Background: Sleep deprivation is common among teenagers. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep duration, wake/sleep symptoms, and academic performance among Hong Kong students.
Materials and methods: The sleep habit questionnaires were distributed to all Year 11 students at an international school that catered to different ethnic groups in Hong Kong. Analysis of various parameters of academic performance and sleep habits and their relationships were undertaken.
Results: Fifty-nine students were recruited. The average sleep duration in this group was 7.23 h. The overall prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness (defined as an Epworth Sleepiness Scale score of >10) was 25.4%. Eleven subjects had excessive class sleepiness, defined as high likelihood to fall asleep during at least one school session. Mathematics performance was positively correlated with sleep duration. Excessive sleepiness on rising was identified as a significant risk factor for poor performance in English and Mathematics. Sleepiness during the third and fourth lessons was identified as a significant risk factor for poor performance in Mathematics only.
Conclusion: Sleep deprivation was common in the studied cohort and it was associated with a decrease in Mathematics performance. Excessive sleepiness on rising and sleepiness during third and fourth lessons were associated with poorer grades in Mathematics and English. Excessive daytime sleepiness was reported in 25% of students. Bruxism and snoring were associated with excessive daytime sleepiness.
[Copyright of Sleep and Breathing is the property of Springer. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11325-009-0255-5]

This study aimed to compare the adaptation of two groups of migrant Chinese adolescents with their nonmigrant peers. The migrant adolescents included 55 Chinese migrant adolescents who migrated to Australia (Chinese-Australian) and 111 China-born adolescents who migrated to Hong Kong (Chinese-Hong Kong). The nonmigrant adolescents included 157 Anglo-Australian adolescents residing in Australia and 456 Hong Kong-born Chinese adolescents residing in Hong Kong. There were three research questions in this study. First, would there be any differences in the adaptation of Chinese migrant adolescents in different societies of settlement? Second, would migrant adolescents experience more adaptation problems than nonmigrant adolescents? Third, would there be any differences in the adaptation of adolescents in the two societies, Australia and Hong Kong? It was hypothesized that: (1) mainland Chinese migrant adolescents in Hong Kong would experience more adaptation problems than Chinese migrant adolescents in Australia; (2) migrant adolescents would report better adaptation than nonmigrant adolescents; (3) adolescents in Hong Kong would report poorer adaptation than adolescents in Australia. The participants were requested to complete a questionnaire on various adaptation outcome measures including life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological symptoms, academic satisfaction, and behaviour problems. The results indicated that Chinese-Australian adolescents reported better psychological adaptation but Chinese-Hong Kong adolescents reported better sociocultural adaptation. Adolescents resident in Australia reported higher psychological adaptation but lower sociocultural adaptation than those in Hong Kong. Migrant adolescents reported better psychological and sociocultural adaptation than their nonmigrant counterparts. The results were discussed in relation to the social and educational systems of the two societies.
[Copyright of International Journal of Psychology is the property

This article describes the development of an instrument - the Career and Talent Development Self-Efficacy Scale (CTD-SES) - for assessing students' self-efficacy in applying life skills essential for personal talent development, acquisition of positive work habits, and career exploration. In Study 1, data were obtained from a large sample of Chinese middle-school students (N=15,113) in Grades 7-9 in Hong Kong. The CTD-SES is an 18-item questionnaire with subscales containing items that address students' orientations toward developing their own talents, acquiring and applying positive work habits, and exploring their career possibilities. Evidence is provided for internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure of the CTD-SES. Goodness of fit statistics provided support for a three-primary-factor-plus-higher-factor model, and this solution was used in the statistical analyses. The data also indicated that students with plans for university study reported significantly higher scores than those without on all three domains of career and talent development. In Study 2 (N=308) Grade 10 high-ability students' scores in CTD-SES were correlated with scores in career decision self-efficacy and academic performance. The development and validation of CTD-SES is the first step toward investigating career exploration, work habits, and talent development among Asian middle-school adolescents.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2010.488089]

Objective. To examine the independent, competing, and interactive effects of perceived availability of specific types of media in the home and neighborhood sport facilities on adolescents' leisure-time physical activity (PA).
Methods. Survey data from 34 369 students in 42 Hong Kong secondary schools were collected (2006-07). Respondents reported moderate-to-vigorous leisure-time PA, presence of sport facilities in the neighborhood and of media equipment in the home. Being sufficiently physically active was defined as engaging in at least 30 minutes of non-school leisure-time PA on a daily basis. Logistic regression and post-estimation linear combinations of regression coefficients were used to examine the independent and competing effects of sport facilities and media equipment on leisure-time PA.
Results. Perceived availability of sport facilities was positively (ORboys = 1.17; ORgirls = 1.26), and that of computer/Internet negatively (ORboys = 0.48; ORgirls = 0.41), associated with being sufficiently active. A significant positive association between video game console and being sufficiently active was found in girls (ORgirls = 1.19) but not in boys. Compared with adolescents without sport facilities and media equipment, those who reported sport facilities only were more likely to be physically active (ORboys = 1.26; ORgirls = 1.34), while those who additionally reported computer/Internet were less likely to be physically active (OR boys = 0.60; ORgirls = 0.54).
Conclusions. Perceived availability of sport facilities in the neighborhood may positively impact on adolescents' level of physical activity. However, having computer/Internet may cancel out the effects of active opportunities in the neighborhood. This suggests that physical activity programs for adolescents need to consider limiting the access to computer-mediated communication as an important intervention component.
[Copyright of International Journal of Pediatric Obesity is the

This study investigated the contribution of school contextual factors and intrapersonal factors to school satisfaction among a sample of Hong Kong Chinese primary school children. A total of 760 children completed the School Satisfaction Subscale of the Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale for Children along with self-report measures of intrapersonal factors (self-esteem and hope) and school-related factors (teacher support, peer support, peer conflict, peer victimisation and academic performance). Findings revealed teacher support as the most significant predictor of school satisfaction across grades, followed by academic performance. Hope was found to be a statistically significant mediator of school satisfaction across gender, whereas self-esteem did not act as a potential mediator except in sub-samples of girls and Grade 4 students. The findings lend support to using developmental ecological perspective and cognitive mediation models in studying school satisfaction. The implications of the findings for future research and educational practice were discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410903494452]