Despite its continuing rise, homeschooling in Hong Kong and many other Chinese cities is under-studied in academic research, underrepresented in society, invisible in public policy, and even marginalized within parent communities. Unlike many cases in Western societies, homeschooling in Hong Kong appears to be largely a ‘middle-class phenomenon’—better-off Chinese parents in Hong Kong can draw on their resources and navigate opportunities in the existing legal framework so that homeschooling is a viable option for their children’s education. Putting this phenomenon into a wider context of stratification and inequality, alternative middle-class choice and practice that ‘opt out’ of a traditional school system to homeschool their children problematizes our common sense understanding of middle-class trajectories. For instance, would these middle-class parents fear any loss of educational privilege that they would otherwise have in a traditional school system? Or, conversely, would these parents think that homeschooling is ideally suited for their children, who, in turn, may gain even more ‘home advantage’ over their schooled peers? Or would these parents pursue alternative forms of aspiration and privilege for their children? With these questions in mind, this study explores how Chinese homeschooling parents perceive and make sense of their homeschooling choice, with emphasis on the relation to social class. Data were drawn from in-depth interviews with 15 homeschooling families in Hong Kong. We will discuss the preliminary findings of this study and the theoretical implications for how Chinese homeschooling phenomenon constitutes the analytical leverage for theorizing a relatively unexplored area of middle-class reproduction processes. Copyright © 2022 British Sociological Association.

Over the past decades, growing attention has been paid to how the home and school environment contributes to early mathematical development. Nevertheless, many studies focused on the nature and frequency of the learning activities. The potential influences of parent-child and teacher-child relationships are still underexplored. In view that parents and teachers play vital roles in early language development, and language and mathematical skills are interrelated, we investigated: (1) whether different aspects of parent-child and teacher-child relationships were related to very young children’s mathematical abilities; and (2) whether these relations, if any, were mediated by children’s receptive vocabulary. To achieve our study aims, 124 children were recruited from pre-nursery classes in Hong Kong and were administered vocabulary and mathematical tests. Their parents and class teachers also completed a questionnaire relating to their relationships with the children. Results of path analysis showed that after controlling for children’s age, parent-child closeness, parent-child conflict and teacher-child closeness were associated with children’s mathematical abilities through their receptive vocabulary. There were also direct links from parent-child closeness and teacher-child closeness to children’s mathematical abilities. Teacher-child conflict was neither correlated with children’s receptive vocabulary nor mathematical abilities. Our findings suggest that it is important to provide support to parents and teachers on how to build up close and affectionate relationships with very young children. In particular, they should be coached on how to have quality verbal interactions with children, as it may benefit not only children’s early language development, but also their early mathematical development. Copyright © 2021 HKERA-APERA International Conference.

Research Findings: This study examined whether physical coercion and psychological control by mothers and fathers can influence preschoolers’ use of physical and relational aggression, and whether the relations are moderated by children’s effortful control in a Hong Kong Chinese sample. Data were collected from a sample of 168 children (88 girls; M = 60.97 months, SD = 5.51 months) and their parents twice, six months apart. At Time 1, mothers and fathers reported on their spouse’s, as well as their own use of physical coercion and psychological control, and a puzzle box task was administered to assess child effortful control. At Time 2, mothers, fathers, and teachers completed questionnaires to assess child physical and relational aggression. Results show that mothers’ physical coercion was associated with child physical and relational aggression. In contrast, fathers’ physical coercion was significantly related to child physical aggression but its relation with child relational aggression was not statistically significant, and both these two associations were moderated by effortful control. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that general intervention efforts are needed to prevent aggression among children of physically coercive parents, and particularly among children with low effortful control and physically coercive fathers. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This edited book highlights the identities and practices of ethnically diverse families and schools in contexts where multicultural policies are not always a priority. In an era of globalization and ensuing population mobility, it places a focus on Asia-Pacific, a continent with diverse customs, populations, and languages, but grapples with what it might mean to be multicultural.The book features studies and frameworks that illustrate how minoritized communities engage with the diversity they live in and strategies in adjusting and adapting to their sociocultural environments, including practices that might support these efforts. This book represents initiatives and interdisciplinary scholarship from Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, which underscore the intersection of identities, cultural values, efforts, conflicts, and religions in making diversity work in their contexts. Collectively, these works make a unique contribution by invigorating debates on the flows and evolvement of cultural values and practices within and across families and institutions.This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners, and readers with interest in the current state of cultural diversity among minoritized families in Asia-Pacific and beyond. Copyright © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Jan Gube, Fang Gao and Miron Bhowmik; individual chapters, the contributors.

In the face of COVID-19, many schools have to educate their students using online activities. During this time, whether and how parents are involved may be of particular importance for young children—who are less able to learn independently via the Internet due to their developmental immaturity. Therefore, this study examined the cross-sectional association of maternal involvement in child online learning with child adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic and tested maternal mindfulness as a moderator. Data were collected from 236 mothers of kindergarten-aged children (mean age = 55.91 months; 75% of them were girls) during the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong, China. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, mothers rated their involvement and mindfulness and their children’s pre-academic ability and internalizing and externalizing behaviors and provide demographic information. Regression models revealed that maternal involvement was associated positively with child pre-academic ability and negatively with child internalizing behaviors, but such associations were only significant for children with more mindful mothers. Maternal mindfulness did not moderate the negative association between maternal involvement and child externalizing behaviors. Findings highlighted the role of maternal mindfulness in child development, suggesting that it may be crucial to promote maternal involvement and mindfulness during the pandemic and perhaps beyond. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

Research Findings: This study explored the moderating effect of child competence in independent learning in relations between the amount of learning assignment, length of online learning, and parent satisfaction with children's online learning during COVID-19 imposed class suspension. The data came from an online survey conducted in Hong Kong in February 2020. The respondents were parents (N = 3381, 92.4% mothers) of primary school grades 1–6 students (Primary 1: 801, 24.1%; Primary 2: 739, 22.3%; Primary 3: 578, 17.4%; Primary 4: 547, 16.5%; Primary 5: 406, 12.2%; Primary 6: 250, 7.5%, 60 missing) who engaged in online learning during class suspension. The findings showed that both the length of online learning and the amount of assignments were related to parents' satisfaction, but these relations were qualified by the children's competence. Positive relations were found only among children who were rated as more competent in engaging in online learning independently. Practice or Policy: Together, the findings suggest that in designing online learning, consideration of children's ability to complete such learning independently will help increase parents' satisfaction. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

This study explored parents' views on kindergarten and primary school students' distance learning experience and support needed as well as the amount of time children spend on screen media at home during COVID-19 class suspension. Between February 19 and 22, 2020, three weeks after classes were suspended in Hong Kong, responses from 6,702 parents (93% mothers) of kindergarten students and primary school students were collected via an online survey. Research Findings: Three major findings emerged: (a) Most children encountered difficulties in completing distance learning tasks at home, with major difficulties being children's lack of learning interests and home environment related limitations. Most children were not able to complete the learning tasks independently; (b) More parents without online learning were dissatisfied with distance learning during class suspension than those with online learning. Parents wanted more interactive online learning to facilitate children's learning during class suspension and desired better learning support from schools, flexible work arrangements, and government subsidies; (c) There was a high usage of electronic devices without parental mediation during class suspension. Practice or Policy: Together, the findings have important policy and pedagogical implications for delivering a distance learning curriculum and working with families during class suspension. The findings also suggest the need for schools to work on a balance of types of learning during class suspension by introducing diversified on- and off-line activities as well as supporting parents in navigating children's screen time. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.