This study examined the relation of mother-child discussions of internal states during reminiscing to the development of trait and evaluative self-representations in 131 European American and Chinese immigrant 3-year-olds. Mothers and children discussed one positive and one negative event, and children were interviewed for self-descriptions. Euro-American mothers and children made more references to internal states and focused more on causal talk than did Chinese, and Euro-American children were more likely than Chinese children to describe their own traits and evaluative characteristics. Mothers’ and children’s use of internal state language during reminiscing of the negative event uniquely predicted children’s trait and evaluative self-representations, independent of culture. Explanations of internal states and conversing in the negative event context were particularly effective in predicting children’s self-representations. Discussions of internal states further mediated cultural influences on children’s self-representations. The findings provide new insight into the contribution of parent-child reminiscing to the development of self.
BackgroundBoth genetic and epigenetic alterations have been reported to act as driving forces of tumorigenesis in colorectal cancer (CRC), but a growing body of evidence suggests that intestinal microbiota may be an aetiological factor in the initiation and progression of CRC. Recently, the “driver-passenger” model for CRC has connected these different factors, but little has been done to characterize the CRC gut microbiome.FindingsBuilding on the driver-passenger model, we used 454 pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes associated with 10 normal, 10 adenoma, and 8 tumor biopsy samples, and found 7 potential driver bacterial genera and 12 potential passenger bacterial genera (7 being pro-inflammatory and 5 anti-inflammatory). Further analysis also showed certain co-expression patterns among different clusters of bacteria that may potentially be related to the promotion or progression of gut cancers.ConclusionsThe present findings provide preliminary experimental evidence supporting the proposition of bacterial “driver-passenger model” for CRC, and identified potentially novel microbial agents that may be connected to risk of CRC in a Han Chinese population.
Remembering specific events from a particular time and place, namely, episodic memory, enables us to mentally travel back in time to reexperience our past and is regarded as "a true marvel of nature" (Tulving, 2002, p. 3). The lack of such memories, on the other hand, has detrimental effects on one's sense of self (Sacks, 1998) and is associated with psychopathology (Hitchcock,
Narrative entails an active act of sense making through which individuals discern meaning from their experiences in line with their cultural expectations. In this article, we outline a theoretical model to demonstrate that narrative can be simultaneously used to examine cognitive processes underlying remembering on the one hand and to study the process of meaning-making that holds implications for self and well-being on the other. We argue that these two approaches, oftentimes overlapping and inseparable, provide critical means to understand the central role of culture in shaping memory and self-identity. We further demonstrate that the integration of culture in narrative research can, in turn, greatly enrich our understanding of the cognitive and social underpinnings of narrative.
This study examined the relations between maternal reactions to children’s negative emotions and children’s socio-emotional outcomes, including psychological adjustment, emotion knowledge, and coping strategies. European American and Chinese immigrant mothers reported on their reactions to children’s ( N = 117, M = 7.14 years) negative emotions and on children’s psychological adjustment. One year later, children were interviewed for emotion knowledge and mothers reported on children’s use of coping strategies. Mothers from the two cultural groups reported the same level of supportive reactions to their children’s negative emotions, whereas Chinese immigrant mothers more often adopted what are commonly considered to be non-supportive strategies than did European American mothers. Whereas supportive maternal reactions were associated with better child outcomes in both cultures, maternal non-supportive reactions were negatively associated with children’s functioning for European American children but not for Chinese immigrant children. The findings shed critical light on the functional meaning of parenting practices in specific cultural contexts in shaping developmental outcomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.