This study evaluated a conceptual model with which to explore the influence of parental financial socialization in a sample of Hong Kong adolescent students and to evaluate how school financial education impacted the model's results. Baseline data, collected before the financial intervention, revealed that parental financial socialization positively influenced adolescent financial behaviors as mediated by financial learning outcomes and psychological transformation, in sequence. Model results based on follow-up tests suggested that the positive link between parental financial norms and adolescents’ financial attitudes was stronger in the experimental group than in the control (no financial intervention) group, but the positive link between direct parental teaching and self-control in financial behaviors was weaker in the experimental group compared to that in the control group. Neither differential direct pathways linking financial learning outcomes to financial behaviors nor differential indirect pathways mediated by psychological transformation were identified. These findings improve the understanding of parental financial socialization in the context of school education. The results produce multiple research questions to be considered in future studies. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Financial capability is an important competence for adolescents, and secondary school is a natural setting in which to deliver financial education courses. Currently, however, little empirical evidence has been published on the effects of in-school financial education on financial capability in adolescents. This pilot study brought together a randomized experimental design, a combination of local and non-local financial education courses, comprehensive measurements, and multi-level structural equation modeling for data analysis to evaluate the outcomes of a financial education project in a representative sample of Hong Kong adolescents. Results demonstrated that our financial intervention made a positive impact on objective financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy but a negative one on financial behaviors. Positive effects on financial self-efficacy were stronger in male adolescents than in females. Our findings represent an important contribution to the literature regarding financial education at the secondary school level. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature B.V.

The mismatch between financial objective and subjective knowledge that occurs in youth and adolescents has been understudied in the literature. Based on objective and subjective financial literacy scores, this study categorizes financial literacy into four types: financial literacy overconfidence, underconfidence, competence, and naïvete in a sample of adolescents. Data were collected from 330 students aged around 15 years old in six middle schools in Hong Kong. The results indicate that adolescents who are overconfident about their financial literacy are more likely to engage in risky financial behavior and report higher levels of financial autonomy. A randomized experimental trial was conducted to assess whether financial education could change the mismatch between financial objective and subjective knowledge. The results show a significant increase in underconfidence after the financial education intervention, but no significant change in the other three categories. The findings highlight the same type of financial literacy overconfidence in both adolescents and adults and has implications for financial counselors and educators who would improve the financial engagement of adolescents. Copyright © 2021 Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, U.S.A.

The growing incidence of mental health problems in adolescents is a significant global concern. School-based counselling, where a student meets with an individual, trained counsellor a number of times in a school setting, is a common component of holistic mental health programmes to support the well-being of students. In Hong Kong, however, professional counselling is in general not well-developed, and school-based counselling has been severely under-researched. Drawing on data from interviews with 8 counsellors and 25 student clients in local secondary schools, the present study aims to investigate the perspectives of counsellors and clients on the practice of school-based counselling in Hong Kong. Following a thematic approach, the study compares the key themes identified in the reflections of counsellors and clients on their experience of counselling. Similarities and differences in the discursive construction and realisation of themes are examined in detail. Representative examples are discussed in context to illustrate the views from both the service providers and users of school-based counselling. Findings from this study will inform and enhance understanding of how school-based counselling can help to promote the mental well-being of students in the local educational setting and in the broader Asian context. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Studies have shown that the School Kindness Scale (SKS) has adequate psychometric properties in different societies such as Canada, Turkey, and the Philippines. However, there is scarce evidence on the psychometric validity of this scale across multiple societies and educational contexts. This study explores the cross-national invariance of the SKS among high school students in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Results showed that the modified unidimensional model of school kindness with correlated error terms on item number 2 and 3 had the most optimal fit. There was evidence supporting partial invariance of the modified unidimensional model of school kindness across setting and year level, and full invariance across gender. Whereas school kindness also demonstrated positive correlations with perceived academic performance in Hong Kong and mainland China, this construct was linked to higher emotional and social engagement in math in all contexts. Copyright © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The Active Healthy Kids 2019 Hong Kong Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth with Special Educational Needs (SEN) provides evidence-based assessments for nine indicators of physical activity behaviors and related sources of influence for 6- to 17-year-olds with SEN in Hong Kong. This is the first Report Card for this population group in Hong Kong. The best available data between 2008 and 2019 were reviewed by a panel of experts. Following the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) development process, letter grades were assigned to nine indicators (Overall Physical Activity, Organized Sport Participation, Active Play, Active Transportation, Sedentary Behaviors, Family & Peers, School, Community & Environment, and Government Strategies & Investments). Two behavior indicators (Overall Physical Activity: F; Sedentary Behaviors: D+) and two contextual indicators (School: B; Government Strategies & Investments: C-) were assigned a letter grade. The remaining indicators including Organized Sport Participation, Active Play, Active Transportation, Family & Peers, and Community & Environment were not graded due to insufficient data. A majority of children and youth with SEN in Hong Kong are physically inactive and have a high level of sedentary behaviors. Schools are ideal settings to promote physical activity for this population. There is a need to develop a comprehensive surveillance system to monitor this population, assess efforts to improve the grades, and promote physical activity opportunities for children and youth with SEN. Copyright ©Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

