The present study investigated how students' attitudes toward bullying were influenced simultaneously by personal and contextual factors in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Participants included 25,338 students (15-year-olds, from grade 7 to 12) and 663 schools from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei drawn from the Program for International Student Assessment 2018. Multilevel structural equation modeling with Bayesian estimation was conducted for data analysis. The results showed that, for personal factors, girls had stronger anti-bullying attitudes than boys in each sample. Resilience and self-efficacy predicted students' anti-bullying attitudes positively and significantly in all three regions. For family contextual factors, parents' emotional support had positive effects on students' attitudes toward bullying in three regions. For school contextual factors, there was no consistent result among the three regions. School location and school belonging were positive predictors of students' anti-bullying attitudes in Mainland China. By contrast, class size and student behavior hindering learning negatively correlated with students' anti-bullying attitudes in Hong Kong. In Taipei, students in public schools were more likely to form anti-bullying attitudes, and a positive association was found between the student--teacher ratio and students' attitudes toward bullying. Distinguishing the commonalities and differences in the factors influencing students' attitudes toward bullying in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei provides empirical evidence to understand school bullying prevention and control mechanism. Copyright © 2023 Wiley.

A Community of Practice (CoP) was established in 2020 to promote positive life values and well-being among university students in the Education University of Hong Kong. The CoP team has adopted the Heaven, People, Environment, and Self perspectives to conduct life education and positive education and help students learn about transcendental, communal, environmental, and personal well-being. In this symposium, the CoP team members will share the results of a cross-sectional survey study about the levels and predictors of university students’ meaning in life and positive mental health. The CoP team members will also introduce a newly developed online learning platform, the E-hub for Life Education and Positive Education, which shares learning resources and teaching materials related to life education and positive education. Moreover, the CoP team members will introduce a collaborative digital storytelling project related to positive education, in which students are trained to create and reflect on a series of digital stories that highlight different contributing factors of a positive life, including personal character strengths and positive values (e.g., determination, courage, and bravery), family love and support, and friendship and collaboration. The CoP team members will discuss how these non-formal learning activities help students enhance personal, family and social well-being, and develop reflective skills and values-laden perspectives in their personal and professional lives. Copyright © 2021 ICLT.

Although previous research has indicated an association between school engagement and adolescent victimization, its causal direction has not been determined, particularly in Chinese and East Asian cultural contexts. This study used a longitudinal panel data to explore the likely causal direction between school engagement and adolescent victimization in the context of school and cyberspace. Three hundred fifty-six students and their homeroom teachers in lower secondary school (Grades 7–9) in Hong Kong participated in a 2-wave panel study with a 9-month time interval. Students provided self-report information on their experiences with school violence and cyberbullying, and their homeroom teachers assessed their students’ engagement in school. The results of latent variables and autoregressive cross-lagged panel analysis suggested that school engagement at wave 1 was a significant predictor of school victimization at wave 2, but school victimization at wave 1 did not predict school engagement at wave 2. Similarly, school engagement at wave 1 was a significant predictor of cyberbullying victimization at wave 2, but school victimization at wave 1 did not predict school engagement at wave 2. These findings were also relevant for both sexes. The findings demonstrated that school engagement could be a protective factor against adolescent exposure to violence in school and cyberspace in Hong Kong. The findings informed school practitioners in Hong Kong that increasing student engagement in school could be a key strategy to reduce students’ risk of being bullied in school and cyberspace. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Previous research has suggested that psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and somatization) is associated with student victimization by teachers. The direction and causality of this relationship have not yet been empirically supported. This study examined longitudinal associations between adolescent psychological distress (anxiety, depression, and somatization) and student victimization by teachers among 419 adolescents in grades 7–9 of secondary schools in Hong Kong. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted to collect student self-reported information about their experiences of victimization by teachers and their psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and somatization, at two time points separated by a 9-month interval. A cross-lagged panel analysis provided evidence for the contribution of depression, anxiety, and somatization to later victimization by teachers. These findings were also relevant for male and female adolescents. The findings suggest that psychological distress, such as depression, anxiety, and somatization, is a risk factor predicting student victimization by teachers rather than the consequences of exposure to teacher violence. The results support the importance of reducing adolescent depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms in future intervention programs to prevent them from being victimized by teachers. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

Despite a hypothesized link between family conflict and school bullying perpetration, previous findings on the direct association have been inconsistent. It has been argued that affiliation with delinquent peers may be a potential psychosocial mechanism mediating the relationships between family conflict and school perpetration. However, such a proposition has not been examined employing longitudinal panel data. Using longitudinal panel data (two waves with a 9-month interval) from Hong Kong collected from 424 lower secondary students (grades 7–9), this study examined how affiliation with delinquent peers mediates the relationships between family conflict and adolescent school perpetration. The results of the half-longitudinal mediation model indicated no significant link between family conflict at T1 and school bullying perpetration at T2. However, family conflict at T1 was indirectly linked to school bullying perpetration at T2 through affiliation with delinquent peers. The findings imply that affiliation with delinquent peers mediates the association between family conflict and adolescent school bullying perpetration. The findings provide insights into the future development of policies and interventions to reduce school bullying perpetration. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

