This study involved 34 female adolescent students attending mathematics classes in a girls' hostel in Hong Kong. The subjects' ages ranged from 12 to 18 years. All students exhibited varying degrees of emotional and behavioural problems, and all experienced learning difficulties in mathematics. The study aimed to discover whether the use of a simple token reward system would increase the students' work output, participation rate, accuracy, and neatness of bookwork during mathematics lessons, and whether the system would also have a positive influence on the girls' attitude toward mathematics. The four-week intervention programme involved the provision of token rewards during lesson time to every girl who showed any improvement in any of the four aspects of learning. Baseline measures were taken over a two-week period before the intervention commenced, and regular measurements were taken during and immediately after the programme. The same measures were taken again four weeks after the reinforcement programme had ended to check for maintenance. The results showed that the use of tokens did lead to significant improvements (in most cases p <.01 or better) in work output, participation rate, accuracy and neatness while the programme was in operation. Performance declined, however, in all but neatness once the tokens were no longer in use. The decline in scores did not regress to the baseline level, but most differences were no longer statistically significant. Very minor attitudinal changes in a positive direction were noted; but only in one case did these reach statistical significance.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Special Education Forum is the property of Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
https://sites.google.com/a/seshk.org.hk/seshk-org-hk/c_publication]

The multidimensional PERMA-H positive education model provided evaluation and education framework for the theoretical and practice development of positive psychology in schools. Character strengths use mediates the association of strength knowledge and well-being. Using the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes (2nd Version) (APASO-II), the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the Physical Health Subscale of the PERMA-profiler, a multidimensional measure of PERMA-H was validated using confirmatory factor analysis in the context of a positive education program evaluation in senior primary school students. The association of PERMA-H measurements with school well-being as measured by general satisfaction of school life, and levels of depression and anxiety, and the mediation mechanism of character strengths use in such association were studied using path analysis. A cross-sectional sample of 726 senior primary school students (i.e., grade 4-6) aged 8-13 from the two primary schools completed a baseline evaluation questionnaire of a positive education program. Satisfactory internal reliability of the scales was obtained with Cronbach's alpha coefficients <0.70. The scales were generally positively and moderately inter-correlated, except for level of anxiety and depression symptoms which was negative. Good psychometric properties of APASO-II were evidenced from the factor structure of sub-scale scores conforming to six factors of the PERMA-H model by confirmatory factor analysis. Path analyses showed that the APASO-II factors together with measures of subject happiness and positive health as the multidimensional PERMA-H model of positive education differentially predicted general satisfaction of school life, level of anxiety and depression, and character strengths use. Character strengths use mediated the relationship of Positive Engagement with general satisfaction of school life. Positive education utilizes knowledge and research findings from positive psychology

The theory of planned behaviour was used to examine academic dishonesty among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Participants were 386 students in Forms 1-3 (Grades 7-9). Attitudes toward cheating, perceived behavioural control, and moral obligation were positively related to the intention to cheat, but only the subjective norm against cheating was significantly related to self-reported cheating behaviour. The subjective norm was both a predictor of self-reported cheating and a moderator of the relationship between the intention to cheat and self-reported cheating: the intention predicted the behaviour only when the subjective norm against cheating was perceived to be weak.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1454588]

The present study examined the relationships among grit, academic performance, perceived academic failure, and stress levels of Hong Kong associate degree students using path analysis. Three hundred and forty-five students from a community college in Hong Kong voluntarily participated in the study. They completed a questionnaire that measured their grit (operationalized as interest and perseverance) and stress levels. The students also provided their actual academic performance and evaluated their perception of their academic performance as a success or a failure. The results of the path analysis showed that interest and perseverance were negatively associated with stress, and only perceived academic failure was positively associated with stress. These findings suggest that psychological appraisal and resources are more important antecedents of stress than objective negative events. Therefore, fostering students' psychological resilience may alleviate the stress experienced by associate degree students or college students in general.
[Copyright of Journal of adolescence is the property of Academic Press.]

