Associate (community college) degrees have expanded rapidly in the past decade in Hong Kong, but their value has been questioned due to the limited number of government-funded articulation opportunities available. This paper argues that associate degrees in Hong Kong are not valued solely for articulation purposes, but also for nurturing students' development for future pursuits. This study examined associate degree students' development longitudinally over the two-year curriculum, and piloted the use of diagnostic instruments for prospective quality assurance. Three hundred associate degree students from Engineering, Marketing and Sociology programmes (N = 113, 128 and 59, respectively) at a community college in Hong Kong completed the student engagement questionnaire at two time points (commencement and graduation). Two-way repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance results suggest a significant interaction effect between Time and Discipline and a main effect of Time on seven dimensions of generic capabilities. It was found that students from Engineering programmes yielded more and larger positive changes in generic capabilities than students of other programmes. Implications of the findings regarding the value and the learning environment of associate degrees are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2014.909539]

In this article, the controversy of divergent findings in research on parental socialization effects in different cultures is addressed. Three explanations intended to address divergent findings of socialization effects in different cultures, as advanced by researchers who emphasize cultural differences, are discussed. These include cultural differences in socialization values and goals of parents, parental emotional and cognitive characteristics associated with parenting styles, and adolescents' interpretations or evaluations of their parents' parenting styles. The empirical evidence for and against each of these arguments is examined and an alternative paradigm for understanding and empirical study of developmental outcomes associated with parenting styles in different cultures is suggested. Baumrind's directive parenting style is presented as an alternative to the authoritarian parenting style in understanding the positive developmental effects associated with "strict" parenting in cultures said to have a collectivist orientation. Directions for research on the three explanations are mentioned.
[Copyright of Ammons Scientific Ltd. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/10.02.17.21.PR0.110.3.854-878]

本文報告了新近發展的跨文化（中國人）個性測量表－青少年版（CPAI-A）對香港中學生人格特徵的性別差異評估結果。CPAI-A是在CPAI-2（成人版）基礎上發展而來的。研究發現性別是影響香港中學生人格特質的關鍵因素，並且性別差異在不同年齡組之間存在明顯的延續性和發展性趨勢。結合對已有研究的比較分析，文章從發展角度討論了人格特質的性別差異特性在青少年不同年齡組之間的情形。文章還基於CPAI-2中國人常模的數據，比較分析了青少年與成人之間人格特徵性別差異的特點。文章最後認為性別差異特徵是體現人格特質在青少年期的不同年齡階段，以及從青少年到成人階段的發展性與穩定性的重要內容。
Gender difference has been studied extensively in the field of personality. Many studies have demonstrated significant gender difference in personality traits (e.g., self-esteem, extraversion) among people from different age groups and cultural contexts. Although the stabilities and changes of personality structure from adolescence to adulthood have also been investigated, few studies have explored gender difference in personality traits from a developmental perspective.
This paper compared gender difference in the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory – Adolescent Version (CPAI-A) among three age groups of secondary school students in Hong Kong. The CPAI-A was based on the adult version of the CPAI-2 which was developed using a combined emic-etic approach. The participants were 2,506 (1135 males, 1371 females) Hong Kong secondary school students aged 12 to 18 (M = 15.25, SD = 1.72) drawn from a representative sample of secondary schools. The participants were divided into three age groups which corresponded to the phases of the secondary school system in Hong Kong: 12–14 years, 15–16 years, and 17–18 years. We used MANOVA to examine the overall group differences, followed by further univariate analysis to examine the specific gender difference in personality traits among three age groups.
The results indicated that gender was a key factor that contributed to group difference in personality traits among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Three typical developmental features of gender difference in personality traits were found: (1) There were consistent gender differences in some general and clinical personality traits across the three groups.