移民控制、家庭策略：香港-内地跨境家庭研究

伴随香港内地经济社会联系的日益紧密,两地间的通婚越来越多。不协调的移民政策导致了香港一内地跨境家庭的形成,面对制度限制,跨境家庭采用各种家庭策略来维系家庭。文章运用定性研究方法对跨境家庭进行了研究。考察了跨境家庭的能动性。     

电子家庭——家庭的新模式

电子家庭是随着电子化和数字化的发展而逐渐出现并兴起的一种新型的家庭模式,技术革命、价值观的变化等导致了电子家庭的出现和兴起,也引起了我们对家庭的明天的探讨。     

家庭规模缩小对家庭经济保障能力的影响:苏南实例

本文通过实验设计方法 ,并利用苏南农村居民的数据资料 ,分析实证了在有收入积累的前提下 ,家庭规模缩小不仅不会弱化家庭保障能力 ,而且会强化家庭保障能力。不同规模家庭保障能力差别 ,随时间推移和在家庭生命周期的不同阶段具有波动性。家庭保障能力会因家庭规模的大小、消费和积累模式的差异和在家庭生命周期中的不同阶段而不同 ,并可能发生相互转换。     

基于平均家庭规模的家庭结构预测方法

家庭结构对政策制定和制度安排具有重要意义,现有家庭结构预测方法受到数据要求过高、预测参数过多的局限.本文提出的三参数家庭规模结构方程,只有一个随时间变化的参数,只需要预测平均家庭规模的变化趋势,就可以对家庭规模结构进行预测.模型整体检验显示,家庭规模结构方程的解释力在80%以上,模型的参数能够保持一致性.家庭规模结构方程具有良好的预测精度,绝对误差在0.02左右.利用中国公开的家庭规模结构数据对模型进行了运算,发现家庭规模结构方程是一种稳健、简约的家庭结构分析方法.     

关于中西家庭养老的比较思考

本文从家庭养老蕴涵的家庭养老模式与家庭养老方式两层涵义出发,深入地比较中西方在家庭养老模式与方式上的异同。并就目前我国家庭养老面临的诸多挑战,提出了两种新理念下的家庭养老方式,即分居型的家庭养老与以家庭为依托的居家型家庭养老。     

家庭变迁背景下的中国家庭政策

在人口转变和经济社会变迁的过程中,中国家庭规模不断缩小、家庭结构逐渐简化、传统家庭功能趋于弱化。这对维系社会正常运作的各项社会政策带来巨大冲击,并由此将家庭政策的完善与改革提上议程。尽管改革开放以来,中国的家庭政策在影响人口发展、提供家庭保障和促进性别平等等方面有所建树,但仍未脱离含蓄型和补缺型模式的囿限。文章认为,中国的家庭政策体系应实现向明确型和发展型转变。首先应创建专门的家庭政策机构,在此基础上明确将家庭整体作为基本的福利对象、以发展家庭能力为目标进行家庭投资、推进家庭政策的适度普惠性,并尽量避免其他政策安排与家庭政策的相互制约乃至冲突。     

单身家庭的现状和成因

本文分析了单身家庭的现状和成因,并对单身家庭作了评价。     

流动家庭的现状与特征分析

文章基于2011年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据,从家庭规模、代数、结构和居住安排等方面,描述了流动人口在流入地的家庭特征.结果表明,家庭规模为2.46人;平均1.54代人;家庭结构以核心家庭为主(占68.6％),单人家庭次之(占27.0％),主干家庭和其他家庭各占3.3％和1.1％;2/3的子女与流动父母同住.但是,全国的平均水平掩盖了较大的地区性差别:中部地区和跨县流动者的家庭规模最大、代数最多、家庭结构更复杂、子女更易与父母团聚,而在东部地区、长三角和珠三角经济带跨省流动者中,家庭规模最小、代数最少、结构最简单,团聚更不易.这些特点透视出,各地不同的经济社会发展程度对家庭团聚设置的门槛不同,同时也折射出流动人口的自选择性.     

