worldwide. Despite the increasing number of longitudinal studies of cyberbullying and mental health among this demographic, the robustness of the causal associations between cyberbullying victimization and the magnitude of mental health symptoms remains unclear. This meta-analysis investigated the longitudinal impact of cyberbullying victimization on mental health symptoms among children and adolescents. A systematic search identified primary studies published in English between January 2010 and June 2021, yielding a sample of 27 studies encompassing 13,497 children and adolescents aged 8 to 19 years old. The longitudinal association between cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms among children and adolescents was found to be weakly positive and consistent across time and age. Three significant moderators were identified: the effect of cyberbullying victimization on mental health was larger among older children, groups with a higher proportion of males, and in more recent publications. No evidence of publication bias was detected. This study adds to the existing body of research by providing a new perspective on the long-term effects of cyberbullying victimization on the mental health of children and adolescents' mental health. Furthermore, it underscores the necessity of developing effective cyberbullying prevention programs, interventions, and legal regulations to comprehensively address this issue.

Purpose: We evaluated the outcomes of a school-based group counseling program for adolescent Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). The program aimed to enhance self-regulation, resilience, parent–child attachment, and parental supervision and reduce gaming hours, IGD severity, IGD symptoms, depression, and parent–child conflict. Method: In this quasi-experimental study, out of 115 sary school students in Singapore ( M age = 13.7, SD = 1.56 ) who reported five or more out of ten IGD symptoms, 61 participated in the intervention and 54 served as a nonintervention group. Results: Repeated Measures ANCOVA revealed that compared with the non-intervention, the program was effective in improving self-regulation ( F = 7.84, p = .006), resilience ( F = 4.90, p = .03), weekend gaming hours ( F = 9.18, p = .003), IGD severity ( F = 7.68, p = .007) and depression ( F = 14.3, p < .000). Discussion: We suggest that the program improve parental support components while focusing on self-regulation.

ObjectiveThis study investigates the role of local families-in-law in the lives of foreign spouses from low-income, cross-national families in Singapore, focusing on their potential as a source of support for social integration and access to resources.BackgroundForeign spouses in Singapore face challenges related to social integration and access to resources, and local in-law relationships have been identified as a potential source of support.MethodIn-depth interviews with 18 Chinese-national foreign spouses were analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsSiblings-in-law were vital to foreign spouses, providing more emotional and practical support than parents-in-law. Local in-law relationships influenced foreign spouses' identification with locals, and the local in-laws' familiarity with local resources and networks facilitated access to formal and informal services, contributing to equitable outcomes.ConclusionLocal families-in-law play a critical role in the lives of foreign spouses in Singapore, especially siblings-in-law. The findings highlight the potential of local in-law relationships as a support system for cross-national families.ImplicationsThe study's findings can inform policies and practices that support the well-being of cross-national families. Policymakers and practitioners should recognize the potential of local in-law relationships and develop programs to strengthen them.

There have been many debates on whether problematic internet use (PIU) and problematic video gaming (PVG) are overlapping concepts. The present study compared the common and unique predictors of PIU and PVG. School children (N = 1,080) completed a set of questionnaires on their internet use, basic psychological needs satisfaction, sensation seeking, impulsivity, internalizing symptoms, and parental factors (Wave 1). Respondents' PIU and PVG were assessed 2 years later (Wave 3). Results indicate that PIU and PVG were predicted by impulsiveness, online social comfort, internalizing symptoms, parental attachment, and child's perceived warmth at home. Age at Wave 1, age of first exposure to the internet, sensation seeking, online self-regulation, and parental communication apprehension were all significant longitudinal predictors of PIU, but not PVG. Parental involvement in media use predicted a decreased likelihood of PVG but not PIU.

Using semi-structured interviews with social workers in Singapore, this study aimed to identify challenges that social workers face when working with transnational families, and strategies to address those challenges. Systemic barriers, lack of cross-national competency, mismatched cultural beliefs and ethical conflict were prevailing challenges that Singaporean social workers encountered. To overcome these challenges, they turned to their colleagues for peer support and supervision and self-learned about their foreign clients’ home countries. We discuss the importance of social workers’ integration of macro and micro practice skills, cross-national competency and proactive attitudes and creativity for effective service delivery for transnational families.

Applying path analysis to 237 secondary school students and 320 post-secondary students in Singapore, parents' education was found to have important effects on adolescents' educational aspiration as mediated through educational track and adolescents' financial stress and self-esteem. This effect is strong for adolescents in both secondary and post-secondary education, with slight differences in the specific psychological process. The findings imply calibration of education towards parity and psychosocial interventions to improve adolescents' self-concepts, coping and aspirations. However, in the context of fast economic transformation, a burgeoning middle class, a differentiated education system, and high-income inequality, policy and psychosocial interventions will have limited effectiveness without addressing labour market disparities and the social stigma of vocational and technical education.

