Bullying is a common aggressive behanviour and a hidden issue in special schools. Maladaptive family backgrounds breed bullies and victims. The characteristics and myths of bullying are discussed. A multi-level approach of school intervention is suggested. Local research on this area is desperately required. Copyright by Special Education Society of Hong Kong Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Hong Kong universities offer counselling services for students, but students often do not actively seek such services when they need them. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the relationship between attribution styles, attitude and other factors that may affect university students’ use of counselling services. The study involved 292 student participants from Hong Kong. Overall, 279 students participated in the quantitative study, and 13 in the qualitative study. For the quantitative study, 56 participants (22 males; 34 females) were from University A and 223 (67 males; 156 females) were from University B. For the qualitative study, one participant (one female) was from University A and 12 participants (three males; nine females) was from University B. The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) were used in the quantitative part of the current study. The ASQ was used to measure the attribution style of participants in three causal dimensions, including ‘Internality’, ‘Stability’ and ‘Globality’, and the IASMHS was used to measure the participants’ attitudes towards counselling help in three ways: ‘psychological openness’, ‘help-seeking propensity’ and ‘indifference to stigma’. Results from the quantitative study showed that girls had higher ‘indifference stigma’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than boys. Participants who had previously sought counselling help showed higher ‘psychological openness’ in their attitudes towards counselling help than those who did not. Moreover, the students’ study majors and religious beliefs were significant predictors for ‘psychological openness’ in multiple regressions. Participants’ responses in the qualitative study were systematically analysed under three main themes, including ‘Problems faced by university students’, ‘Self and others’ past experiences in seeking counselling help’ and ‘Students’ attitudes and perception

This paper reveals the complex diversity that underpins ostensibly similar transnational education programmes (TNE), through a comparison of UK TNE in Malaysia and Hong Kong. It draws on data from two different yet cognate studies on the role of UK universities in delivering higher education in Asia. Some fine-grained and informative differences between the ways in which 'value' in TNE is constructed in different host contexts is revealed. The paper brings to light the 'voices' of TNE students and graduates, which are very seldom heard. The arguments adapt and extend the concepts of education as a positional good, and as cultural capital. For various instrumental, intrinsic and personal reasons the authors discuss in detail, UK TNE is more highly valued in Malaysia than in Hong Kong. The paper makes a wider contribution to knowledge on the changing landscape of international higher education and the impact on social and personal (dis)advantage.
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Aim: Although the reasons behind the stigmatization of psychosis are manifold, poor mental health literacy among the general public is likely to be a major factor. In Hong Kong, the Early Psychosis Foundation (EPISO) was established in 2007 to tackle this issue by providing educational and mental health promotional activities, among other aims and services. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based interventional programme, the School Tour, developed by EPISO.; Methods: The School Tour differentiates itself from other interventional programmes by supplementing a traditional psychoeducational talk with 2 additional elements: an engaging drama performance and exercise demonstrations. Twelve secondary schools, with a total of 4520 students, participated in the study. Knowledge and attitudes towards psychosis were evaluated before and after the school programme.; Results: The School Tour was found to improve both students' knowledge of psychosis (P < .001) and their attitude (P < .001) towards the illness.; Conclusions: Its effectiveness in reducing the stigma towards psychosis validates the use of novel strategies like drama performances to engage adolescent students, and urges the government to support increased student participation in the programme by providing funding to the relevant organizations.
[Copyright of Early Intervention In Psychiatry is the property of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia.]

This paper explores the influence of friendship in mainland Chinese (MC) students’ adaptation to studying in Hong Kong. The number of MC students in Hong Kong has amounted to 18,887 in 2016, which makes it necessary for universities to cater for these students’ adaptation. Research has identified social-cultural differences between MC students and their local peers despite shared traditional Chinese cultural root. Existing studies have shown that international students can adapt to the new culture better and be more confident by making cross-cultural friends. Previous research has mainly focused on MC students’ difficulties in their adaptation, but how friendship influences their adaptation is still under-researched. This paper addresses the research questions: (1) What strategies do mainland students adopt to establish friendships during their study in Hong Kong? (2) What are the facilitating and hindering factors for mainland students to establish friendship? (3) How can friendship help mainland students adapt to their study and life in Hong Kong? A total of 24 MC university students studying in Hong Kong were interviewed. Thematic analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings show that friendship plays an important role in MC students’ adaptation to studying in Hong Kong, especially regarding daily life routines, such as how to deal with visa issues and navigate the university’s course selection system. MC students build friendships mainly through taking part in social and academic learning activities. Nonetheless, political-social conflicts between Hong Kong and Mainland China have, to a certain extent, hindered friendship establishment between MC and local students. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

