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 thesis explores the relationship between preschools and children's gender socialization in Hong Kong and Japan, focusing on three major enquiries: Firstly, I examine to what extent preschools influence the gender behavior of children; secondly, I am intrigued by how children's gender roles and behaviors are modeled by preschool organization, interaction between teachers and children as well as play among children themselves; my discussion is mainly based on Delamont's (1990) and Thome's (1993) two different approaches to the important role of school in gender socialization; lastly, I have investigated whether there are any similarities and differences in the gender socialization process in Hong Kong and Japan. The data come from ethnographic observations in four kindergartens (two in Hong Kong and two in Japan) and in-depth interviews conducted with 55 parents (24 from Hong Kong and 31 from Japan) and 28 teachers (12 in Hong Kong and 16 in Japan).
My argument is that kindergarten is a significant amplifier of gender socialization. Gender construction in the kindergartens observed was an ongoing, active and creative process that took place chiefly through interaction in group life, whereby children communicate and interact, challenge each other, and create new gender interpretations every day. Regarding the study of children's gender socialization in kindergartens, I found that Delamont neglected to note that teachers not only created gender separation but also were able to reduce children's gender differences, and I also partially agreed with her argument about the huge influence of school organization and of teachers' strategies and interaction on children's gender behavior. While my findings supported Thome's emphasis on the active creation of gender by children, I also want to highlight the fact that socialization is a mutual and interactive relationship. My data substantiated my argument that gender is also highly related to other factors such as age, friendship

The article describes the "Top-Teen Program" This is a short, intensive, residential program which aims to change the self image and improve the self confidence of underachieving and poorly motivated students - popularly known as "band-5" students. The program is based on known therapeutic theories - particularly Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It focuses on the areas of ego-identity, self-mastery and self-esteem. All participants are given relevant psychological tests before participating and again afterwards. Statistical analysis of the results has consistently shown a significant improvement in all three areas after participating in the program. The authors argue that this indicates that it is possible to "re-motivate" students who had previously considered themselves as useless drop-outs.
本文主要介紹「Top-Teen計劃」。「Top-Teen計劃」是一項短期密集式的住宿計劃，目的在於協助低成就及動力差的學生──「第五組別」學生 ，改善其自我形象及自信心。計劃的基礎來自治療性理論，特別是關注自我身份、自我管理力和自尊的「神經語言學」。所有參與者在參與計劃的前後都進行了心理測驗，統計結果一致顯示，完成計劃的參與者在上述三個範疇中的表現都有顯著的改善。因此，從前認為自己「無用」的輟學者，是有可能能被「從新推動」的。
[Copyright of Journal of Youth Studies is the property of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups at http://yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/]