Asystematic study of the linkages between gender issues and parenting is made among Chinese families. This study examines sex differences in parenting attributes across fathers and mothers and towards sons and daughters, and compares the contributions of fathers and mothers to the prediction of academic performance across boys and girls. Four parenting attributes are included: nurturance, psychological control, parental involvement in education, and parental academic efficacy. Data were collected from 461 Chinese father-mother-child triads of children studying Grade 3 to 5 in Hong Kong. Findings of this study, based on multivariate analysis of variance, showed that parental roles followed traditional Chinese cultural expectations. Compared to the fathers, Chinese mothers of school-age children in Hong Kong were more loving and caring, more involved in children's education, and more efficacious in promoting children's academic performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis examining the role of child's sex as a moderator showed cross-sex influence in parental contribution to academic performance with respect to parental psychological control and academic efficacy. Specifically, boys benefited more from maternal efficacy than girls did and they were also more hampered by mothers with high psychological control, while girls' academic performance was more enhanced by paternal academic efficacy than boys. A gender-balance approach that highlights the significance of gender in moderating parental contributions to academic performance was thus supported. Future research should continue to focus on psychological control and domain-specific parental attributes as potential sources of gender-linked parent-child associations. Investigations should also explore other cognitive and noncognitive domains of child outcome, different child age groups, as well as Chinese populations in various geographical regions.
[Copyright of International Journal of Psychology is the

This paper reports research that evaluated the efficacy of training for education assistants and its impact upon changing practices in a group of private international schools in Hong Kong, China. Two cohorts of education assistants received training through an education institute. The focus was on supporting and fostering inclusive practices in schools. The expectations and perceptions of the education assistants regarding the training was recorded through survey and focus group interviews and discussed alongside international literature in the area of classroom support and inclusive schooling. The paper concludes that the provision of training was successful in meeting education assistants' expectations and in increasing personal confidence and raising self-esteem, but that they face many challenges if their learning is to be applied. The research further reveals that education assistants within Hong Kong schools lack clarity in their role and a narrow understanding of how they may be most appropriately utilised within schools has led to a limiting of their deployment. Implications for training providers and the teaching profession are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Inclusive Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603110802504895]

Background: A limited amount of research has been conducted on children and adolescents who are low achievers. In Hong Kong, educators describe low achieving students in terms of academic performance, they seldom focus on socio-emotional aspects, such as self-esteem, peer affiliation, and inter-personal relationships. However, low achieving students could also be described differently in different contexts. Students who experience difficulties academically are characterized as having difficulties in studying, completing assignments and organizing information Therefore, this study attempts to explore the impact of the transitions from primary school to secondary school among low achieving students on their peer affiliation and the reciprocal effect of self-esteem and academic outcomes, using data triangulation and methodological triangulation (different methods, i.e., observation, journal entries, portfolios and interviews) (Denzin, 1978).
Aims: This study examined the effects of a peer support programme in smoothing the transition to adolescence and secondary school for students in the first year of secondary school by enhancing self-esteem, peer affiliations and academic performance.
Sample: Participants in the study were students from a secondary school in Hong Kong. Seven form-one students participated three times weekly in groups facilitated by a trainer and older students. Method: The methods of data triangulation and time series design were employed. Data was collected from teacher interviews, observational field notes, inter-rater checklists, and conversations with students.
Results: The results suggested that the peer support programme has significant effects on students' academic outcomes and peer affiliations.
Conclusion: Three major findings arise from this investigation. First, the overall effectiveness of the peer support programme could enhance the students' academic performance and peer affiliations, this was agreed by the participants