A study of sexual satisfaction and frequency of sex among Hong Kong Chinese couples

There have been several studies in Western societies on the causes and consequences of sexual satisfaction within marriage. Little is known, however about the marital sexual relationship in Chinese societies. Moreover, most published studies used married individuals rather than married couples as participants. The present study examined data from a well-established knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) survey of 1,124 Hong Kong Chinese couples on martial sexual relationship. A conceptual model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Interest in sex was found to be the strongest predictor of both sexual satisfaction and frequency of sex for both husbands and wives. Among the sociodemographic variables, the following two were significantly associated with lower frequencies of sex: for wives, that of having a full-time job; and for husbands, the factor of age. Theoretical implications for research on the interplay among culture, marriage, and sex in non-Western societies are discussed.     

The protective function of meaning of life on life satisfaction among Chinese students in Australia and Hong Kong: a cross-cultural comparative study

OBJECTIVE: The authors compared the predictive effects of acculturative stressors and meaning of life on life satisfaction between Chinese students in Australia and in Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS: In 2006, the researchers recruited 606 Chinese students studying abroad at the University of Melbourne in Australia and at 6 universities in Hong Kong. METHODS: Participants completed a questionnaire that included measures of acculturative stressors, meaning of life, life satisfaction, and demographic information. RESULTS: The Australian sample experienced a significantly higher level of acculturative stressors than did the Hong Kong sample, but life satisfaction did not differ significantly between the 2 samples. Meaning of life had a strong positive contribution and acculturative stressors had a negative contribution in predicting life satisfaction in both samples. Meaning of life partially mediated the relationship between acculturative stressors and life satisfaction in both samples. CONCLUSIONS: The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications for Chinese students studying abroad.     

Stagnation as a Distinct Clinical Syndrome: Comparing 'Yu' (Stagnation) in Traditional Chinese Medicine with Depression

Background: Depression was translated into Chinese as yiyu,with reference to the yu syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine.Literally meaning ‘not flowing, entangled or clogged’,yu, or ‘stagnation’ in English, is, however, a constructdistinct from depression. Objective: The study aimed to explorethe construct of stagnation through scale development. Method:A concept-driven approach was adopted to generate candidateitems for the Stagnation Scale. Other measures were a validitychecking item, a Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a twelve-itemGeneral Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Respondents were recruitedby convenience and snowball sampling, resulting in 602 questionnairesbeing completed by adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five.Results: Exploratory factor analysis provided a three-factor,sixteen-item solution. The three factors were named Overattachment,Body-Mind Obstruction and Affect-Posture Inhibition. Cronbach’salphas of the entire scale and subscales ranged from 0.82 to0.91. Correlations of the scale total with the validity checkingitem, BDI and GHQ-12 were 0.71, 0.53 and 0.48, respectively.Stagnation showed a pattern of associations with demographicvariables different from depression. Conclusion: The StagnationScale has good psychometric properties, and has meaningful factorstructures. The evidence supports the contention that stagnationis a clinical syndrome distinct from depression. The new concepthas important implications for social work practice.     

Moral hazard,monitoring costs,and optimal government intervention

When insurance firms can monitor with non-prohibitive costs the consumption of risk-influencing goods by an insured, they have incentives to tax-subsidize the insured's consumption of the goods. If the government cannot monitor at a lower cost than private insurers, intervention is neither needed nor desirable. Where the government does have a monitoring-cost advantage, it cannot achieve a constrained optimum by commodity tax-subsidies alone. It must also augment the level of insurance and, in some cases, prohibit private tax-subsidies by insurers. Such “invasive” intervention can be avoided if the government regulates the consumption of the risk-influencing goods.     

Psychotherapists’ Stereotypes of Heterosexual,Gay, and Bisexual Men

This study investigated stereotypes of heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men in a sample of 112 psychotherapists. Stereotypes were assessed with an open-ended measure asking participants to list characteristics that they associated with one of the three groups of men. Thematic analysis of these characteristics yielded 14 stereotype categories, including categories that reflected psychosocial difficulties (e.g., Depressed and Anxious), gender roles (e.g., Female Gender Role Attributes), and personality (e.g., Open-Minded). Sexual orientation differences were found for 8 of the 14 categories. For example, therapists were most likely to associate open-mindedness with bisexual men, traditional male gender role attributes with heterosexual men, and intelligence with gay men. Implications of results for practice and training are discussed.