A two-wave longitudinal study on 470 parent–child dyads examined the impact of family mealtime environment, parenting style and family functioning on preschoolers' (three to six years old) learning. Measures included parent report on parenting style, family functioning, family meal frequency, mealtime television, feeding practice, teacher/parent report of academic competence and individual assessment of preschoolers' preschool concepts. Family mealtime environment variables were associated with pre-schoolers' learning, in addition to parenting style and family functioning, after controlling for family income and wave 1 preschoolers' learning. The results highlighted the importance of family mealtime environment on preschoolers' learning.
[Copyright © 2017 Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore, Singapore.]

This paper analyzes the development of social welfare, social work education, and the social work profession against the background of Hong Kong's socio-economic and political development before and after the historic 1997 transfer of sovereignty. The change from a British colonial regime to China's Special Administrative Region has not changed Hong Kong's welfare regime, which provides the context in which the social work profession and education developed. The welfare sector has been increasingly subject to managerialist control by the government. Marketization in higher education in general has resulted in the proliferation of social work education programs. On the other hand, social work education has ventured new directions of development to face up with the challenges of increasing globalization.
[Copyright © 2010 Marshall Cavendish Academic.]