Students’ sense of school belonging (SSB) is linked with many meaningful educational outcomes. Though several studies have been conducted on SSB, most of these have used variable-centered approaches, with few studies examining profiles of students’ SSB using person-centered approaches. To further understand this important concept, this study sought to identify different profiles of students’ SSB by applying latent profile analysis to data from a sample of 1,173 students among 34 local primary schools in Hong Kong. The results revealed six profiles of school belonging (i.e., Low SSB and Moderate Rejection, Moderate SSB and Moderate Rejection, High SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and Low-Moderate Rejection, and High SSB and Low Rejection). This study also investigated the relationship between the identified profile membership and character strength of kindness (i.e., motivation to be kind, recognition of kindness, and kind behaviours) among these students. The results indicated differences in character strength of kindness across the identified SSB profiles. The findings are in line with the view that school environment plays an important role in students’ optimal development and highlight the necessity for a greater emphasis on school intervention programs on building students’ SSB and enhancing their character strength of kindness. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The transition to primary school is stressful for children in Hong Kong, with students showing high rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms. To further understand this transition, the current study: 1) examined the utility of Pekrun's (2006) theory of achievement emotions for young children with limited control conceptions; 2) tested the theory in high and low competence subject areas; and 3) tested a mediational model predicting changes in children's achievement emotions over time from control/value appraisals and academic coping strategies. 242 children (age 5 to 6) from 11 schools in Hong Kong participated. At each of two time points (the third and last months of the school year), children were interviewed individually about their control/value appraisals, academic achievement emotions, and academic coping strategies. Control and value appraisals were positively associated with academic enjoyment and negatively associated with boredom and anxiety. The control by value interaction for academic anxiety was in the expected direction and marginally significant (p =.06). Results were stronger for the low competence areas, and the mediational model was significant for girls only. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cyberbullying has become a critical issue in many parts of the world. Children affected by bullying in cyberspace may also experience various other problems in their daily lives, such as emotional and behavioral issues. Despite the well-documented positive correlation between digital technology use and cyberbullying experiences in adolescents, a paucity of research has explored the association between digital technology use and cyberbullying, and the extent to which digital literacy (DL) and parental mediation moderate these relationships among primary school-aged children. This study addressed these research gaps. A total of 736 children (third grade, female = 52 percent) in Hong Kong, selected through stratified random sampling, reported on their digital technology use, parental mediation of technology use (i.e., active mediation and restriction), and cyberbullying experiences. A performance-based assessment measured children's DL. Results showed a positive association between children's digital technology use (both for leisure activities and for schoolwork) and cyberbullying experiences (both as perpetrator and victim). These positive associations were more pronounced among children with low levels of DL (only victims) as well as among children with highly restrictive parents (both perpetrators and victims). Implications for digital citizenship education and parental intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

All public-funded Hong Kong universities have explicit practices to promote integrity and prevent students’ academic dishonesty. Using the Behaviour Change Wheel as a conceptual framework, three common practices were analysed in the present study, namely, enforcement of policies to penalize dishonest acts, use of plagiarism detection software, and mandatory attendance at academic honesty workshops. Qualitative data were collected from 50 students (in 14 focus groups) and individual interviews with 18 faculty members from eight publicly-funded universities in Hong Kong. Content analyses reveal that, although the students and faculty staff endorsed punishment as an effective intervention to reduce motivation to cheat, they also believed it would not enhance motivation for honest behaviours. Plagiarism detection software might reduce opportunities to plagiarize, but students with dishonest motivations will only turn to harder-to-trace means to cheat. While demonstrating good concepts of academic honesty, a sign that academic honesty education was working, the students attributed dishonest motivation to insufficient capability to perform academic tasks, which they described as a common problem. Both students and staff opined that the solution lies in more responsive learning support and pedagogical enhancement, but that it is constrained by university policies. Copyright © 2022 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to families around the world. The prolonged school closures in Hong Kong have forced young students to stay at home and adapt to remote learning for over a year, putting their mental health conditions at risk. Focusing on primary school students and their parents, the main objective of our research is to investigate the socioemotional factors and their associations with mental health conditions. Methods: A total of 700 Hong Kong primary schoolers (mean age = 8.2) reported their emotional experiences, loneliness, and academic self-concept via a user-friendly online survey; 537 parents reported depression and anxiety, perceived child depression and anxiety, and social support. Responses from students and parents were paired to account for the family context. Structural Equation Modeling was used for correlations and regressions. Results: The results of students’ responses showed that positive emotional experiences were negatively associated with loneliness and positively related to academic self-concept among students. Furthermore, the paired sample results showed that, during the one-year societal lockdown and remote learning period, the socioemotional factors were associated with mental health conditions among primary school students and their parents. Among our family sample in Hong Kong, evidence supports the unique negative association between students-reported positive emotional experiences and parents-reported child depression and anxiety, as well as between social support and parents’ depression and anxiety. Conclusions: These findings highlighted the associations between socioemotional factors and mental health among young primary schoolers during the societal lockdown. We thus call for more attention to the societal lockdown and remote learning context, especially since the social distancing practice could be “the new normal” for our society to handle the future pandemic crisis. Copyright © 2023 The Author