The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| How children of ‘tiger moms’ and European-American moms differ Posted: 19 May 2014 06:26 PM PDT Those are some of the findings of a new study that builds on the conversation started in 2011 when self-proclaimed tiger mom Amy Chua penned a controversial parenting memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", which was criticised for typecasting Asian mothers as unforgivingly strict and demanding. For their study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers from Stanford University asked high school students to describe their relationships with their mothers and challenged them to a series of tasks that were designed to make the students fail. The objective was to test the kids' levels of motivation and perseverance. When instructed to think about their mothers, students of Asian-American moms were observed to be more motivated to complete a task despite experiencing failure, compared to students born to Western or European-American moms. In fact, these students performed better when prompted to think about themselves during the exercises. The fundamental difference: children of Asian-American kids draw on their connectedness to their mothers to overcome difficulties, while children of Western moms view themselves as independent. "In European American contexts, overcoming failure is a personal project not a group project," researchers said. Another notable finding: while children of Western moms considered the pressure they get from their mothers as negative, interestingly, students of Asian-American moms said they still feel supported by their mothers regardless of the pressure they experienced. Researchers also say their findings extend beyond the home, as kids from Asian-American mothers are more likely to observe hierarchy and respect the authority of a teacher than European-American students. It's the latest study to come from the "tiger mom" controversy. Findings out of Michigan State University found that high-achieving Chinese students were more depressed and anxious than their white peers. The 2012 study emphasised the importance of rearing happy children more than academic scholars. – AFP/Relaxnews, May 20, 2014. |
| What do you want in a spouse? Genetic similarity may help Posted: 19 May 2014 06:09 PM PDT More than you may think. People tend to choose spouses who have similar DNA, according to scientists who reported yesterday the results of a study exploring the genetic resemblance of married couples. The researchers examined the genetic blueprints of 825 US married couples and found a significant preference for a spouse with DNA similarities across the entire human genome. The study compared this affinity for husbands or wives with similar DNA makeup to the well-established and strong tendency of people to marry mates with similar educational levels. The researchers found that the preference for a genetically similar spouse was about a third as strong as the preference for a spouse with comparable education. The 1,650 people studied in the research were non-Hispanic, white men and women born between the 1930s and 1950s who were taking part in a broader US government-funded study involving health and retirement. "We do know in some sense that people prefer genetically similar spouses because we know that people tend to date and marry within their own racial and ethnic groups. We worked really hard in this study to not just replicate that fact," said researcher Benjamin Domingue of the University of Colorado's Institute of Behavioral Science, who led the study. "We eliminated racial variability and tried to control for ethnic variability. And we still find a preference for genetically similar individuals," Domingue added. The researchers measured genetic similarity by comparing 1.7 million individual DNA building blocks, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, in the study participants. They compared the genetic makeup of the married couples to other randomly chosen people of the opposite sex in the same pool of study participants. Domingue said the actual mechanism for a person being drawn to another person's genetic similarities is probably complicated and multifaceted – "just a whole host of things," he noted. The researchers noted that people usually pick spouses with similar backgrounds and characteristics in addition to education, including race, religion, age, income and body type. Genetic similarity can be added to the list, they said. "For example, people clearly care about height in picking partners. To the extent that tall people marry other tall people, that is going to result in genetic similarity among spouses. But it is difficult to know whether height or genes is driving this decision," Domingue said. The researchers said it would be interesting to see the results of similar studies involving other populations including additional races, interracial spouses and gay couples. – Reuters, May 20, 2014. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider : Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan