Prevalence and associated factors of Internet gaming disorder among community dwelling adults in Macao, China

Background and aims: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been mainly studied among adolescents, and no research to date has examined its prevalence in general Chinese adult populations. This study estimated the prevalence of probable IGD in community-dwelling adults in Macao, China. Associations between IGD and psychological distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) as well as IGD and character strength (i.e., psychological resilience and purpose in life) were also tested. Methods: A random, representative sample of 1,000 Chinese residents (44% males; mean age = 40.0) was surveyed using a telephone poll design from October to November 2016. Results: The estimated prevalence of probable IGD was 2.0% of the overall sample and 4.3% among the recent gamers (n = 473), with no statistically significant sex and age effects observed (p > .05). The two most prevalent IGD symptoms were mood modification and continued engagement, despite negative consequences. Probable IGD respondents were more vulnerable to psychological distress (25.0% and 45.0% for moderate or above levels of depression and anxiety, respectively) than their non-IGD counterparts. They also reported a lower level of psychological resilience than non-IGD respondents. No significant buffering effect of the two character strength variables on the distress–IGD relationship was found. Discussion and conclusions: These results provide empirical evidence that IGD is a mental health threat not only to adolescents but also to adults. IGD was significantly associated with psychological distress, which should be addressed in conjunction with IGD symptoms in interventions. Inclusion of gamers of both sexes and different age groups in future prevention programs is also recommended

Measurement invariance of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience Across 13 countries

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) is widely used to measure emotional experiences, but not much is known about its cross-cultural utility. The present study evaluated the measurement invariance of the SPANE across adult samples (N = 12,635; age range = 18-85 years; 58.2% female) from 13 countries (China, Colombia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States). Configural and partial scalar invariance of the SPANE were supported. Three items capturing specific negative emotions (sad, afraid, and angry) were found to be culturally noninvariant. Our findings suggest that the SPANE's positive emotion terms and general negative emotion terms (e.g., negative and unpleasant) might be more suitable for cross-cultural studies on emotions and well-being, whereas caution is needed when comparing countries using the SPANE's specific negative emotion item

Culture-level dimensions of social axioms and their correlates across 41 cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.(undefined

An immunodominant NP105-113-B*07:02 cytotoxic T cell response controls viral replication and is associated with less severe COVID-19 disease.

Funder: RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000265Funder: Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005150Funder: Wellcome Trust (Wellcome); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100004440NP105-113-B*07:02-specific CD8+ T cell responses are considered among the most dominant in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. We found strong association of this response with mild disease. Analysis of NP105-113-B*07:02-specific T cell clones and single-cell sequencing were performed concurrently, with functional avidity and antiviral efficacy assessed using an in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infection system, and were correlated with T cell receptor usage, transcriptome signature and disease severity (acute n = 77, convalescent n = 52). We demonstrated a beneficial association of NP105-113-B*07:02-specific T cells in COVID-19 disease progression, linked with expansion of T cell precursors, high functional avidity and antiviral effector function. Broad immune memory pools were narrowed postinfection but NP105-113-B*07:02-specific T cells were maintained 6 months after infection with preserved antiviral efficacy to the SARS-CoV-2 Victoria strain, as well as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants. Our data show that NP105-113-B*07:02-specific T cell responses associate with mild disease and high antiviral efficacy, pointing to inclusion for future vaccine design

Validation of the flourishing scale and scale of positive and negative experience in a Chinese community sample.

Diener and colleagues (2010) created concise assessment tools to study flourishing and Positive and Negative emotions. The two scales had been validated with English-speaking and German-speaking participants. Nevertheless, its applicability for Chinese is not well established. The current study validated the two scales in traditional Chinese, using a randomly selected community sample. Both the flourishing scale and the Positive and Negative Emotions scale showed an adequate fit. We also found that gender and social status had an influence on flourishing

The psychometric property of a short-form of the Social Axioms Survey (SAS II)

Abstract Background Social Axioms are generalized beliefs and broad assumptions about the world, guiding behaviors across various social situations. Social Axioms are usually assessed by Social Axioms Survey II (SAS II). Nevertheless, the length of the scale may limit its usefulness in studies with strict time constraint. The present study aimed at developing a shorter version. Methods A survey was conducted among 455 college students. First, we performed psychometric evaluation on the full item version of SAS II to identify items with superior psychometric properties for a brief version of SAS II. Second, we validated the psychometric properties of the brief version of SAS II. Results A 20-item version of SAS II (SAS II-20) was developed, and it demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. The correlations between SAS II-20 and personality variables, cognitive flexibility, interpersonal trust, locus of control, and paranormal beliefs were consistent with past studies. Conclusions SAS II-20 is psychometrically acceptable and provides a time-efficient measurement tool for investigating social beliefs