The reciprocal relationship between mathematics achievement and self-concept is examined in this study to expand the existing knowledge to a cross-cultural setting. Based on analyses of educational data two years before and after Hong Kong's sovereignty switch in 1997, this investigation shows a weak reciprocal relationship among the eighth-grade students across gender categories. With the introduction of a new policy to promote Chinese instruction, changes in the perceived importance of English have been assessed by education stakeholders, and the results are used to indicate a latent factor of "English push" behind the learning process. In the context of cross-cultural transition, gender differences have been found in path coefficients toward mathematics achievement and self-concept. Limited by the four-year research period, one may speculate whether it would take longer to demonstrate a large effect size in the reciprocal relationship.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410500390863]

The study on which this article is based examined the gender differences in educational achievements based on a longitudinal sample of more than 45,000 secondary school students in Hong Kong who took a public examination in 1997. The results coincided with the findings from recent British studies that boys did less well than girls in all areas of the school curriculum. The multilevel analyses of the effects of schooling, after controlling for initial ability, indicated that schooling did have an effect on gender differences. Girls achieved better results studying in single-sex schools whereas boys achieved better in co-educational schools. Compared with other students, it was those boys studying in the arts stream that did the least well in the public examination. The results are discussed in the context of the methodology of investigating gender differences and of the substantive questions of school effectiveness.
[Copyright of British Educational Research Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141192022000019080]

A total of 378 Hong Kong adolescents estimated their own and their parents' IQ score on each of Gardner's 10 multiple intelligences: verbal (linguistic), logical (mathematical), spatial, musical, body‐kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, spiritual and naturalistic. They answered three simple questions concerning intelligence and intelligence tests. There were sex differences in eight of the 10 self‐estimates except for verbal and interpersonal. Male participants gave higher scores than female participants. Factor analyses of the 10 dimensions yielded a two‐interpretable‐factor solution: personal–social–spiritual intelligence and academic–arts–kinesthetic intelligence. There were consistent sex differences in the estimates of the academic–arts–kinesthetic intelligence factor for oneself, but not for parents, while there were sex differences in the estimates of the personal–social–spiritual intelligence factor for oneself and for mother, but not for father. The two factor scores were predicted by both gender and belief about intelligence.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598130600618009]

One of the alleged reasons that males report lower intimacy in same-sex friendships than females is that males tend to be more competitive than females, but this assumption has not been empirically tested. In the current study, 121 Wong Kong adolescents filled out Chinese versions of the Intimate Friendship Scale and the Competitiveness Index. As predicted, females reported having more intimate same-sex relationships than males, and they scored lower on competitiveness than males. However, the correlations between scores on the Competitiveness Index and the Intimate Friendship subscales were small and nonsignificant, suggesting that the sex difference in intimacy was not a function of competitiveness.
[Reproduced with permission of author(s) and publisher from: Cheng, S. T., & Chan, A. C. M. Sex, competitiveness, and intimacy in same-sex friendship in Hong Kong adolescents. Psychological Reports, 1999, 84, 45-48. © Psychological Reports 1999 Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://ammonsscientific.com/link.php?N=9489]

Based on the data of the normative study of the Hong Kong test of specific learning difficulties in reading and writing, and the Test of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor) - Revised, 99 children aged between 6 and 10½ years were identified as children with dyslexia out of the normative sample of 690 children. By excluding 12 children known to score below average in IQ, 87 children, including 20 children not tested for IQ, could be regarded as children with dyslexia, yielding a prevalence rate of 12.6% and a boy:girl gender ratio of 1.6 to 1. The figures would become 9.7% and 2.0 to 1 if the 20 children were omitted from computation. However, gender imbalance could not be readily explained by gender differences in reading-related cognitive abilities, as there were only minor and subtle differences. Regression analyses to evaluate the relative contribution of different cognitive abilities to reading and writing suggested that orthographic knowledge and naming speed were most important among children with dyslexia. Implications of the findings and the need for early intervention are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690601068535]