BACKGROUND:In an age disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic, three-dimensional virtual world (3DVW) offers an opportunity for healthcare students from different higher education institutions to participate in interprofessional education. Despite its growing evidence, there is a need to unravel the complex learning process in order to ensure high quality of interprofessional education delivery.AIM:This study aimed to explore the experiences of healthcare students and facilitators on the use of 3DVW for interprofessional team-based virtual simulation.METHODS:Interprofessional teams, each comprising six different healthcare students (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Medical Social Work) and two clinicians who acted as facilitators, logged into the 3DVW from their own remote locations to participate in team-based care delivery that included an interprofessional bedside round and a family conference. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted on a purposive sample of 30 healthcare students and 12 facilitators using focus group discussions and individual interviews.RESULTS:Four themes emerged from their experiences: the "wow experience", authentic experience on collaborative care, ease of learning, and preeminent role of the facilitator. The simulation provided the "wow" experiences through contextual, collaborative and experiential learning approaches. Despite technical challenges, the participants were wooed by the comforts of learning from home and the psychological safety in virtual environment. The facilitators played a critical role in optimizing learning engagement to win learners over.CONCLUSION:Our study explicates how attention to the "wow, woo and win" trilateral factors can transform the interprofessional learning experiences offered by 3DVW simulation. Future developments in the use of this learning technology should include developing the clinicians' facilitation skills and the provision of technical support to make this 3DVW a success calls in winning students' learning engagement.

This study aimed to understand useful components and mechanisms in treating adolescent gaming disorder. Although video gaming has become a pervasive part of adolescents' daily life that can lead to educational, physical, psychological, and social problems, there is ongoing debate as to whether this is an addiction, and there is little evidence about treatment effectiveness. This process research used a case study design and conducted individual semistructured interviews with 10 male adolescents and 11 parents after they had completed a treatment program. Four treatment components (individual counseling, family counseling, group mentoring and social support, and alternative activities) were generally found to be useful. Counselors were able to engage the adolescents and serve as role models in gaming through creative use of technology. Practitioners working with adolescents with gaming disorder should attend to their developmental needs pertaining to gaming, health, psychosocial, and educational aspects relevant to the Asian context. Practitioners should go beyond counseling rooms and adopt different strategies to reach out and work with adolescents who are struggling with excessive gaming in different therapeutic settings via engaging and working with them in individual, family, and group contexts using technology, particularly video games.

Despite the escalating public concern about pathological use of the Internet among youth, little research has investigated the longitudinal trajectory of the problem and the role of peer support in it. This study aimed to determine the growth trajectory of pathological Internet use (PIU), identify latent subgroups presenting heterogeneous growth trajectories of PIU, and examine the initial status of and the rate of change in peer support as predictors of the growth trajectory of PIU among children and adolescents. Using four-wave longitudinal data from 3,079 Singaporean youth at ages 7-19, we performed Latent Growth Curve Modeling, Latent Class Growth Analysis and Latent Growth Mixture Modeling. Results revealed a downward trajectory of PIU among youth. We identified six latent subgroups, three of which were in pathological status for at least a year. The more rapid improvement in peer support, but not the initial level of peer support, predicted the faster reduction of PIU symptoms during the 3-year period. Findings suggest that although the symptoms of PIU among children and adolescents would decline over time, improving peer support could further alleviate youth PIU. We recommended that intervention programs include a peer support component to mitigate PIU among youth.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to understand useful components and mechanisms in treating adolescent gaming disorder.BackgroundAlthough video gaming has become a pervasive part of adolescents' daily life that can lead to educational, physical, psychological, and social problems, there is ongoing debate as to whether this is an addiction, and there is little evidence about treatment effectiveness.MethodThis process research used a case study design and conducted individual semistructured interviews with 10 male adolescents and 11 parents after they had completed a treatment program.ResultsFour treatment components (individual counseling, family counseling, group mentoring and social support, and alternative activities) were generally found to be useful. Counselors were able to engage the adolescents and serve as role models in gaming through creative use of technology.ConclusionPractitioners working with adolescents with gaming disorder should attend to their developmental needs pertaining to gaming, health, psychosocial, and educational aspects relevant to the Asian context.ImplicationsPractitioners should go beyond counseling rooms and adopt different strategies to reach out and work with adolescents who are struggling with excessive gaming in different therapeutic settings via engaging and working with them in individual, family, and group contexts using technology, particularly video games.