The present study investigated the co-occurrence of word reading and spelling difficulties for Chinese first language (L1) and English second language (L2) and the role of morphological awareness in word reading and spelling ability across two languages. A total of 110 Hong Kong Chinese-speaking students in Grade 7, including 55 adolescents with dyslexia (28 males, mean age = 152.11 months) and 55 typically developing adolescents (27 males, mean age = 151.85 months) participated. They were assessed on the cognitive-linguistic measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, rapid naming, word reading, and word spelling in L1 and L2. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that compared with the typical students, adolescents with dyslexia had poorer performance in all L1 and L2 measures except the phonological awareness in Chinese. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that for both groups of students, morphological awareness contributed uniquely to word reading and spelling in L1 and L2; rapid letter naming contributed uniquely to English word spelling. Findings highlight the importance of co-occurring difficulties in L1 and L2 reading and spelling and that morphological awareness may play a critical role in predicting word reading and spelling across languages for Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and those without difficulty. Copyright © Sage Publications Ltd.

1965至1985年間，香港高等教育的發展相當緩慢，只有不足5%的適齡青年可升讀由大學教育資助委員會資助的大學學位課程，及至20世紀80年代中起，大學學位開始大量增加，進入大學的適齡人口百分比提升至18%。2000年，香港特別行政區行政長官更進一步提出要在十年內令香港高等教育的普及率達到60%。由2000–2001至2005–2006學年，高等教育參與率已增加至超過60%。本文探討在香港高等教育擴張後期，中學生對升讀高等教育期望的變化。本文研究數據來自2009年和2012年的學生能力國際評估計劃（以下簡稱PISA）。2009年香港的PISA調查在該年5至6月間進行，而2012年的調查則在該年4至5月間進行。本研究嘗試探索以下四個範疇：（1）學生的教育期望在兩次調查期間（2009至2012年）的變化；（2）學生的家庭社經背景與教育期望間的關係；（3）學生能力與教育期望間的關係；（4）家庭社經背景與學生能力等因素對學生期望升讀大學的相對影響程度。From 1965 to 1985, the development of higher education was very slow in Hong Kong. Less than 5% of age-eligible adolescents were admitted to UGC-funded university degree program. However, since the mid-1980s, there has been an expansion of university places and the university admission rate has increased to 18% of the age-eligible population. In 2000, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region proposed that the admission rate of higher education be increased to 60% within ten years. As a consequence, the participation rate of higher education was increased to over 60% from the school year 2000–2001 to 2005–2006. This article focuses on the change in expectation for pursuing higher education of Hong Kong secondary school students during the post-massification of Hong Kong higher education.The data of this article originates from two cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) — PISA 2009 and PISA 2012. PISA 2009 in Hong Kong was conducted from May to June 2009, while PISA 2012 was conducted from April to May 2012. This article attempts to investigate the following four areas: (1) the changes in students’ educational expectation during 2009 to 2012; (2) the relationship between students’ family socioeconomic background and their educational expectation; (3) the relationship between students’ ability and their educational expectation; (4) the relative impact of family socioeconomic background and students’ ability on their educational expectation toward the pursuit of university education. Copyright © 2009

Aim: Although the reasons behind the stigmatization of psychosis are manifold, poor mental health literacy among the general public is likely to be a major factor. In Hong Kong, the Early Psychosis Foundation (EPISO) was established in 2007 to tackle this issue by providing educational and mental health promotional activities, among other aims and services. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based interventional programme, the School Tour, developed by EPISO.; Methods: The School Tour differentiates itself from other interventional programmes by supplementing a traditional psychoeducational talk with 2 additional elements: an engaging drama performance and exercise demonstrations. Twelve secondary schools, with a total of 4520 students, participated in the study. Knowledge and attitudes towards psychosis were evaluated before and after the school programme.; Results: The School Tour was found to improve both students' knowledge of psychosis (P < .001) and their attitude (P < .001) towards the illness.; Conclusions: Its effectiveness in reducing the stigma towards psychosis validates the use of novel strategies like drama performances to engage adolescent students, and urges the government to support increased student participation in the programme by providing funding to the relevant organizations.
[Copyright of Early Intervention In Psychiatry is the property of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia.]

Financial literacy is a multicomponent construct comprising financial knowledge, attitude, behaviors, and well-being. Financial literacy in young people helps them to achieve financial independence and escape from intergenerational poverty. Recent assessments, however, reveal that youth financial literacy is unsatisfactory. Financial education should be provided for students during secondary school as a natural context in which to establish young people's financial literacy. Empirical evidence from randomized experiments studying the impact of financial education on secondary school students, however, is limited. To address this research gap, we performed a randomized experiment with 270 Form-3 (U.S. equivalent Grade 9) secondary school students in Hong Kong. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results demonstrated that objective financial knowledge, financial attitudinal variables, and financial well-being variables could converge into the latent construct of financial literacy, while all financial behavioral variables converged into another latent construct of financial behavior; of note, the two latent constructs were not significantly correlated. SEM results also revealed that our financial education program significantly improved financial literacy, but did not have a significant effect on financial behavior in the short term. These findings contribute to existing financial literacy research by facilitating more accurate measurement and detailing the near-term effects of financial interventions at the adolescent stage in young people. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s).