The Complexity Of Individual And Socio-Cultural Ecology: Interaction Of Genes And Attachments On Intercultural Experience

In this age of globalization, sojourning is becoming an increasingly common experience. This prospective study sought to examine the differential effects of maternal, paternal and cultural attachments on young adults’ (n = 305) ability to adapt to a foreign culture. 258 control participants were included to demonstrate the uniqueness of cross-cultural adaptations. In addition, this study also looked at whether one’s genetic predisposition moderated the relationship between attachments and intercultural adjustment. Current findings suggest paternal and cultural attachments were of particular importance. These effects were not present if participants were not in a foreign culture. Furthermore, overprotectiveness of fathers was especially important to how difficult sojourners perceived the cross-cultural experience to be, but it was the care dimension that predicted whether having a difficult experience led to lower self-esteem when sojourners returned home. Lastly, individual’s genetic predispositions did moderate the effect of attachments on how much difficulties individuals experienced overseas.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (NBS

Executive Functions of Six-Year-Old Boys with Normal Birth Weight and Gestational Age

Impaired fetal development, reflected by low birth weight or prematurity, predicts an increased risk for psychopathology, especially attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Such effects cut across the normal range of birth weight and gestation. Despite the strength of existing epidemiological data, cognitive pathways that link fetal development to mental health are largely unknown. In this study we examined the relation of birth weight (>2500 g) and gestational age (37–41 weeks) within the normal range with specific executive functions in 195 Singaporean six-year-old boys of Chinese ethnicity. Birth weight adjusted for gestational age was used as indicator of fetal growth while gestational age was indicative of fetal maturity. Linear regression revealed that increased fetal growth within the normal range is associated with an improved ability to learn rules during the intra/extra-dimensional shift task and to retain visual information for short period of time during the delayed matching to sample task. Moreover, faster and consistent reaction times during the stop-signal task were observed among boys born at term, but with higher gestational age. Hence, even among boys born at term with normal birth weight, variations in fetal growth and maturity showed distinct effects on specific executive functions

Ingroup-outgroup evaluations under threats to group’s distinctiveness and self’s social identity, and the moderating effect of social value orientation.

The current research aimed to investigate the effects on ingroup and outgroup evaluations when both the individual’s social identity and the individual’s ingroup are threatened simultaneously, as well as how individual differences in social value orientation moderates these ingroup-outgroup evaluations. Threats to ingroup and to the self were manipulated through false feedbacks. After manipulation, participants (N = 90) evaluated fellow NTU students of the same major of study as themselves (ingroup) and students of a different major of study (outgroup) on two measures. Results revealed that social value orientation significantly moderated the effects of threats to self and to ingroup on ingroup-outgroup evaluations in multiple ways, depending on social contexts and target of evaluation.Bachelor of Art

Evaluations of ingroup and outgroup as a function of threat moderated by procedural just world beliefs.

Ingroup and outgroup evaluations were investigated as a function of prototypicality threat and distinctiveness threat manipulations, with Procedural Just World beliefs as a moderator. Ninety university undergraduates were randomly assigned to 4 groups: high prototypicality-high distinctiveness, high prototypicality-low distinctiveness, low prototypicality-high distinctiveness, and low prototypicality-low distinctiveness. Participants were given bogus feedback on a bogus personality test. Levels of favouritism and derogation on both ingroup and outgroup were measured. Results supported that predictions of Brewer (1991, 2007)‟s optimal distinctiveness theory may only be reflective of public but not private manifestations of individuals‟ behaviours. In the present study, Procedural Just World beliefs failed to moderate the effects of social identity threats.Bachelor of Art

Scatter plots of executive functions with adjusted birth weight and gestational age.

<p>Abbreviations: IED = intra/extra-dimensional shift task; SST = stop-signal task; DMS = delayed-matching-to-sample task.</p

Multiple regression coefficients for effects of birth weight and gestational age on executive functions of boys at age 6.

<p><i>Note.</i> IED = intra/extra-dimensional shift task; EDS = extra-dimensional shift; SST = stop-signal task; DMS = delayed-matching-to-sample task; SWM = spatial working memory task.</p>a<p>Logistic regression used instead of multiple linear regression.</p

Cohort profile : Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO)

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth, metabolic and neural phenotypes in the offspring. Between February 2015 and October 2017, the S-PRESTO study recruited 1039 Chinese, Malay or Indian (or any combinations thereof) women aged 18–45 years and who intended to get pregnant and deliver in Singapore, resulting in 1032 unique participants and 373 children born in the cohort. The participants were followed up for 3 visits during the preconception phase and censored at 12 months of follow up if pregnancy was not achieved (N = 557 censored). Women who successfully conceived (N = 475) were characterised at gestational weeks 6–8, 11–13, 18–21, 24–26, 27–28 and 34–36. Follow up of their index offspring (N = 373 singletons) is on-going at birth, 1, 3 and 6 weeks, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months and beyond. Women are also being followed up post-delivery. Data is collected via interviewer-administered questionnaires, metabolic imaging (magnetic resonance imaging), standardized anthropometric measurements and collection of diverse specimens, i.e. blood, urine, buccal smear, stool, skin tapes, epithelial swabs at numerous timepoints. S-PRESTO has extensive repeated data collected which include genetic and epigenetic sampling from preconception which is unique in mother–offspring epidemiological cohorts. This enables prospective assessment of a wide array of potential determinants of future health outcomes in women from preconception to post-delivery and in their offspring across the earliest development from embryonic stages into early childhood. In addition, the S-PRESTO study draws from the three major Asian ethnic groups that represent 50% of the global population, increasing the relevance of its findings to global efforts to address non-communicable diseases