家庭发展能力建设的政策路径分析

家庭是人类社会的基本单位,家庭功能的正常发挥是人类社会发展的重要前提之一。家庭发展能力是家庭凭借所获取的资源满足每一个家庭成员生活与发展需要的能力,主要包括支持、经济、学习、社会交往与风险应对等6个方面的能力,可以通过家庭内部建设与外部社会支持两个途径得以实现。但是,在家庭变迁加剧,家庭功能弱化、转化、外化与社会化的背景下,家庭需求与家庭功能的对应结构失衡、家庭功能供求的自我均衡机制失灵,家庭能力建设比以往更加依赖外部的支持。因此,应聚焦家庭核心功能与需求的变化,深入探讨我国居民家庭面临的困境,将家庭作为社会政策的基本对象,积极构建家庭友好型社会环境和制度支持,全面促进家庭发展能力的建设。     

流动人口家庭迁居的经济决策

文章在家庭"理性人"假设的基础上构建家庭迁居的经济决策模型,对家庭的迁居决策进行实证分析。研究发现,家庭通过对迁居的货币价值进行精确衡量,在不同生命周期阶段、不同的家庭结构类型的条件下,形成不同的迁居行为。在家庭实际迁居的过程中,为了维持家庭的抚养、赡养等功能,家庭的迁居策略可能并非最优化的经济决策。流动家庭会将部分社会成本进行内部消化,以减少流动行为对传统家庭功能的削弱。     

Investigating the differential mobility experiences of Chinese cross-border students

Recent migration studies have adopted the lens of mobility to examine the stratifying effects of border policies, but few investigate the differential mobility of migrant families and children. This paper aims to contribute to the migration literature by considering the interplay between border policies, family configurations, and differential mobility. We apply the lens of differential mobility to the experiences of Chinese cross-border pupils – young child migrants with Hong Kong permanent residency who reside in Shenzhen, China, and cross the border to attend school. We begin by describing shifts in Hong Kong’s border and immigration policies since 1997, which have created a typology of families differentiated by mixed status, citizenship rights, and mobility. We then turn to four case studies of students with unequal border-crossing experiences to elucidate how border control constrains or promotes family mobility and perpetuates inequalities.     

Trends in Child Poverty in Hong Kong Immigrant Families

In Hong Kong, child poverty is a serious social problem which may lead to intergenerational poverty, but nevertheless only a few studies have examined this issue, particularly for immigrant families. Using Census data (5 %) from 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011, we assessed child poverty rates in the past three decades and identified key variables contributing to changes in the risk of child poverty for both immigrant and local families. Our results indicate that child poverty rates in Hong Kong-born families have fluctuated between 14.3 and 15.8 % over the past three decades, while for immigrant families they have increased steadily and substantially from 18.1 % in 1981 to 36.5 % in 2001 and then to 37.5 % in 2011. We show that the increase in immigrant child poverty is associated with changes in the Hong Kong economy that have made it more difficult for such families to adapt to the host society, especially in the 1990s and that this negative effect offset the positive influence of compositional changes among this group of immigrant families in terms of parental education levels and family size. The gap between immigrant and local families in terms of child poverty risk is mainly due to the fact that during the 1990s the negative effect of contextual changes in Hong Kong was cancelled out by the beneficial impact of compositional changes for local families, but not for immigrant families where the latter effect was minimal.     

Hong Kong: The Family Planning Association continues its pioneering role

Vital population statistics for Hong Kong are mentioned. The 1st efforts at providing birth control services in Hong Kong began in 1936 with the Eugenics League. The League was reorganized and formed into the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPAHK) in 1950. The government began providing family planning services in 1974. Although there is no governmental incentive/disincentive policy, certain laws and practices do have the effect of encouraging population growth limitation. These are described. The FPAHK directs its efforts toward motivational activities. The Association is encouraging the concept of male responsibility for family planning. Personal visits to fisherfolk families have been instituted to combat their tendencies toward large families. Various separate activities of the government program and the FPAHK are discussed.     

Psychological Stress and Parenting Behavior Among Chinese Families: Findings from a Study on Parent Education for Economically Disadvantaged Families

With the recognition of the crucial role of family and with the belief that parents have the greatest influence on a child’s life, family and parent education has been widely practiced in Hong Kong and many other countries as measure for poverty alleviation. A study, employed quantitative method of a cross-sectional parent survey (N = 10,386) was conducted to comprehend needs and parenting practice of poor families, and to identify appropriate strategies to promote family and parent education in Hong Kong. Regression analysis was used to investigate the association between family variables, psychological stress and parenting behavior. The study identified five categories of disadvantaged families and salient factors that distinguished families from the normal population based on the findings of discriminant analysis. Moreover, data indicates that family relationship and social networks are protective factors to economically disadvantaged families, whereas sense of powerlessness amplifies the negative effects of low income. Base on the findings, the paper suggests that strategies for poverty alleviation that focus purely on parenting or parent education are fragmented and fail to address the complexity of poverty as a social issue. A holistic perspective that goes beyond the scope of parent education to support families, adopting a family perspective in poverty-alleviation work and service provision, and addressing barriers constrain parenting are the future service directions.     

