The relationships among emotional intelligence, social coping, and psychological distress were investigated in a sample of 624 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. A mediation-effect model specifying that emotional intelligence had an effect on psychological distress mediated by social coping was hypothesized and tested using structural equation modeling procedures. For comparison, a direct-effect model and a direct-and-mediation-effect model were also fitted to the data. The results indicated that the mediation-effect model provided an adequate and good fit, suggesting that the effects of self-relevant and other-relevant emotional intelligence on psychological distress were mediated by avoidant coping and social-interaction coping, respectively. Implications of the findings for enhancing emotional intelligence of students and in promoting the use of adaptive social coping strategies for their psychological well-being are discussed.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598163060617589]

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to compare the predictive effects of acculturative stressor and meaning of life on negative affect in the process of acculturation between Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong.
Method: Four hundred mainland Chinese students studying at six universities in Hong Kong and 227 Chinese international students studying at the University of Melbourne in Australia completed a questionnaire that included measures of acculturative stressor, meaning of life, negative affect and demographic information.
Results: The Australian sample was found to have a higher level of acculturative stressor and negative affect than the Hong Kong sample. Acculturative stressor had a positive impact on negative affect in both samples, but the impact of different domains of acculturative stressor on negative affect varied between the two groups. Finally, meaning of life partially mediated the relationship between acculturative stressor and negative affect in the Hong Kong sample, but no such effect was found in the Australia sample.
Conclusions: Acculturative stressor is a critical risk factor for negative affect in acculturation for Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong. Meaning of life acted as a protective factor that mitigated negative affect for mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, but not for the Chinese international students in Australia. The theoretical and practical implications for resilience-based and meaning-oriented intervention for Chinese international students are discussed.
[Copyright of Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Informa Healthcare . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048670701517942 ]