Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to families around the world. The prolonged school closures in Hong Kong have forced young students to stay at home and adapt to remote learning for over a year, putting their mental health conditions at risk. Focusing on primary school students and their parents, the main objective of our research is to investigate the socioemotional factors and their associations with mental health conditions. Methods: A total of 700 Hong Kong primary schoolers (mean age = 8.2) reported their emotional experiences, loneliness, and academic self-concept via a user-friendly online survey; 537 parents reported depression and anxiety, perceived child depression and anxiety, and social support. Responses from students and parents were paired to account for the family context. Structural Equation Modeling was used for correlations and regressions. Results: The results of students’ responses showed that positive emotional experiences were negatively associated with loneliness and positively related to academic self-concept among students. Furthermore, the paired sample results showed that, during the one-year societal lockdown and remote learning period, the socioemotional factors were associated with mental health conditions among primary school students and their parents. Among our family sample in Hong Kong, evidence supports the unique negative association between students-reported positive emotional experiences and parents-reported child depression and anxiety, as well as between social support and parents’ depression and anxiety. Conclusions: These findings highlighted the associations between socioemotional factors and mental health among young primary schoolers during the societal lockdown. We thus call for more attention to the societal lockdown and remote learning context, especially since the social distancing practice could be “the new normal” for our society to handle the future pandemic crisis. Copyright © 2023 The Author

This study evaluated a conceptual model with which to explore the influence of parental financial socialization in a sample of Hong Kong adolescent students and to evaluate how school financial education impacted the model's results. Baseline data, collected before the financial intervention, revealed that parental financial socialization positively influenced adolescent financial behaviors as mediated by financial learning outcomes and psychological transformation, in sequence. Model results based on follow-up tests suggested that the positive link between parental financial norms and adolescents’ financial attitudes was stronger in the experimental group than in the control (no financial intervention) group, but the positive link between direct parental teaching and self-control in financial behaviors was weaker in the experimental group compared to that in the control group. Neither differential direct pathways linking financial learning outcomes to financial behaviors nor differential indirect pathways mediated by psychological transformation were identified. These findings improve the understanding of parental financial socialization in the context of school education. The results produce multiple research questions to be considered in future studies. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Growing evidence indicates that early exposure to music and movement (M&M) positively impacts young children’s self-regulation. However, little attention has been paid to what kindergarten teachers know and believe about the relationship between M&M and self-regulation, and even less to how teachers’ background in M&M relates to their knowledge and beliefs. This study investigates these topics using survey data from 306 Hong Kong kindergarten classroom teachers. Descriptive, correlation, and independent sample t-tests were conducted. Most teachers believed they possessed a high level of understanding on the topic, particularly those with M&M background. These participants held stronger beliefs that M&M fosters children’s self-regulation, specifically motor-coordination skills, impulse control, and emotional management. We conclude that kindergarten teachers’ knowledge of, and beliefs in the role of M&M to support children’s self-regulation are influenced by their own M&M background. Indeed, the more M&M activities teachers have been exposed to, the deeper their understandings on how M&M contributes to children’s self-regulatory skills. The main implication is the need to further expose kindergarten teachers to M&M learning experiences, be it formally or informally. Copyright © 2023 Authors.

This study addresses the link between overeducation and intention to migrate to the Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities in mainland China in a sample of Hong Kong’s young adults employed in lower occupational classes (elementary occupations, plant and machine operators and assemblers, craft and related workers, and service and sales workers). The results indicate that overeducation has a unique negative effect on attitudes towards migration to GBA. The findings suggest that social capital theory rather than human capital theory is better able to explain the motivation of Hong Kong’s young people to invest in higher education. This research may help policy makers review the expansion of higher education in Hong Kong and provide valuable policy implications for regional integration between Hong Kong and mainland China. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Financial capability is an important competence for adolescents, and secondary school is a natural setting in which to deliver financial education courses. Currently, however, little empirical evidence has been published on the effects of in-school financial education on financial capability in adolescents. This pilot study brought together a randomized experimental design, a combination of local and non-local financial education courses, comprehensive measurements, and multi-level structural equation modeling for data analysis to evaluate the outcomes of a financial education project in a representative sample of Hong Kong adolescents. Results demonstrated that our financial intervention made a positive impact on objective financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy but a negative one on financial behaviors. Positive effects on financial self-efficacy were stronger in male adolescents than in females. Our findings represent an important contribution to the literature regarding financial education at the secondary school level. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature B.V.