Measuring Child Poverty in Hong Kong: Sensitivity to the Choice of Equivalence Scale

In September 2013, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region established Hong Kong’s first official poverty line. The new poverty line is used as a major yardstick in social welfare policy formulation and in the allocation of public resources aimed at combating poverty; despite its importance, however, its robustness has not been examined. Using data from the 2011 Population Census, we examined the robustness of the official poverty line in measuring child poverty in Hong Kong through assessing the sensitivity of child poverty measures to the choice of different equivalence scales. The results show that the child poverty profile in Hong Kong is generally not sensitive to the choice of equivalence scale and that the official poverty line correctly identifies those children who live in poverty. Rates of child poverty among boys and girls of different ages, with different family backgrounds and living in households with different compositions, were calculated and ranked using different equivalence scales; these rankings were found to be very similar to those yielded by the official poverty measure. Thus, the choice of adult equivalence scale does not favour any subgroup. We also examined the child poverty profile in Hong Kong based on the official poverty measure and with our 2011 census data. We found that the children in our sample were more likely than the adults to live in poverty household; that more than half of the children who lived in poverty belonged to working poor families; and that children living in public housing were particularly likely to suffer from severe poverty. In light of these findings, we urge the government to prioritise taking measures aimed at lifting children out of poverty.     

Familial Effect on Child Poverty in Hong Kong Immigrant Families

This study investigated how family context affect poverty disparities between young children of immigrants from the Mainland China and children of local families whose parents were born in Hong Kong using 2006 bicensus data. 12,609 and 12,753 children of immigrant and local families were included in our data analyses. We find higher child poverty rates in immigrant families than in local families. Moreover, we found that family structure (single-parent vs. 2-parent), assimilation (first vs. second generation children of immigrant families), and parental human capital characteristics are significantly associated with the child poverty risk. Surprisingly, the impact of immigrant status on child poverty rates is stronger in 2-parent households than in single-parent households while child poverty declines associated with increasing assimilation defined by generational status of children are greater in 2-parent immigrant families than the corresponding declines in single-parent immigrant families. The implications of our results in intergenerational poverty are discussed.     

Perceived Family Life Quality in Junior Secondary School Students in Hong Kong

The present longitudinal study examined perceived family functioning and related socio-demographic correlates from the perspective of adolescents in Hong Kong. Results showed that adolescent perceptions of family functioning based on different indicators gradually deteriorated over time. Regarding the socio-demographic correlates, (a) boys had more favourable perceived family functioning than did girls; (b) adolescents from non-intact families had poorer perceived family functioning than those from intact families; and (c) economically disadvantaged adolescents had poorer perceived family functioning than non-economically disadvantaged adolescents. Results also revealed that adolescents’ perceived family functioning was positively related to positive youth development. Analyses further indicated that perceived family functioning and positive youth development were concurrently and longitudinally related.     

Hong Kong: women's club movement expanding

2 more women's clubs have been opened by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong following the success of the 1st such club at Yue Taipo organized in September 1970. The 2nd club is located at the Hing Shing Temporary Housing Area in Kwai Chung and caters to new residents. The 3rd, established January 4, 1980, is located at the Fortune Street Temporary Housing Area in Cheung Sha Wan. The overall aim of these clubs is to give a boost to the quality of family life through organized educational and recreational facilities. Activities at both clubs were initiated by formal opening ceremonies presided over by representatives of the Housing Estates and Family Planning Association. Welcoming wellwishers at each ceremony, Mrs. Peggy Lam, Acting Director of the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong; drew attention to the important contribution made by family planning to the well being of families. It was through the wise planning of their families that parents were provided with ample time and energy for the upbringing of chilren, said Mrs. Lam. The activities of the women's clubs include instruction on traditional women's activities, and talks on sanitation, childrearing, interpersonal relations, nutrition, and permanent contraception. Mrs. Lam felt that the fact that 79% of married women of childbearing age in Hing Shing were practicing family planning was most encouraging.     

中越跨界通婚的类型与促成途径

鉴于在中越边境居民跨界通婚研究中田野方法所存在的局限性,笔者在进行个案调查的同时开展了一项较大范围的抽样调查。调查结果表明,中越跨界通婚在我国边境地区较为普遍,但不同地区的婚姻类型、促成途径均有显著差异。