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.

This study examined the relations between majority/minority group membership and cross-cultural acceptance, and their linkage to school adjustment. A total of 2,016 students (ethnic minority [EM]: 51%; boys: 50%) at Grades 2, 5, 8, and 11 from 15 schools in Hong Kong participated in the study. These schools were either of low (below 30%) or high EM concentrations (over 70%). EM students at low-EM-concentration schools and Chinese students at high-EM-concentration schools both belonged to the minority groups in their respective schools. Moderated mediation analyses showed that being the numerical minority in school predicted higher school engagement and more positive affect. The associations between numerical group membership and adjustment outcomes were each mediated by the intention to accept outgroup members. In other words, higher cross-cultural acceptance was found among students who were themselves the minority in school, and stronger outgroup acceptance, in turn, predicted better adjustment. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

While the relationship between self-determination and the academic achievement of students has been widely tested across cultures and groups, limited research has examined the antecedents of self-determination and their impacts on school engagement, which is the pre-requisite of academic achievement. The present study, based on the self-system processes model of motivation, tested the relationships between peer support, school support, self-determination, and school engagement in 118 secondary school students with special needs integrated into mainstream schools in Hong Kong. The results showed that school support has a significant indirect effect on school engagement via self-determination as a mediator. The correlations between school support, self-determination, and school engagement are all positive and significant, whereas peer support did not correlate with school engagement. Controlling for the factors of peer and school support, self-determination was the strongest predictor of school engagement for students with special needs. The current findings may highlight the importance of school support and self-determination interventions to enhance the school engagement of students with special needs in inclusive educational settings. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the associations of parental educational involvement at home and in school with academic performance and psychological health of 507 Chinese Grade 3 schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Parents reported on their level of involvement in children’s schooling and their children’s psychosocial issues. Children were surveyed to determine their school engagement, and their Chinese language and mathematics attainment was assessed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by testing children’s engagement with school as a mediator of the relationships. Our results showed that home-based parental educational involvement was positively associated with children’s language competence and psychosocial wellbeing, and the associations were linked through engaging children with school. However, the benefits reached a plateau at higher level of parental involvement in children’s learning at home. School-based parental involvement had an indirect effect on children’s prosocial behavior through school engagement. These findings highlight the significance of optimal level of parental involvement in children’s education at home for children’s development.
[Copyright of Journal of Child and Family Studies is the property of Springer Science & Business Media. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-1011-2]