Hong Kong universities offer counselling services for students, but students often do not actively seek such services when they need them. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the relationship between attribution styles, attitude and other factors that may affect university students’ use of counselling services. The study involved 292 student participants from Hong Kong. Overall, 279 students participated in the quantitative study, and 13 in the qualitative study. For the quantitative study, 56 participants (22 males; 34 females) were from University A and 223 (67 males; 156 females) were from University B. For the qualitative study, one participant (one female) was from University A and 12 participants (three males; nine females) was from University B. The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) were used in the quantitative part of the current study. The ASQ was used to measure the attribution style of participants in three causal dimensions, including ‘Internality’, ‘Stability’ and ‘Globality’, and the IASMHS was used to measure the participants’ attitudes towards counselling help in three ways: ‘psychological openness’, ‘help-seeking propensity’ and ‘indifference to stigma’. Results from the quantitative study showed that girls had higher ‘indifference stigma’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than boys. Participants who had previously sought counselling help showed higher ‘psychological openness’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than those who did not. Moreover, the students’ study majors and religious beliefs were significant predictors for ‘psychological openness’ in multiple regressions. Participants’ responses in the qualitative study were systematically analysed under three main themes, including ‘Problems faced by university students’, ‘Self and others’ past experiences in seeking counselling help’ and ‘Students’ attitudes and perception

The conflicting education values in Hong Kong kindergartens and primary schools pose various challenges to kindergarten teachers in providing pupils with a smooth transition to primary school which requires collaboration from schools and families. This study explored these challenges as well as the benefits of a professional teacher training programme. In-service teachers (N = 35) and tutors (N = 2) engaged in the module ‘The Social and Emotional Aspects of Teaching and Learning’ participated in this study. The trainees’ weekly reflective journals throughout the 22-week module were subjected to documentation analysis. Group interviews with the in-service teachers and individual interviews with the tutors were conducted on completion of the module. Findings reveal a gap between teacher training and providing pastoral care for pupils through supporting the social and emotional aspects of their families in Hong Kong, and indicated that traditional beliefs associated with the teaching profession should be widened. Meanwhile, counselling knowledge and skills should be contextualised and integrated into teacher training programmes.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge.]

The study is part of a larger project involving a phenomenological inquiry into the lived experiences of tongzhi students in Hong Kong public schools. The research question of this article focuses on the counselling experiences of nine Chinese lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning/queer (LGBQ) students aged 14–18 in Hong Kong Chinese secondary schools. We conducted qualitative data analyses via a software package for data coding and data reduction. Four themes emerged: Feeling fearful: judging my sexuality; Feeling disengaged: omitting my sexuality; Feeling alienated: pathologising my sexuality; Feeling supported: making an effort to understand my sexuality. The findings from the present study inform the development of school counselling within Chinese societies by generating recommendations about counsellors' professional codes of ethics, counsellor training and practice.
[Copyright of British Journal of Guidance & Counselling is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2012.718735]