OBJECTIVES: To understand how neighbourhood characteristics affect the health of immigrant children in Canadian cities. We question whether the health of children is influenced by immigrants living in enclaves of people with similar ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. METHODS: Two datasets were used: the New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS) and Statistics Canada census data. The NCCYS comprises children from Hong Kong, the Philippines and Mainland China living in Canada's largest cities. Logistic regression was used to examine the influence of neighbourhood ethnic concentrations and mean income on health. RESULTS: Girls were more likely to be reported to have excellent health compared to boys, as were children living in neighbourhoods with lower mean parental education. Children from Hong Kong were less likely to have excellent health compared to the reference group. For the Mainland Chinese group only, there was an inverse relationship between reported health status and the concentration of people from the same ethnic background in the neighbourhood. CONCLUSION: The health of children from different ethnic backgrounds is influenced by different social and economic factors. In practice and in research, "immigrants" and even broadly defined cultural groupings, such as "Asian immigrants", should be considered as heterogeneous.
[Copyright of Canadian Journal of Public Health is the property of Canadian Public Health Association. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://journal.cpha.ca/index.php/cjph/issue/archive]

Objective: This study aims at exploring university students' attitudes towards the application of genomic science and technology (GST) and the rationales behind their judgments.
Background: With the rapid advances in GST, its wide application will become common in the near future. Since understanding the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of GST is important for its sustained development, understanding public attitude towards GST application is critical for its acceptance in Hong Kong society.
Participants: Cantonese speaking undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of Hong Kong (HKU-students).
Methods: The study consisted of two parts. Part 1 was a survey of 400 HKU-students recruited at the library entrance and the written questionnaires were completed immediately. Part 2 comprised semi-structured interviews of 65 of the 400 HKU-students surveyed in Part 1 and each was interviewed individually.
Conclusions: In Part 1, HKU-students had neutral responses for most themes, and Part 2 showed that the neutrality was primarily caused by opposing opinions of proponents and opponents in each theme. HKU-students had a negative attitude towards human genetic enhancement and were worried about GM food, genetic discrimination, and misuses of genetic information. The study did not support the deficit model but confirmed the particularistic view that endorsement of a GST application is determined by specific contextual factors.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2012.662040]

Asystematic study of the linkages between gender issues and parenting is made among Chinese families. This study examines sex differences in parenting attributes across fathers and mothers and towards sons and daughters, and compares the contributions of fathers and mothers to the prediction of academic performance across boys and girls. Four parenting attributes are included: nurturance, psychological control, parental involvement in education, and parental academic efficacy. Data were collected from 461 Chinese father-mother-child triads of children studying Grade 3 to 5 in Hong Kong. Findings of this study, based on multivariate analysis of variance, showed that parental roles followed traditional Chinese cultural expectations. Compared to the fathers, Chinese mothers of school-age children in Hong Kong were more loving and caring, more involved in children's education, and more efficacious in promoting children's academic performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis examining the role of child's sex as a moderator showed cross-sex influence in parental contribution to academic performance with respect to parental psychological control and academic efficacy. Specifically, boys benefited more from maternal efficacy than girls did and they were also more hampered by mothers with high psychological control, while girls' academic performance was more enhanced by paternal academic efficacy than boys. A gender-balance approach that highlights the significance of gender in moderating parental contributions to academic performance was thus supported. Future research should continue to focus on psychological control and domain-specific parental attributes as potential sources of gender-linked parent-child associations. Investigations should also explore other cognitive and noncognitive domains of child outcome, different child age groups, as well as Chinese populations in various geographical regions.
[Copyright of International Journal of Psychology is the

背景：政府建議通識科列為必修，發表了課程及評估架構建議，引起很大的爭議。然而，通識科仍歷經三次諮詢定稿。
討論焦點：從政策層面和學校層面的角度，分析通識教育科課程的適切程度。
論點：從該科的基本理念來看，通識教育科適應全球和本地發展的趨勢、切合本土教育發展、引入社會議題、聯繫不同學科的知識，以及引入較新的學與教策略。然而，其原有通識科的銜接、知識基礎的問題、課程組織的問題、考試的文化、教與學的轉變和教師的專業培訓等方面，則仍與學校層面的脈絡格格不入。
總結：不同層面的持分者有自己的關注。通識教育科的設計者，必須掌握學校層面教師的關注和實施，否則該科的理念仍無法實現。
Background: The government proposed Liberal Studies as a core subject and issued the curriculum and assessment guide, which aroused controversial debate. Nevertheless, the subject was finalized after three consultative stages.
Focus of discussion: This paper attempts to analyze, from perspectives at societal and school levels, the appropriateness of Liberal Studies curriculum.
Arguments: This paper argues that the basic rationales of this subject suit the global and local development trends, local educational development, emphasis of social issues, trends in associating knowledge from various disciplines and using new strategies of teaching and learning. However, this subject is incongruent with school level context, as it is not in line with the original Liberal Studies, knowledge-base, curriculum organization, examination culture, teaching and learning traditions and teacher professional development in Hong Kong.
Conclusion: Stakeholders in different levels have different concerns. The curriculum designers need to learn the concern and implementation of teachers in school level. Or, the ideas in this subject could not be implemented.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]