Traces the founding of Alibaba, the world's second largest Internet company, by an English teacher from humble origins, drawing on exclusive interviews to explore how the company and Jack Ma have become icons and leading employers in China's booming private sector
Parental responsibilities to adolescents include supervision and emotional support, and variations in these parenting behaviors have been demonstrated to influence adolescent alcohol involvement. This study developed a scale-based method for identifying adolescents with low-parent involvement and examined effects on the development and course of alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The participants were 361 adolescents (ages 14 to 17 years) from two-parent families recruited from clinical and community sources. Cluster analysis of questionnaire items describing mother and father involvement identified 75 adolescents with low-parent involvement (i.e., Neglect). Compared with reference adolescents, Neglect adolescents were significantly more likely to be influenced by social pressure to drink alcohol. Among community participants, Neglect adolescents were more likely to develop AUDs. Among adolescents receiving treatment for AUDs, those in the Neglect group showed more improvement during a 1-year follow-up period. The results indicate that inadequate parent involvement may be a form of neglect.
Immaturities in cognitive shifting are associated with adolescent risk behaviors. The orbital frontal cortex (OFC) regulates reward processing and response inhibition. This study tested the relationship between cognitive shifting, OFC activity, and reward‐modulated response inhibition in young adolescents. An fMRI antisaccade (AS) paradigm examined the effects of reward conditions on inhibitory response and OFC processing. A validated self‐report inventory assessed cognitive shifting. Compared with neutral, reward trials showed better AS performance and increased OFC activation. Cognitive shifting positively associated with AS performance in reward and neutral trials. Poorer cognitive shifting predicted greater OFC activation. Results indicate lower OFC efficiency, as greater activation to achieve correct performance, underlies cognitive shifting problems. These neurocognitive impairments are relevant for understanding adolescent risk behaviors.