Hong Kong university students have shown various psychological health problems. Spiritual intelligence (SI) has been found to have a positive correlation with mental well-being. However, a reliable measure to assess SI in Hong Kong students is lacking. The present study, which comprised three phases, aimed to develop a scale of SI that could meet the characteristics of Hong Kong university students. Phase 1 aimed to explore the meaning of SI in Hong Kong and to develop the preliminary scale of SI. Twenty-eight participants, with or without religion, were interviewed about their understanding of SI. Adopting comparative and inductive techniques, eight categories of SI were revealed: Social Harmony and Influence, Morality, Personal Life Meaning, Emotional Competence, Connection to Higher Power, Existential Thinking, Reflection on Truth and Self, and Practice. A 62-item Chinese Spiritual Intelligence Scale (CSIS) was developed based on these categories. Phase 2 aimed to finalize the items of the CSIS and determine its factor structure. Two hundred and nineteen university students completed the CSIS. Several exploratory factor analyses led to a 29-item six-factor model for CSIS and the model was evaluated in Phase 3. Another sample of 283 Hong Kong university students completed the revised version of CSIS, together with other questionnaires on life meaning, metapersonal self-construal, life satisfaction, mental health, mood states, and emotional intelligence. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to determine whether the 29-item six-factor model fit the current sample. As high correlations were shown among some of the six factors, a four-factor model was proposed. The EFA result supported a 23-item four-factor model and the CFA further validated the model. The full scale of CSIS and its four subscales had good internal reliability. The CSIS was also positively correlated with measures of life meaning, metapersonal self-construal, life satisfaction, mental health, positive

A cyberbullying intervention was developed and empirically tested with 137 Hong Kong Chinese College students. The intervention was designed to change students’ attitudes about cyberbullying behavior and increase their awareness of cyberbullying. Participants were assigned to an experimental or control group. They completed questionnaires before the intervention (Time 1; T1), immediately after the intervention (Time 2; T2), and again eight weeks later (Time 3; T3). The experimental group participated in a 1-h intervention where they were presented with a simulated Facebook page showing the helpless feelings of cyber-victims, watched video clips of the consequences of cyberbullying, and engaged in small group discussions and a self-reflection writing task. Results showed that participants who received the intervention experienced an increase in their awareness and had more negative attitudes toward cyberbullying (i.e., the perception that cyberbullying is unacceptable behavior) than did the control group. In addition, those who reported being highly engaged in the intervention maintained the positive effects at the 8-week follow-up. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of a short-term cyberbullying intervention for college students and that level of participant engagement contributes to its effectiveness.
[Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. and The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS).]

香港在過去十數年的教改推動下，幼教課室亦走向多元化教學。這情況有助配合幼教多元化的文化及宗教觀的發展。事實上，特區政府的課程改革檔也確立了宗教文化的靈性向度在教育上的意義和訊息。筆者現嘗試引用佛教思想於幼兒教育上的實踐並在理念上作出研究分析，期待以拋磚引玉的精神踏出第一步，讓香港的幼教界朋友展開一個在多元文化的融和社會下的宗教教學法研究的平臺。
[Copyright © 2013 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Conceptual Framework: This study is founded on the framework of life satisfaction (Huebner, 2001), spiritual health (SH) (Fisher, 1999; 2008), academic engagement (AE) (Appleton et al., 2008) and civic engagement (CE) (Schulz et al., 2008). Objective: To investigate the structural relationships among SH, SE and CE of secondary students. Method: The study employs an integrated questionnaire survey to unfold the complex relationships among the three factors: SH, SE and CE. Over 8500 students aged 12 – 19 were surveyed in 2015. The following hypotheses were tested: (H1) SH is positively predictive for SE. (H2) SH is positively predictive for CE. (H3) Students’ SE is predictive for their CE. (H4) The effect of SH on CE is mediated by SE. Results: Our findings confirm the structural relationships with SH having a significant direct effect on SE (0.883***) but not directly on CE (-0.028). Moreover, SE contributes significantly and positively to CE (0.753***). Spiritual health does not have a significant impact on civic engagement. However, a significant indirect effect of SH on CE via SE (0.665***) was confirmed. Discussion and conclusion: Our overall findings have supported the aforementioned hypotheses with one indirect effect between SH and CE. The study concludes that SH is a core factor with regard to positive student development academically and socially. Additionally, desirable school engagement is linked with students’ future societal engagement such as obeying rules and laws, serving others, expressing their views on civic issues and voting etc. Implications for developing a success for all engagement framework are discussed.

In the face of heavy demand for private supplementary tutoring in basic education, the state seems to have adopted a consumerism model in the decentralised governance of mass tutoring, allowing students and parents to select for themselves course information, payment amounts and methods, tutoring dates and times, and physical conditions when buying services from registered cram schools in Hong Kong. In the study reported here, a 3-level cultural analysis of cram schools was conducted from 1998 to 2008 to examine the patterns of mass tuition trends in Hong Kong. The analysis investigated the impacts of such trends, or culture, upon youth values, and implications are drawn for policy making, educational reform, societal movements, and academic recommendations for further research.
[Copyright © 2009 HKFYG.]