published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Sports Science / Master / Master of Science in Sports Science

published_or_final_version / Sports Science / Master / Master of Science in Sports Science

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The primarily goal of this study was to examine the patterns of cognitive and language processing of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and how they related to their text comprehension, interpreted within constructivism. The study aimed to characterize the difference in language, character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension between children with SLI and those under typical development; to identify the inter-relationships among their language processing, character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension; and to investigate how the implementation of cognitive reading strategies instruction change their language processing, character decoding, metacognitive processing, belief towards reading and text comprehension. Two studies were carried out. In Study One, 73 participants were recruited from two Hong Kong primary schools; they were at second and third grade, 42 were diagnosed of SLI and the other were under typical development. Standardized instruments were used to tap children’s language processing and character decoding respectively. Researcher developed Metacognitive Processing Scale were adopted to rate their metacognitive and deep processing of text. A set of comprehension test, comprised of forced-choice inferential questions and two recall tasks, were used to assess their depth in understanding different types of text. Analyses indicated that SLI students did not only score poorer in language processing, but also in character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension. Further analyses of both the entire sample and the SLI sample, indicated that there were significant correlations between character decoding, language processing, metacognitive processing with children’s text comprehension scores. In Study Two, there were 40 participants recruited from the SLI sample of the Study One. Cognitive reading strategy instruction program were developed. 21 participants was randomly selected to receive the experimental instruction and the another 19 were under conventional instruction as control. Besides the measures used in the Study One, interviews and teacher-reporting questionnaires were used to tap children’s belief towards reading and their classroom engagement. Analysis of pre-instruction and post-instruction tests indicated the experimental children showed significantly better progress on their oral language, text comprehension and belief about reading. Both the experimental and the control group showed similar progress on character decoding. The study offers both theoretical and educational contribution on the literacy development among the population of SLI. It identifies the role of metacognitive processing on literacy achievement. It provides the evidence of implementing cognitively-based reading strategies for literacy instruction for children with SLI within Chinese context. Upon the introduction of inclusive education, teachers now face students with much wider diversity, including a significant number of children with SLI. Possible collaboration between frontline teachers and speech therapists in designing potential classroom activities is discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

