One widely accepted explanation of bullying, known as the aggressive-motive thesis, assumes that bullying is a form of aggressive behaviour triggered by external stress. However, recent evidences have suggested a different explanation, known as the frustration-aggression thesis, which asserts that bullying is a psychological defense triggered by external stress to reduce anxiety. The present investigation is an attempt to compare school bullying in Japan and Hong Kong and to find out whether the frustration-aggression thesis is applicable in the schooling context of both societies. Data analysis using structural equation modeling was based on 703 girls selected from 13 primary and 6 junior secondary schools in Japan and 2,477 girls selected from 21 primary and 19 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Results of the analysis suggest that girl bullying in Japan can be explained by the frustration-aggression thesis but that girl bullying in Hong Kong can be explained by the aggressive-motive thesis. The reasons behind the different bullying mechanisms are suggested, but further investigations are needed to uncover the underlying causes.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610701702894]

The relationships among adjustment problems, self-efficacy, and psychological distress were investigated in a sample of 207 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. A mediation-effect model specifying that adjustment problems had an effect on psychological distress mediated by self-efficacy 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 direct-and-mediation-effect model provided the best and a reasonably adequate fit, suggesting that the effects of adjustment problems on psychological distress could be direct, but more importantly the effects could also be mediated by self-efficacy. Implications of the findings for enhancing the self-efficacy of students to promote their psychological well-being are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190609554365 ]

In this article, the authors investigated personal beliefs and values and opportunism variables that might contribute to the academic dishonesty of American and Hong Kong master of business administration (MBA) students. They also compared American and Hong Kong MBA students with respect to their personal beliefs and values, opportunism, and academic dishonesty variables. Results showed that American MBA students who were idealistic, theistic, intolerant, and not opportunistic were likely to behave ethically. Hong Kong MBA students who were idealistic, intolerant, positive, and not opportunistic tended to act morally. Hong Kong students tended to be less theistic, more tolerant, more detached, more negatively oriented, more relativistic, less achievement-oriented, and more humanistic-oriented than were their American counterparts.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.82.3.146-158 ]

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above-average ability and average-ability pre-adolescents' everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N = 975) of this study were fifth-and sixth-grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N = 367), the USA (N = 164), Hong Kong (N = 169) and Bahrain (N = 275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above-average-ability students. The results showed that above-average-ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average-ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender-related. Furthermore, in each country the average-ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre-adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre-adolescents' futures.
[Copyright of British Journal of Religious Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200500141181]