In the 2011 Hong Kong population census, 26.4% of domestic households were in the poverty category, and one in every four children (26.4%) lived in low-income households. Children in low-income families face financial and material barriers, and these barriers leave them trapped in a cycle of disempowerment. The present study has invited 1,622 children aged three to six and 152 teachers in ten kindergartens in the top five child-poverty-rated districts in Hong Kong to participate in the study (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the culturally and developmentally appropriate Preschool Play Behavior Scale (PPBS) with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) model, (b) to assess social withdrawal in three subtypes – reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active and social play among preschoolers in low-income families, (c) to investigate gender difference in social withdrawal and social play, (d) to investigate age difference in social withdrawal and social play, and (e) to inform early childhood intervention to children in low-income families. The PPBS has adopted 18 items assessing five factors: reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active, rough play, and social play. The “back-translation” procedure – a commonly used procedure in the translation of cross-cultural research instruments – was adopted. Results indicated that the five-factor model of the PPBS statistically fits the results of the Hong Kong samples. Girls exhibited greater social competence (social play) less socially withdrawal behavior. Social play behavior increased with age, while social withdrawal decreased with age. Cultural contexts (emic consideration) on scale items were received attention in future research. Recommendations for cultural understandings on shyness, social withdrawal and social disinterest, and concurrent validation of the PIPPS (Hong Kong version) were made in the study.
[Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.]

Teachers' beliefs in human values significantly affect their interaction with students in effective classroom learning.! Whether a teacher has taken a humanistic approach or behavioral approach in the classroom is a curious question especially in a culturally mixed Hong Kong society. In response to this question, the researcher attempted to find out what the teachers believed in human values and how they practiced their beliefs in the classroom. As part of the major research,! this paper aimed to elaborate on the teachers' beliefs and practice during teacher pupil interaction and whether their] beliefs and practice were affected by the East and West educational philosophy. Education values and beliefs in whole child development underpin the aims of education in the 21st century. Literature! showed that a teacher's belief in humanistic approach in bringing out the holistic development of a child plays an important role in fulfilling the education ideology. The study of a group of 35 in-service primary school teachers in Hong Kong was launched in 1999/2000 regarding their teacher-pupil interaction. The research methods mainly included in-depth interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations. The research findings revealed that the participant teachers] practiced both humanistic and behavioral approaches, and the cultural perspective on humanistic or behavioral approach] was not prominent. Although a considerable number of them believed in the affective approach, they had technical] difficulties in the implementation owing to the constraint of time and resources. The research outcome implied that further] teacher development in affective education is essential to facilitate student learning in the current educational change.

Play is a primary context for fostering young children's positive peer interactions. Through play, children develop the social, emotional, cognitive and language skills that contribute to the ability to establish effective relationships with peers. The Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS) was first developed by Fantuzzo to assess the quality of peer interactions among low-income preschoolers in the USA. The present study invited 1622 children aged three to six and 152 teachers in 10 kindergartens in districts with high child poverty rates in Hong Kong to participate in the study (a) to validate the psychometric properties of a culturally, developmentally and linguistically appropriate version of the PIPPS using confirmatory factor analysis, (b) to investigate gender and (c) age differences in peer play, and (d) to inform early childhood intervention for children in low-income families. Translation and back-translation - a commonly used procedure in the translation of cross-cultural research instruments - was adopted. Results indicated that the three-factor model of the PIPPS (play interaction, play disruption and play disconnection) statistically fit the results in the Hong Kong sample. Girls exhibited greater play interaction and less play disruption and play disconnection. Peer interactive play behaviour increased with age. The cultural and linguistic contexts of scale development should receive attention in future research. Recommendations are made regarding lexical access in non-alphabetical language systems like Chinese; cultural understandings of shyness, withdrawal and social disinterest as they relate to the interpretation of play behaviour; and establishing the concurrent validity of the Hong Kong version of the PIPPS.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.773990]