Ethnic minority parents often appear to be less involved in school functions and activities than their culturally dominant counterparts. Their invisibility is usually assumed due to a lack of either interest or parental capacity to oversee their children's education. However, the simplistic equation between parental involvement in children's education and their participation in school is largely informed by middle-class cultural norms that ignore diversity. Data drawn from home visits and in-depth, semi-structured interviews amongst Pakistani parents and children in Hong Kong reveals that the involvement of these parents only seems less visible because it is largely based at home rather than in schools. The parental involvement of this ethnic minority is influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors that separate school from home, divide parental responsibilities by gender, and set expectations for children with primary reference to the parents' own experiences. These research findings on how such characteristics shape the outcomes of parental involvement can inform school practices to build more effective home-school collaboration and enhance children's academic achievement.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge.]

Children from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to experience lower academic achievement than children from middle-SES families. This discrepancy can be attributed to a range of parental factors. The present study tested: (1) the extent to which academic achievement in three core subjects differs between children from low- and middle-SES backgrounds; (2) the differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement across the two groups; and (3) the mediating role of parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement in explaining how SES influences children's academic achievement. The sample consisted of 184 primary students with low SES and 165 primary students with middle SES from mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. Results revealed significant differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, child engagement, as well as academic achievement in Chinese and English subjects between the low-SES and middle-SES groups. Our findings also suggest that parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement may be important mediators in the relationship between SES and academic achievement. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background: The study aimed to examine the impact of household composition and satisfaction with family life on sexual behaviours among high school male and female students (aged 11-22 years) in Hong Kong.; Method: High schools were randomly selected, and the final sample comprised 25 schools. Students were divided into two groups ('living with both biological parents' vs 'not living with both biological parents'). Students were asked to rate their satisfaction with family life on a five-point Likert scale in a self-administered questionnaire. Dependent variables were sexual experience, sexual harassment, sexting and nude chats. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyse the results.; Results: 3907 students were included in the analysis. 202 students (5.2%) were sexually active. 505 students had ever (13.0%) sexually harassed others and 303 students (7.8%) had ever been sexually harassed by others. 58 students (1.5%) had ever had nude chats. 1005 students (25.8%) had sexted in the last 12 months. Students who lived with both biological parents were less like to be sexually active, to sext and to have nude chats than those who did not. Students who had higher family life satisfaction were less likely to be sexually active, to sexually harass others, to be sexually harassed by others, to sext and to have nude chats than students who had lower satisfaction with their family life.; Conclusions: Sexual health programmes and interventions should consider family functioning. Students who have low family satisfaction and those who do not live with both their biological parents should be targeted for sexual health interventions.
[Copyright of BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health is the property of BMJ Group.]

講者將介紹香港資優教育學苑的「1+1」小組為介入策略以幫助資優生的情意發展。「1+1」小組是個親子平台，課程設計以創意解難 (Creative Problem Solving) (Isaken, Treffinger, Dorval, & Nollar, 2000) 模式為基礎，在有利學習的互動環境中滲入親子關係、自我認識、價值探索、同儕及體驗式學習等情意元素。是項研究以積極主動、預防性及發展性為導向形式，在三個重要範疇培養正向親子關係，這三個範疇分別是：調整家長期望、正向親子溝通，以及運用創意解難 (CPS) 模式促進資優生的情意發展。研究結果對資優教育（即三層架構中的第一及第二層次）的教育同工有重要的教育意義，並為學校提供了促進資優生情意發展的做法範例和相關資訊。An intervention programme called “1+1” Group is provided by the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education for affective development of gifted students. It is a parent-child group which is designed based on the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model and infused with affective elements such as parent-child relationship, self-understanding, exploration of one’s value system.The research takes a proactive, preventive and developmental approach to foster positive parent-child relationship through working on three important areas, namely parental expectation adjustment, positive parent-child communication, and incorporation of CPS to promote the affective development of gifted students. Copyright © 2018 Learning & Teaching Expo.

Teachers’ attitudes towards parental involvement play an important role in the ways they approach children’s families. This study examined Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers’ attitudes towards different types of parental involvement strategies and investigated whether these attitudes were related to the quality of relationships within their own family. Data were collected from 163 Hong Kong pre-service early childhood teachers via questionnaire. Results showed that engaging families in school decisions was perceived as the least important and feasible. The pre-service teachers also felt least confident in implementing it. There were, however, discrepancies in the perceived levels of importance, feasibility and confidence towards other types of parental involvement strategies. The levels of cohesion and expressiveness in pre-service teachers’ own families were positively related to their attitudes towards some types of parental involvement strategies. These findings suggest that teacher educators should take pre-service teachers’ family experiences into consideration when preparing them to work with children’s families. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

