Parents in Hong Kong believe that play is harmful to children's studies and socio-emotional development. However, the term 'eduplay' was first introduced by Rao and Li, a form of play-based education with 'Chinese characteristics'. This term captures the beliefs of teachers and parents about how learning could happen through play and how it occurs in Chinese early childhood education settings. Nevertheless, the concept of 'playing to learn' is becoming more accepted by Chinese parents. In many Chinese schools today, eduplay activities are designed to enhance children's social competency. In the present study, a pre-post study was conducted to select 60 preschool students aged from three to five years. Thirty students were randomly assigned to the 'experimental group' to receive 10 eduplay sessions, whereas the remaining 30 students were assigned to the 'control group'. The Child Behaviour Checklist was distributed to the teachers before and after 10 eduplay sessions to assess the students' social competence. An analysis of covariance was used to assess whether the internalising problems reduced more significantly in the students in the experimental group than in the students in the control group. The results indicate that the students' social competence was significantly enhanced after 10 eduplay sessions. Suggestions were given to the school, teachers, and parents on how to apply eduplay in children's learning and classroom teaching.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004431003611487]

This study examined whether authoritarian parenting, children's negative emotionality and negative coping strategies independently or jointly predict children's aggressive behaviour at school. Participants included the teachers and mothers of 185 Hong Kong resident Chinese children (90 girls and 95 boys), aged 6-8. Teachers rated the children's aggressive behaviour at school, and mothers reported how often they adopted an authoritarian parenting style and rated the children's negative emotionality and coping strategies. A model predicting children's aggressive behaviour with maternal authoritarian parenting and children's negative emotionality affecting children's aggressive behaviour at school through the mediating effect of children's negative coping strategies was examined. Mother's adoption of authoritarian parenting was not related to their perception of the children's negative emotionality. Neither authoritarian parenting nor negative emotionality alone predicted children's aggressive behaviour at school. The mediation model was supported. The results imply that school personnel should take children's emotionality into consideration when offering training programmes on emotion coping strategies for children.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430902981447]

This paper is the report of a study that uses qualitative methods to examine the religiosity of Hong Kong Buddhist adolescents. Twenty-two Buddhist adolescents aged from 13 to 17 studying in Buddhist secondary schools took part in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were voice-recorded and transcribed verbatim, first into Chinese and then partly into English for quotations. Content analysis was carried out to delineate the religiosity of the Buddhist adolescents: (1) the sources and resources of religiosity, (2) religious beliefs, (3) religious practices, (4) positive consequences of religiosity, and (5) predictions on the future development of religiosity. The results show that the religiosity of Buddhist adolescents in Hong Kong exhibits some special features that distinguish it from the more common understanding of religiosity in the West.
[Copyright of International Journal of Children's Spirituality is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13644360903565466]

Academic stress is widely recognized as a prominent source of stress for children in Hong Kong. What can be done to enhance children's resilience to this type of stress? The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between academic stress, children's anxiety, and academic attainment in senior primary school children in Hong Kong. Specifically, the objective is to investigate the moderating and mediating mechanisms through which parental support and children's resourcefulness might modify stress outcomes. To better determine the relationship patterns of these variables, a cross-sectional quantitative research design was used. Proportional stratified sampling, cluster sampling and random sampling methods were employed in various phases to locate suitable informants. Nine primary schools and a total of 1,644 senior primary school students participated in the study.
Three academic stress domains were generated from the Academic Hassles Scale.These were "academic inefficacy and fear of failure", "expectations and demands from significant others" and "academic demands and overload". Domain analysis proved to be more sensitive to gender difference when compared with the global academic hassles measure. Girls were more disturbed by "academic inefficacy and fear of failure" and boys were more affected by "expectations and demands from significant others" and "academic demands and overload". Correlation of the domains with factors in the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale indicated that the manifestation of anxiety was different in these domains.
Time spent by parents communicating with their children, parental emotional, informational and instrumental supports and children's resourcefulness were beneficial to children's emotional and academic adjustment independent of the stressors. When the support was delivered in overprotective and authoritarian ways, adverse outcomes were the result. Interaction effects were found only in the domain "academic demands

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.

In the search for time-sensitive, brief and effective interventions for school problems, a practical approach is suggested for Hong Kong teachers. This approach endorses the competency orientation of the humanistic tradition, offers the advantages of systems thinking, and provides a theory of change with cognitive-behavioral and solution-focused strategies of intervention that is complementary with the constraints and needs of the school environment. Specifically, based on these assumptions, three general intervention guidelines are suggested and illustrated with corresponding case examples, demonstrating successful applications of this practical approach for brief interventions in the school setting. Implications for the use of this practical approach are discussed in the context of the whole school approach to guidance in Hong Kong schools and the movement toward a constructivist perspective in school guidance and counseling.
本文針對香港教師如何處理校內的學生問題提出一個快捷、簡易和有效的實用取向介入模式。此介入模式源自傳統「人本主義」中的能力取向，配合學校環境的限制和需要，著重從「系統思考」、「認知行為」和「尋解導向」實施介入輔導。基於這些假設，本文提出三個一般的介入原則，配合真實的個案例子，說明如何能夠成功地將有關的介入模式應用在學校的實際環境中。討論部分結合了香港學校現行的校本輔導取向，探討如何從「建構主義」的角度建立有效的學校輔導模式。
[Copyright of Asian Journal of Counselling is the property of The Hong Kong Professional Counselling Association at http://www.hkpca.org.hk/]