The transition into university life is crucial to the future achievements of the students. However, the experience of the transition may be different between male and female students, but this has not been empirically investigated in previous research. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender differences in the perception of university support. This research is based on a survey of 265 students from five universities in Hong Kong. The findings show that (i) more female students perceive the university as being supportive in their academic adjustment than male students; (ii) more male than female students perceive the university as being supportive in their social adjustment; and (iii) more male than female students perceive the university as being supportive in their psychological adjustment. Finally, the implications of the study are explored and discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Further and Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2011.645460]

The Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests were translated into Chinese and later fully computerized for research in Hong Kong. The normative data of two cohorts (1994 and 2002) of school children were employed to test the hypothesis that growth in creative thinking occurs in a society or culture during a period of education and curriculum reforms that emphasize creative thinking. Results of multivariate analysis of variance and subsequent univariate analysis of variance supported the hypothesis. Moreover, some interesting gender differences in creativity growth were observed, underlining the fact that boys and girls should be treated differentially to obtain a desirable creativity growth for them.
[Copyright of Creativity Research Journal is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Medical Teacher. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.843916]

Background: Little is known about sex knowledge, attitudes, and high-risk sexual behaviors among unmarried youth in Hong Kong. It is of public health importance to investigate this topic to inform sex education, policymaking, and prevention and intervention programs. Methods: Based on the Youth Sexuality Survey conducted by Hong Kong Family Planning Association (FPAHK) in 2011, this study explored the characteristics of sexual knowledge, attitudes, and high-risk sexual behaviors among 1,126 unmarried youth aged 18 to 27 years. Multiple logistic regressions were performed to examine factors associated with unmarried youth's premarital sex, casual relationships, multiple sex partners, and premarital pregnancy. Results: Unmarried youth in Hong Kong had adequate sex knowledge, but contraceptive knowledge was deficient. The majority of unmarried youth (63.8%) held liberal attitudes toward premarital sex and about half held liberal attitudes toward any form of sexual activity and premarital pregnancy. Around 60% held conservative attitudes toward causal sex relationships and multiple sex partners. Males tended to hold more liberal attitudes toward high-risk sex behaviors than female youth. Approximately 41.5% of unmarried youth reported having engaged in premarital sex, whereas less than 10% engaged in high-risk sexual behaviors. Males also reported higher amounts of premarital sex, casual sex relationships, and multiple sex partners. Females reported higher levels of sexual coercion. Logistic regressions indicated that being older, coming from a divorced family, out of school status and liberal attitudes toward risky sex behavior were more likely to engage in premarital sex or high-risk sex behaviors, and being female, being better educated and being immigrants were less likely to engage in premarital sex. However, being immigrants was more likely to engage in casual relationship and to have multiple partners. Conclusions: Premarital sex is becoming more prevalent among unmarried

Background: Strengthening primary care is key to Hong Kong's ongoing health system reform. Primary care remains unregulated, private sector dominated and financed mainly out-of-pocket. This study sought to examine the association between patients' socioeconomic status (SES), source of health payments and the quality of primary care they accessed to inform policy discussions. Methods: Data was collected from 1,994 respondents in a stratified random telephone survey with a 68% response rate, using the validated primary care assessment tool (PCAT). Education, household-income and type of housing were selected as indicators of SES. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression models were created to examine associations between indicators of SES and scores of quality. Results: Higher household-income was most significantly associated with better experiences of quality. Respondents with HK$ 15000-39999(USD1934-5158) and HK$ 40000(USD5159) and above were 47%(OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.10-1.96) and 2 times (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.38-3.09) more likely to experience better quality than the lowest-income group respectively. Income group HK$ 40000(USD5159) and above was 84% more likely to have better utilization (OR 1.84, 95% CI(1.21-2.78), and 2 times more likely to receive better comprehensiveness (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.26-2.87). Patients who used only private insurance were 80%(OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.20-2.68) more likely to experience better quality than those who paid out-of-pocket. Conclusions: Our results show that the quality of primary care experienced in HK tended to be higher for those who had higher income and private insurance, and were able to pay out-of-pocket for the care. This indicated that the inequality in primary care is likely to be related with the private dominated primary care system in Hong Kong. More public responsibility on primary health care should be sought for in HK and similar contexts to reduce the inequality in primary care.
[Copyright of BMC Health Services Research

The aim of this study is to assess the cross-cultural applicability of the Chinese version of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM; McInerney & Sinclair) in the Hong Kong context using both within-network and between-network approaches to construct validation. The ISM measures four types of achievement goals: mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic goals. A total of 697 high school students participated in the study. Results of the within-network test showed that the ISM had good internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesised four-factor structure. In addition, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed factorial invariance across students of different genders, year levels, and school types. The between-network test indicated that the achievement goals assessed by the ISM correlated systematically with different aspects of students' self-concepts. These findings provide evidence of the applicability of the ISM among Hong Kong Chinese students. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Testing is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15305058.2012.656162]