Background: Although perception predicts behaviours in general, it is less clear whether perceived peer smoking prevalence is associated with smoking among children. Although the harmful effects of smoking and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure on health are well documented, little is known about the influence of SHS exposure on smoking behaviours, and the effects of smoking on perceived health. Objectives: This thesis aims to investigate the associations of (1) overestimation of peer smoking prevalence and smoking initiation, (2) self-rated health (SRH) with smoking and SHS exposure, and (3) SHS exposure at home with smoking initiation, tobacco addiction and smoking cessation, among an under-studied population of Chinese children in Hong Kong. Methods: A prospective study among primary school students (n = 2171) was conducted in 2006 (baseline) and followed up in 2008. A cross-sectional study on youth smoking (n = 36225) was conducted in 2003/4. Self-administered, anonymous questionnaires were used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, smoking status of the subjects, parents, siblings and other family members and SHS exposure at home and outside home. Other detailed information on smoking perceptions and behaviours were recorded among adolescents using standard questions adapted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. Self-reported smoking and SHS exposure were validated using hair nicotine tests. Logistic and linear regressions were used to yield adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and β-coefficients for poor SRH, smoking initiation, tobacco addiction and smoking cessation adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and school clustering effects. Mediation of SHS exposure at home on the associations of smoking family with smoking initiation, tobacco addiction and smoking cessation were evaluated using standard mediation procedures. Results: Experimental smoking, ex-smoking and current smoking were associated with higher AORs for poor SRH than never-smoking among adolescents. Similarly, SHS exposure among never-smoking adolescents was linked to poor SRH. Overestimation of peer smoking prevalence significantly predicted smoking initiation (AOR: 1.79, 95% CI 1.03-3.13) among primary school students after 2 years, although SHS exposure did not predict overestimation. Living in smoking families and SHS exposure at home were significantly associated with smoking initiation and tobacco addiction, and hindered smoking cessation among adolescents (All p<0.05). The association between smoking family and child smoking was mediated by SHS exposure at home. Conclusions: This study provided the first evidence that overestimation of peer smoking predicted smoking initiation among young children, and smoking was associated with poor SRH among Chinese adolescents. The significant associations of SHS exposure at home with smoking behaviours should stimulate further investigations into the underlying psychosocial and physiological mechanisms. Future prospective studies with more comprehensive measurements of smoking and SHS exposure are warranted to confirm these results. Evidence-based interventions to correct misperceptions and promote smokefree homes are needed to protect children from smoking and exposure to SHS. / published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Objective: Current studies examining the co-morbidity patterns of ADHD with internalizing disorders have reported inconsistent findings. Some studies have found that the inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) is more likely to be comorbid with internalizing disorders, while other studies found similar levels of comorbid internalizing disorders between the ADHD subtypes. Moreover, anxiety and depression were found to be comorbid in inattentive children high in sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), characterized by features of sluggishness, drowsiness, and daydreaming. SCT has been postulated to be useful in discriminating a distinct inattentive subtype of ADHD-I with a different pattern of impairments. More recently, low levels of behavioral inhibition (BI)—manifested in the form of disinhibited behaviors—have also been implicated in the development of ADHD in children. The current study examines the relationships between ADHD and internalizing symptoms. The roles of SCT and BI in ADHD and internalizing symptoms are also investigated. Methods: The sample was comprised of 1,965 Hong Kong primary students between 8 and 14 years old and their parents/caregivers from 10 local schools. The children completed two self-report scales: the Revised Children Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and the Behavioral Inhibition System Scale (BISS). Their parents/caregivers completed three scales: the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale–IV (ADHDRS-IV), the Oppositional Defiant Disorder Scale (ODDS), and the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Scale (SCTS). Using a psychometric approach, the relationships between the symptom clusters of ADHD (inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity), anxiety, depression, SCT, and BI were systematically examined with correlation, regression, and factor analyses. A categorical approach was also used to classify children meeting the DSM symptom criteria to compare levels of internalizing symptoms among the three subtypes of ADHD: ADHD-I, ADHD-HI (hyperactive-impulsive), and ADHD-C (combined hyperactive and inattentive). An SCT cutoff score of 20 (the mean SCT rating among ADHD-I children) was used to further divide the ADHD-I into high- and low-SCT subgroups for planned between-group comparisons. Results: In the dimensional analyses, the inattention dimension of ADHD correlated slightly higher than the hyperactivity-impulsivity dimension with anxiety and depression as predicted. But the hyperactivity-impulsivity dimension was also significantly correlated with anxiety and depression, suggesting that hyperactive children were as likely as inattentive children to feel anxious and depressed. Regression analyses found that inattention was not predictive of anxiety and depression, while hyperactivity-impulsivity was marginally predictive of anxiety, but not depression. BI and SCT emerged as significant predictors of internalizing symptoms after controlling for age, gender, and ODD symptoms. There was evidence that SCT mediated the relationship between anxiety/depression and inattention symptoms. Using the categorical approach, between-group differences were found between the ADHD subtypes and the no-ADHD category. ADHD-I children were more anxious and depressed than children without ADHD. Differences in depressive symptoms were found between the ADHD subtypes. Children with ADHD-I had higher levels of depressive symptoms when compared to children with ADHD-HI and ADHD-C. Contrary to predictions, however, the high-SCT ADHD-I group and the low-SCT ADHD-I group did not differ in symptom levels for any anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, or externalizing symptoms of ODD. Subtype differences in comorbid anxiety were found to be related to gender differences. The symptom levels of panic disorder were higher in females with ADHD-I, and the symptom levels of separation-anxiety disorder were higher for females with ADHD-C. Inattentive girls might present with higher levels of anxiety symptoms than boys. Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies, children with ADHD were more comorbid with anxiety and depression than children without ADHD. In addition, children with ADHD-I were more comorbid with depressive symptoms than children with ADHD-HI and ADHD-C. The higher ratings of depression in ADHD-I children appeared to be related to higher ratings of SCT found in this subtype. There was no difference in anxiety symptoms among the ADHD subtypes, but girls with clinical levels of inattention tend to experience a wider spectrum of anxiety disorders than boys. Contrary to previous research, the findings did not support the idea that SCT is useful in discriminating a distinct inattentive subtype, since this study found no comorbidity differences between the high-SCT ADHD-I and low-SCT ADHD-I groups. Despite the fact that the ADHD-I group had higher BI, there was no evidence that they had higher anxiety symptoms. Reasons for the lack of a direct relationship between BI and internalizing symptoms in ADHD are discussed. The complex roles of SCT and BI in ADHD symptoms and internalizing symptoms call for the need of further local investigation in both clinical and community samples. / published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Lexical compounding refers to the process of word formation through union of lexicalized morphemes. Given that young Chinese readers learn print vocabulary as unanalyzed whole, I am uncertain whether children can effortlessly decompose bound morphemes from disyllabic words for lexical compounding to occur. With this concern, I propose a lexical blending process in parallel with lexical compounding, where words are constructed from previously learnt words that have not yet been decomposed as morphemes. This thesis investigated the mechanisms behind the lexical blending process, as well as its role in word reading among young Chinese readers, in five studies Studies One and Two examined the factors that favor lexical blending to occur. In Study One, I located a high proportion of disyllabic words and bound morphemes within a corpus of Chinese textbooks in Hong Kong. Around 40-50% of disyllabic words in Grade One to Grade Three are composed of one or more bound morphemes, which set a favorable environment for lexical blending to occur. In Study Two, I found that younger readers tended to commit more selection errors, defined as “naming the target character as a character that forms a highly frequent two-character compound word with it” (Shu, Meng, Chen, Luan and Cao, 2005), than older readers during character reading, suggesting that their representations of bound morphemes were not precise. An experiment on morpheme name judgment demonstrated that bound morphemes and low frequency morphemes embedded in high frequency words were most prone to selection errors. I further examined the lexical blending process and its contribution to reading development in Studies Three and Four. Adopting a cross-sequential design in Study Three, I found that lexical blending concurrently and longitudinally predicted Chinese word reading, after lexical compounding and other reading-related variables were partialled out. In Study Four, I located lexical class and structural relation knowledge as significant component skills of lexical blending. The process of lexical blending proceeded first with structural arrangement of words, followed by morphological decomposition and union of morphemes to eventually form a blended word. I also tested Chinese dyslexic readers’ performance on lexical blending in Study Five. Dyslexic readers exhibited difficulties in lexical blending and all the related component skills, when compared with chronological-age (CA) matched controls. Process-wise, the dyslexic readers were weaker than CA controls in both structural arrangement and morphological decomposition, while having particular difficulties in the latter process. I conclude that lexical blending is an important word formation process for young Chinese readers. To aid mastery of lexical blending, readers should be aware of the syntax in phrases and sentences, as it provides cues on structural arrangement of blended words. In addition, I suggest explicit instruction on lexical blending skills in the curriculum, with a particular focus on morphological decomposition, in order to meet the learning needs of dyslexic readers. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy