Japan and Denmark represent two different educational cultures. Where Danish students in general report high scores on self-esteem, Japanese children report low. A student-centered and interaction-based prosocial intervention program that was designed according to Danish educational culture was administered to children aged 11-12 years in Japan. Questionnaires measuring the children's quality of life (QoL) and metacognitive awareness were applied. Overall, the results showed that the student-centered intervention improved the emotional well-being aspect of QoL among Japanese boys. In contrast, Japanese boys' scores on the declarative knowledge of metacognitive regulation declined. The teachers' attitudes towards the intervention program were analyzed by use of interviews. The effect of the studentcentered intervention program is discussed with respect to the educational cultures in Japan.
In verbal communication with others, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) experience difficulties with understanding jokes, irony, and other pragmatic aspects of communication. Difficulties with the understanding and expression of prosody may be one reason. In this study an understanding of prosody test and an expression of prosody test were constructed and applied to a group of children with ASD (average 9.7 years of age) and three control groups of typical children (3, 4 and 5 years of age, respectively). Overall results showed that the ASD group had lower scores in both prosody tests compared to 5 year old controls but higher scores than the 3 year old controls.
Aims: Existing research on relationships provides strong evidence of couple similarity on a wide range of variables including physical attributes, abilities, and attitudes. However, couple similarity with respect to disability has not been researched. This study investigated couple similarity with respect to both physical and mental disabilities, as well as associations with life satisfaction, among adult cohabiting couples in Denmark. Methods: The study analysed data on self-reported mental and physical disabilities from a national survey involving 18,957 participants aged 16 to 65 years. Results: The results showed that participants with a disability were more likely to have a partner with a disability. Further, results showed similarity by type and severity of disability as well as age of onset of disability. Having a partner with a disability was found to be associated with low life satisfaction among men with a disability. Results also showed an association among men with a disability between low life satisfaction and the onset of their disability after (as opposed to before) the start of their relationship. These associations were not found among women with a disability. Conclusions: The findings provide clear evidence for couple similarity with respect to disability. Findings on life satisfaction showed gender differences that might be explained by cultural gender norms that may play a particular role with respect to disability. Longitudinal research is required to research the factors that mediate how having or developing a disability affects relationships and wellbeing over time.
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