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.     

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.     

家庭策略视角下的香港-内地跨境家庭维系——基于香港内地移民的实证研究

基于对香港内地移民的实地调查,文章运用定性研究方法首先分析了两地间跨境家庭的形成;其次考察了跨境家庭在维系过程中体现出来的能动性：最后指出跨境家庭作为一种社会现象在近几十年还将继续存在。     

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。     

Family Life Quality and Emotional Quality of Life in Chinese Adolescents with and Without Economic Disadvantage

Chinese secondary school students (N = 2758) responded to measures of perceived family life quality (parenting quality and parent–child relational quality) and emotional quality of life (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). Parenting quality included different aspects of parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline and demandingness as well as parental control defined in terms of indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, and parental responsiveness whereas parent–child relational quality included satisfaction with parental control, child’s readiness to communicate with the parents, parental trust of the child, and child’s trust of the parent. Results showed that parenting quality and parent–child relational quality in poor families were generally poorer than those of non-poor families and the differences were more pronounced in paternal parenting quality and father–child relational quality than in maternal parenting quality and mother–child relational quality. Emotional quality of life of adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage was also found to be poorer than that of adolescents not experiencing economic disadvantage. The present findings replicate the previous research findings in the literature and generate a pioneering dataset based on Chinese adolescents at Secondary 2 level in Hong Kong.     

Material Deprivation and Working Poor in Hong Kong

In-work poverty is a growing problem in many developed economies. In Hong Kong, there were 200,700 working poor households in 2016, and approximately half of the total poor population in Hong Kong was living in those working poor households. A growing body of literature has examined the problem of the working poor, but most studies have used relative income as a measure of poverty. In this paper, we adopt the material deprivation approach for assessing the poverty situation of in-work poverty households in Hong Kong. We have interviewed 3565 workers in Hong Kong during a survey conduct in 2016. We compare the results of the material deprivation approach with those of the income poverty approach and evaluate the adequacy of the official income poverty line in gauging the situation of in-work poverty. Our findings reinforce existing studies indicating that deprivation offers an important complement to the income poverty line in poverty analysis. Our results show that there is a moderate overlap between workers identified as poor by the deprivation approach and by the income poverty line. And these two groups of workers have very different profiles. The results provide important policy implications for alleviating poverty among the working poor in Hong Kong.

     

Economic disadvantage,perceived family life quality,and emotional well-being in Chinese adolescents: A longitudinal study

Over three consecutive years, Chinese secondary school students experiencing and not experiencing economic disadvantage (n = 280 and 2,187, respectively) responded to measures of perceived family life quality (parenting attributes and parent-child relational quality) and emotional well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). While participants experiencing economic disadvantage generally had more negative perceptions of parenting quality and parent-child relational quality than did adolescents not experiencing economic disadvantage, the differences were more pronounced for the father-adolescent dyad than for the mother-adolescent dyad. Emotional well-being was also different in adolescents with and without economic disadvantage. Although adolescents experiencing different intensity of economic disadvantage differed on some paternal parenting processes, no related differences were observed for other measures of family life quality and emotional well-being. The present study fills the research gap pertinent to the relationship between economic disadvantage and family as well as emotional quality of life in early adolescence in the Chinese culture. This work was financially supported by the Research Grants Council of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong (Grant CUHK4293/03H) and Wofoo Foundation. The author wishes to thank Britta Lee and Joyce Chow for their assistance in collecting the data.     

农村计划生育家庭分享控制人口取得成果的政策研究

在我国取得的社会发展巨大成果中 ,凝结了农村计划生育家庭做出的重大贡献 ,他们为此也牺牲了一定的个人利益。他们理应受到全社会的尊重并在分享社会发展成果中得到政策的优惠。本文认为对他们的奖励和扶助制度应从孩子出生到他们进入老年期 ,包括医疗卫生、教育、就业、生产、生活和社会保障等各个方面。对他们帮助和扶助的重点放在独生子女户和双女户的能力提高上 ,增强他们的家庭养老和自我养老能力。使他们能充分分享社会发展成果 ,不会沦入边缘化和贫困化。     

我国城市贫困家庭的灾难性卫生支出研究

本文用社会分层、社会风险理论探讨了灾难性卫生支出新的测量方法,通过对四城市800户属于当地贫困人口医疗救助制度救助对象的家庭进行问卷调查,了解他们的医药费用负担情况,从中发现卫生支出加深了调研家庭的贫困程度。多元回归表明影响灾难性卫生支出发生的因素有医疗保障、家庭收入、人口、家庭健康状况及是否有成员住院。在调研结果的基础上,对如何通过完善医疗救助减少灾难性卫生支出提出了政策建议。     

Parents’ Religious Involvement,Family Socialization and Development of Their Children in a Chinese Sample of Hong Kong