在傳統尚學文化及近年高等教育擴張的影響下，香港家長對子女教育普遍抱有很高的期望。然而，本地大學學額供給不足、親子對教育持有不同期望似乎都是阻礙家長實現「望」子成龍夢的不利因素。為了幫助香港家長實現「望」子成龍的熱望，本研究從家長視角出發，試圖回答以下問題：（1）面對緊張的學額供給，香港家長本就很高的學歷期望是否仍對子女的學業有積極影響？（2）若家長可以使子女與自己懷有相同水平的教育期望，家長的期望是否更易實現？為回答上述問題，我們借鑑了地位取得、社會認知和社會資本理論，針對研究問題提出三種假設。接着，我們運用描述性統計方法和多元線性迴歸模型來分析本次研究所用「香港高中學生升學及就業志向研究」數據。數據分析結果最符合我們據社會資本理論提出的假設：家長教育期望與子女的學業成就呈正相關關係；而當我們控制了家長教育期望的影響時，一致的親子教育期望對子女的學業成績有額外的積極影響。Deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese culture that respects scholars and the rapid expansion of higher education in recent years, parents in Hong Kong generally hold high expectations for their children’s education. In fact, however, both the shortage of local university places and the parent-child difference in educational expectations are likely to prevent parents from achieving their expectations. To help Hong Kong parents reach their goals, this study aims to answer the following two questions from the perspective of parents. First, facing the fierce competition for university places in Hong Kong, do parents’ way-too-high educational expectations still have positive effects on children’s academic performance? Second, if parents can align their children’s educational expectations with their own, are their expectations more likely to be fulfilled? To answer these questions, we will propose three different hypotheses according to status attainment theory, social cognitive theory, and social capital theory. Then, we will use descriptive statistical methods and multiple linear regression models to analyze the data used in this study (i.e., Panel Study on the Career and Educational Orientations of the Senior High School Students in Hong Kong). The results of data analyses are largely in line with the hypothesis drawn from the social capital theory. Parents’ educational expectations are positively related to their children’s academic performance. When parents’ educational expectations are conditioned, the alignment of parents’ and children’s expectations is likely to have an additional

"Many parents today have an educational perspective based on current theory and trends. Schools need to educate parents about the current situation in today's education, help parents to understand the children’s need to develop skills and attitudes in co-constructing beyond a knowledge driven curriculum. Hong Kong Education Bureau proclaims the roles and responsibilities of parents, in the belief that parents are the primary educators for young children at home and play an active role in the education of their children as partners of the school (Cheng, 2015). On the other hand, parents in the Mainland China have become more conscious about how to play their part in home-school collaboration and engage themselves in children’s education, especially in face of the Two-child policy (Fang, et. al. 2018). As a school, it is important to provide education for parents to create a collaborative relationship between parents and educators, empowering life success to students with learning intentions. Communication has always been the key factor in fostering parents-school collaboration. However recent trends revealed schools’ concern of additional factors influencing the parent-school relationship and communication process – 'transparency’ and ‘frequency’ have played a role in parents’ understanding of what goes on in children’s school life. In this paper, educators from Hong Kong and Guangdong Province of Mainland China will share ways of kindergartens from the two regions in educating and communicating with parents, and how parents can be supported as part of their child’s learning journey. Technology provides online channels for parents to be informed, while face-to-face and other offline options are still being considered as commonly-used for communication. For data collection, survey questionnaires were sent to kindergarten principals from Hong Kong and Guangdong to explore ways of communication and collaboration between schools and parents that will encourage a common understanding

Research Findings: This study examined the contribution of teacher-student conflict at kindergarten to the child’s school adjustment in primary school using a Hong Kong sample. It investigated self-regulation as a mediator and parents’ positive relations with others as a moderator in that transition. At Time 1 (T1), kindergarten teachers reported their levels of conflict with individual children (N = 324, 168 girls), whereas children’s self-regulation was assessed with a Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Task. Fathers and mothers also rated their positive relations with others. At Time 2 (T2; 8 months later), when children were enrolled in primary school (N = 247, 126 girls), primary school teachers rated how well they adjusted to the new school. Moderated mediation analyses showed that although the direct effect of T1 teacher-student conflict on T2 school adjustment was not significant, the indirect effect of self-regulation was. T1 teacher-student conflicts were negatively related to children’s self-regulation, which in turn predicted subsequent school adjustment. Interestingly, this indirect effect was significant only when parents’ positive relations with others were low rather than high. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight the importance of both a warm and caring relationship in the home and self-regulation to successful school transition. Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

香港自二零一二年起實施三三四新高中課程政策。然而,政府、政策研究者、學者等仍未對有特殊學習需要(SEN)高中生的學習情況,以及其畢業後的出路安排有足夠關注。本研究以小組訪談形式,收集了SEN高中生的家長對其SEN子女高中後轉銜的看法,包括對子女畢業出路的展望與態度、對現有政府支援體系的瞭解與評價,以及對於SEN學生高中後轉銜與支援服務的建議。小組訪談數據顯示,SEN學生家長均表示孩子高中後最理想出路是繼續升學,沒有升學機會時,才選擇工作。同時,他們主要擔心子女成績遜色,而在現今無論是升學或就業都講求高成績的社會中,其子女未能保持競爭力。另外,他們對於學校、政府和非政府機構等所提供的支援知之甚少,並且對社會支援,尤其是來自政府的支援非常不滿。此外,家長一致認為學校應負責SEN學生高中後的轉銜,並希望學校、政府或非政府機構所提供的資源能更多地考慮到SEN學生的個別特殊需要。最後,文末深入分析是次研究的重要性、局限及意義。 Since 2012, Hong Kong has implemented the New Senior Secondary (NSS) academic structure and curriculum. However, Hong Kong Government, policy makers and researchers have paid little attention to the educational situation and the career paths of the students with special educational needs (SEN) under the new curriculum. Thus, the current study was carried out, aiming to investigate parents’ opinions on their children’s post-secondary school transition. According to the results of focus group interviews, almost all parents of SEN students revealed that the most preferable career pathway was further study after their children graduated from senior secondary schools. Only when no study opportunities available would they consider job applications for their SEN children after they graduated. However, it should also be noted that a major concern of parents of SEN students was their children’s unsatisfactory academic achievement which could weaken their competitiveness, no matter whether they choose to work or further study as their post-school outcomes. In addition, the results indicated that these parents had little knowledge of current support services provided by schools, NGOs, and Hong Kong Government. Concerning current support services, they were particularly dissatisfied with those from the government. Noteworthy, parents all agreed that schools should be responsible for the post-school transition of SEN students. They also hope that schools, NGOs, and the government could take SEN students’ special needs into full consideration when these important stakeholders