本研究以行動研究探討正向行為支持的模式對自閉症譜系學生之影響,研究對象為一位被確診為自閉症譜系的小三學生,研究者發現學生表達情緒的方法,對課堂及其本身都造成困擾。研究者利用正向行為管理策略製訂個別行為奬勵計劃,並於本年度試行。研究者透過觀察、訪談等方式來蒐集資料,並在研究過程中調整計劃的細節。研究發現:(1)正向行為管理策略有助強化學生的正面行為;(2)學生能遵守課堂規則,自我形象亦提升了;(3)研究者重新肯定「奬勵計劃」對處理具行為及情緒問題學生的功用。綜合本研究之結果,提出反思與建議,以供教師及日後相關研究參考。This action research was conducted to discuss the effectiveness of positive behavior support on a student with ASD. The subject of the research is a P.3 student with ASD. According to the observation of the student’s behaviors and how the student expressed his negative emotions, student showed a lack of intention to learn and was failed to express his emotions properly. A positive behavior support plan was set and was taken place in 2016-17. Data was collected through the record of behaviors, meetings of reflections and interviews. The research findings are as followed: (1) Positive behavior support strategies can strengthen the student’s positive behavior. (2) After detailed discussion and explanation, the student behaved well in most of the time. (3) Researcher’s reception to the token scheme was turned about, the effectiveness of token scheme was reaffirmed. Based on the result of the study, some suggestions and reflections were made for teachers and future studies.
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This small-scale exploratory study investigated Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of bullying in school, and the difficulties they meet when implementing interventions to prevent or reduce bullying. Five primary school teachers from government-aided schools, private schools,and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools in Hong Kong were interviewed. The findings suggest that they are aware of various approaches to controlling bullying, and some use a mixed approach. A few of them use proactive approaches on the basis that ‘prevention is always better than an attempted cure’. Others tend to use reactive approaches that only respond to incidents of bullying when they occur. Most teachers mentioned that whole-school interventions had been implemented in their place of work,yet these interventions were different among different schools. The difficulties teachers had in tackling bullying effectively included time constraints, lack of expertise in behavioural management, the need of providing family education, difficulty in arranging a schedule for whole-school intervention, and problems in developing a specific intervention for individual cases. The findings reinforce a view that different parties need to put more effort in helping teachers develop effective bullying interventions. 這小型探索性研究目的是探討香港小學教師對校園欺凌的看法與其介入事件時所面對的困難。研究訪問了五位來自政府津貼學校、私立學校和直接資助學校的小學教師。結果指出,他們意識到處理欺凌事件的不同方法,部分教師會同時採取多種方法去處理。就大方向而言,有部分教師相信「預防勝於治療」,他們會採取積極的行動去管制校園欺凌;其他教師會「以不變應萬變」,以較為保守的態度應對。多數教師表示其任教的小學有實行全校性的干預措施,但由於學校的校情不盡相同,所以實行方法也有差別。此外,時間限制、缺乏行為管理專業知識、家長配合、學校支援,及欺凌事件的獨特性,都是教師在有效處理校園欺凌問題所面對的重重難關。總括而言,研究結果肯定了教師在介入欺凌事件方面,需要其他持分者更多的協助。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Journal of Special Education is the property of Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
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This study explores school-related issues that cause worry and concern for 590 students, aged 11 to 17, in a typical secondary school in Hong Kong. A 36-item questionnaire in Chinese language was used to probe the extent to which the students worried about apecific matters related to studies, examinations, homework, learning English as a second language, peer-group friendships, teacher-student relationships, and the learning environment in the school. Results indicated that in general both male and female students shared fairly similar concerns, and they worried most about aspects of study and examinations. Males and females also expressed some degree of concern over aspects of homework and learning English as a second language. In general, fewer worries were related to friendship issues, teacher-student relationship, and the learning environment. Our analyses identified a few statistically significant gender differences, and differences related to age and the achievement level of the students.The findings are discussed against the background of literature from over fifty years of research into children's worries, and also in the context of the implementation of comprehensive counselling and guidance programs in the case school. 本研究對香港一間典型中學的 590名年齡界乎11至17歲的學生進行訪問，探討他們有關學校事務的擔憂及關注。本研究採用了一份中文問卷，其中共有36個項目，旨在調查受訪學生對一些特定事情的擔憂程度，包括學習、考試、家課、學習英語作為第二語言、同輩友誼、師生關係和校內學習環境。調查結果顯示男學生和女學生都有相似的關注事項，他們最擔心的是學習和考試；對家課和學習英語作為第二語言亦表示有一些擔心。一般而言，只有少部分學生表示擔心同輩友誼、師生關係和校內學習環境。最後，本研究的結果與過去五十年的文獻資料作討論和比較，當中包括個案學校的全方位輔導計劃的執行情況。
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