Limited research has been conducted on community college (CC) transfer students' (TS) experiences in four-year universities, particularly in Asian contexts. To fill this research gap, in this qualitative study, 124 TS from various disciplines in a Hong Kong university participated in 39 focus groups and seven individual interviews. Unlike their Western counterparts, our TS were relatively better prepared and more academically adaptive. Nevertheless, their social integration was restricted by a lack of time for extra-curricular activities, a sense of inferiority and incompetence, and restricted social circles that did not enable interaction with non-TS. These challenges and their implications are discussed. In particular, this study has highlighted differences between the special education systems for CC transfer in Hong Kong and those in Western CC models. The study has also highlighted the study-induced stress, and poor self-perceptions that TS experience, despite their academic abilities. Copyright ©2021 MDPI.

The COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest have posed a unique set of challenges to Hong Kong. During these two social events, parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) who were already experiencing caregiving pressure, likely coped with additional stressors; they were at a higher risk of mental health problems. A pre-registered, cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 234 Hong Kong parents of children with SEN, investigating the associations of stigmatized identity, perceived discrimination, and subjective well-being under the impact of these social events. Utilizing the Bayesian modelling, we found that highly self-stigmatized parents not only perceived more daily-life discriminating behaviors against them, but also reported having higher distress, more negative emotions, and lower life satisfaction. A higher perceived impact of social events and more discrimination were also associated with lower well-being. Additionally, stigmatized identity, perceived discrimination, and perceived impact of social events demonstrated unique associations with well-being variables, indicating they were substantial stressors. The study called out for public attention to the mental health conditions among parents of children with SEN and other disadvantaged groups in society. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.

The association between physical activity in achieving mental health benefits and subjective well-being is consistently identified by empirical research. The causation of a positive self-concept created by physical exercise is empirically supported by Sonstroem and Morgan’s (1988) exercise and self-esteem model (EXSEM). However, various drawbacks of maintaining high self-esteem have been identified; thus, the concept of self-compassion was conjectured to be a form of “true self-esteem.” Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between physical activity and self-compassion by examining the exercise and self-esteem model revised with self-compassion (EXSEM-SC). This study recruited secondary school students from Hong Kong using convenience sampling. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, including path analysis and multiple indicators, multiple causes (MIMIC) modeling, were used to reveal the results of the study. The results (n = 1097) indicated that the relationship between physical activity and self-compassion could be demonstrated by the EXSEM-SC, with a satisfactory goodness-of-fit index in the SEMs. The SEM also demonstrated the direct paths from physical activity to self-compassion and mental well-being, indicating the significant effect of physical activity on self-compassion. Copyright © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.