Background: Collaborative learning in interprofessional team care delivery across different healthcare courses and institutions is constrained by geographical locations and tedious scheduling. Three dimensional virtual environments (3D-VE) are a viable and innovative tool to bring diverse healthcare students to learn together. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the development of a 3D-VE and to evaluate healthcare students' experiences of their collaborative learning in the environment. Method: A mixed methods study design was employed. Participants from six healthcare courses (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Medical Social Work) were recruited from three institutions to form six interprofessional teams to participate in team care delivery via a 3D-VE. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to evaluate the students' attitudes toward healthcare teams and interprofessional collaboration. Four focus groups were conducted with 27 healthcare students after they completed questionnaires to evaluate their perceived usability, the sociability of computer-supported collaborative learning, and senses of presence. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Result: The students demonstrated significant improvements in their attitudes toward healthcare teams (p < 0.05) and interprofessional collaboration (p < 0.001) after the collaborative learning. Four themes emerged from the focus group discussions: "feeling real", whereby the students felt immersed in their own roles; the virtual environment was perceived as "less threatening" compared to face-to-face interactions; "understanding each other's roles" among different healthcare professionals; and there were some "technical hiccups" related to sound quality and navigation. The participants reported positively on the usability (mean 3.48, SD 0.64), feasibility (mean 3.39, SD 0.60) and perceived sense of presence (mean 107.24, SD 17.78) of the 3D-VE in supporting collaborative learning. Conclusion: Given its flexibility, practicality, and scalability, this 3D-VE serves as a promising tool for collaborative learning across different healthcare courses and institutions in preparing for future collaborative-ready workforces.

This study compared bullying experiences between ethnic minority youth and Korean majority youth in South Korea, and examined whether the student-teacher relationship is associated with their bullying experiences. Participants comprised 148 ethnic minority students and 165 Korean majority students in Grades 4 to 11 in South Korea. Bivariate analyses revealed that ethnic minority youth were more likely to be relationally bullied, but were less likely to bully their peers than Korean majority youth. Ethnic minority youth, with Southeast Asian mothers in particular, are most likely to be victimized and least likely to perpetrate bullying. Generalized linear model analyses identified that the youth's positive perception of teachers decreased the risk of both victimization and perpetration. Policy and practice implications were discussed.

BACKGROUND:With the availability and capabilities of varied technologically enhanced learning activities, the blended learning approach has become increasingly popular in interprofessional education. The combined use of different technologically enhanced learning activities has not been fully examined, particularly to determine the effects of instructional sequences for effective learning outcomes.OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to investigate whether the instructional sequences of a blended learning approach can improve students' learning outcomes on interprofessional competencies.METHODS:A randomized controlled study was conducted with 40 interprofessional health care teams. These teams undertook three technologically enhanced learning activities-Web-based instruction (WI), virtual reality (VR), and simulation exercise (SE)-after random assignment to three groups based on three different instructional sequences (WI-VR-SE, WI-SE-VR, and SE-WI-VR). Pretests and posttests were conducted to evaluate the students' learning outcomes on interprofessional competencies.RESULTS:A total of 198 participants from the three groups completed the questionnaires. All three groups reported significant improvement in their levels of self-efficacy (P<.05) and attitudes (P<.001) toward interprofessional team care about 1 month after the interprofessional learning activity. Although no significant difference was found (P=.06) between the WI-VR-SE and WI-SE-VR groups in the self-efficacy posttests, participants in the SE-WI-VR group reported significantly lower (P<.05) posttest scores than those in the WI-SE-VR group. The majority of the participants (137/198, 69.1%) selected the instructional sequence "WI-VR-SE" as their top preference.CONCLUSIONS:This study shows that the instructional sequence of a blended learning approach can have a significant impact on students' learning outcomes. The learning of concepts from WI followed by problem-solving activity in the SE was found to be a more effective learning sequence than the reverse sequence. We recommend that future studies focus on scaffolding students' learning when planning instructional sequences for technologically enhanced learning activities within blended learning environments.

The child protection service workforce has been constantly challenged by high turnover due to the stressful nature of the job. To address high turnover, prior research has examined a wide range of predictors of child protection workers' intent to leave. This study aimed to identify the interrelationships of risk and protective factors, job satisfaction and burnout to child protection workers' intent to leave, the relative impact between job satisfaction and burnout on intent to leave, and their mediating roles for the risk and protective factors. Analyzing survey data from 93.9% of all public child protection workers in South Korea, we estimated a structural path from risk and protective factors to child protection workers' job satisfaction, burnout, and intent to leave. Path analysis revealed that with the significant effects of emotional exhaustion (13 = 0.52, p < 0.000) and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment (j3 = 0.13, p < 0.024) on intent to leave, the organizational risk factors of role overload (13 = 0.12, p < 0.000), safety concerns at work (13 = 0.06, p < 0.021), and secondary traumatic stress (13 = 0.09, p < 0.003) increased workers' intent to leave indirectly through emotional exhaustion. Rapport with supervisor (13 = 0.15, p < 0.010) directly mitigated intent to leave. There was no significant effect of job satisfaction on intent to leave. Results suggest that for effective retention of child protection service manpower, it is crucial to prevent workers' emotional exhaustion by alleviating stressful working conditions and strengthening supervisory support

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the acculturation experiences of Asian immigrants to Singapore. A qualitative exploratory study using focus group discussions was conducted among 40 permanent residents and new citizens. Each of the seven focus groups had an average of six participants and lasted 1–2 hours. Immigrants described Singaporean culture as a blended culture featuring multiracialism. Their acculturation strategies were influenced by the way they were perceived and treated by the host society, based on their country of origin and whether they had been members of a minority community there. Although the respondents valued multiracialism, they also faced challenges in maintaining interethnic contacts. Implications for further enhancing existing acculturation models are discussed.