The mismatch between financial objective and subjective knowledge that occurs in youth and adolescents has been understudied in the literature. Based on objective and subjective financial literacy scores, this study categorizes financial literacy into four types: financial literacy overconfidence, underconfidence, competence, and naïvete in a sample of adolescents. Data were collected from 330 students aged around 15 years old in six middle schools in Hong Kong. The results indicate that adolescents who are overconfident about their financial literacy are more likely to engage in risky financial behavior and report higher levels of financial autonomy. A randomized experimental trial was conducted to assess whether financial education could change the mismatch between financial objective and subjective knowledge. The results show a significant increase in underconfidence after the financial education intervention, but no significant change in the other three categories. The findings highlight the same type of financial literacy overconfidence in both adolescents and adults and has implications for financial counselors and educators who would improve the financial engagement of adolescents. Copyright © 2021 Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, U.S.A.

This study explores the impacts of popular music education in classroom practices from different aspects such as learning by ear, motivation, musicianship, peer learning and creativity. The Sing by Ear approach was created based on the concepts of informal learning in singing a cappella. A total of 323 participants aged 11–14 were invited to participate in the 3-month project. Students learnt to sing cover songs by ear in an a cappella setting instead of reading music notations. The result from the case studies showed that students gained positive experiences in musicianship, peer-learning and peer-teaching, confidence and satisfaction, and creativity following the project. A pedagogical model was proposed based on the literature and findings in the study to inform the research and practice in popular music education for teachers and researchers. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study aims to compare auditory temporal processing and phonological processing across locations and age levels and to test the direct and indirect effects of auditory temporal and phonological processing on proficiency in Chinese character reading. We recruited 108 typically developing children — 25 and 24 kindergarteners from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively, and 34 and 25 primary school students from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. Our findings showed that, before learning PCS, the languages’ phonological complexity did not affect the importance of ATP in Chinese reading. Also, we found the use of PCS could lead to a direct effect from students’ ATP to Chinese character reading as well as through phonological awareness. Our findings indicated that ways of learning to read influence children’s patterns of cognitive and linguistic abilities, which should be considered in teaching designs for reading. Copyright © 2023 Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje.

Natural language generation (NLG) is a process within artificial intelligence where computer systems produce human-comprehensible language texts from information. English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ use of NLG tools might facilitate their idea generation, which is fundamental to creative writing. However, little is known about how EFL students interact with NLG tools to generate ideas. This study explores strategies adopted by EFL students when searching for ideas using NLG tools, evaluating ideas generated by NLG tools and selecting NLG tools for idea generation. Four Hong Kong secondary school students attended workshops where they learned to write stories comprising their own words and words generated by NLG tools. After the workshops, they answered questions to reflect on their writing experience with NLG tools. In a thematic analysis of the written reflections, we found students may have existing ideas when searching for ideas and evaluating ideas with NLG tools. Students showed some aversion to ideas generated by NLG tools and selected NLG tools that generated a greater quantity of ideas. The findings inform our understanding of EFL students’ concerns when using NLG tools for idea generation and can inform educators’ instruction to implement NLG tools for classroom creative writing. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

The outbreak of Covid-19 has posed serious challenges to schools and teachers as it forced schools to close and traditional face-to-face teaching was suspended. How did Hong Kong geography teachers respond to these challenges in the first nine months of the outbreak? How did they adapt to the social distancing measures such as school closure? Why did they adapt in the way they did? The researchers interviewed 18 teachers with different lengths of teaching experiences and teaching students of different academic abilities to answer these questions. It was found that even though there were few specific suggestions from the Government and their schools, the teachers interviewed, as a whole, have taken self-initiated steps to adapt teaching strategies and proactively try various means to help their students continue to learn under the constraints of the Pandemic. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.