The present study investigates the effects of parents’ religious involvement on their psychological health, family functioning and development of their children from a Chinese sample of parent–child pairs in Hong Kong. Results support the beneficial effects of religious involvement on effective parenting and favorable outcomes of their children, which have been well reported in western studies. Besides, this investigation finds that (1) parental psychological health is a mediator between their religious involvement and positive family processes; (2) family processes is an important family socialization factor with spill-over effects into the function of parenting; (3) different family socialization factors have different effects on child outcomes; (4) parental positive religious coping is a function of their intrinsic religiosity; and (5) both parental religious coping and their intrinsic religiosity have a protective effect on parental psychological difficulties, with the former having robust direct effects on positive family processes and effective parenting, and (6) both intrinsic religiosity and positive religious coping in parents show significant total indirect effects on respective child outcomes through parental psychological and family socialization factors. Implications and directions for further study are also discussed.     

Public Policies that Help Foster Social Inclusion

Public policies can be effective in raising people’s social inclusion as intended only reasonably through their implementation. With respect to the implementation perspective, this study examines the effectiveness of eight policies as perceived to implement in Hong Kong, China. The study employs data collected from 1,109 Chinese adults randomly sampled in a telephone survey. Results showed that perceived implementation of three of the policies, concerning elderly healthcare, civic education policy, and social enterprise, induced significant positive effects on social inclusion that the adult experienced. These effects represent externalities created by the policies, such that the policies are helpful to people other than those targeted. Furthermore, the study identified some background conditions, such as certain target and disadvantaged groups, for enhancing the effectiveness of the policy implementation.     

Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis

This paper empirically examines the disparities over time across six dimensions of poverty (monetary, education, health, housing, basic services, and durable assets) between ethnic minority and majority households in rural Vietnam. Using the five-wave panel data of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) 2008–2016, we observe improvements in most non-monetary dimensions of poverty for both ethnic groups, while the monetary dimension shows the highest degrees of deprivation and the lowest rate of decrease during the studied period. Health is the only dimension in which ethnic minority households are not only better off than those of majority households during the studied period, but also report improvement. We further explore the role of social capital in ethnic minorities and non-minorities at household and community levels in multiple dimensions of poverty by employing multilevel models. Our study reports the significant effects social capital have at the community level on reducing poverty in the monetary, education, housing, and basic services dimensions for ethnic minorities, while social capital at the household level shows significant effects on monetary, basic services, and durable assets. These findings indicate that policy makers ought to consider the role of social capital when designing poverty alleviation strategies for the country.

     

Women and retirement planning: towards the "feminization of poverty" in an aging Hong Kong

Hong Kong's population is aging but retirement research is largely missing from the research agenda in Hong Kong. This study, based on a telephone survey of 1,078 respondents, examines middle-aged adult's retirement planning activities in Hong Kong. The findings show men are more likely to be involved in financial planning, while women are more likely to take part in some forms of health, living arrangement and psychological planning for retirement. Further, there are age, education and income differences in the various forms of retirement planning activities within genders. Women are living longer; because of their lack of financial retirement planning, they are prime candidates for poverty. The discussion concludes with policy implications related to assisting midlife individuals, in particular women, in planning for retirement.     

农村劳动力流动对缓解贫困的实证分析

本文利用对甘肃省国家扶贫开发重点县六个样本村的调查资料。在总结贫困地区致贫基本原因的基础上,运用Probit模型,研究了劳动力流动及其相关因素对缓解农村贫困的作用。研究结果表明,家庭劳动力数量、外出劳动力数量、流动者年龄及受教育程度、流动时间的长短、流动的稳定性、流动区域等因素对缓解家庭贫困具有十分积极的作用,外出打工已成为农村缓解贫困的主要途径。     

Women and Retirement Planning: Towards the “Feminization of Poverty” in an Aging Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Hong Kong's population is aging but retirement research is largely missing from the research agenda in Hong Kong. This study, based on a telephone survey of 1,078 respondents, examines middle-aged adult's retirement planning activities in Hong Kong. The findings show men are more likely to be involved in financial planning, while women are more likely to take part in some forms of health, living arrangement and psychological planning for retirement. Further, there are age, education and income differences in the various forms of retirement planning activities within genders. Women are living longer; because of their lack of financial retirement planning, they are prime candidates for poverty. The discussion concludes with policy implications related to assisting midlife individuals, in particular women, in planning for retirement.     

农村计划生育贫困家庭状况调查分析

调查显示,在一系列社会保障条件还相对缺位的现实下,广大农村地区实行计划生育行为主体的家庭．也为此承受了一定的风险及其代价,他们的生存状况不客乐观,部分家庭的生活成本加大,发展潜能减弱,进而导致相对贫困,乃至绝对贫困。这需要全面审视计划生育政策实施效果,建立配套的奖励、扶持和补偿机制．构建与之相适应的社会保障体系,维持人口和计划生育政策以及家庭的可持续发展。     

A comment on ‘social and economic factors in Hong Kong's fertility decline’ by Sui-Ying Wat and R. W. Hodge

The recent article by Wat and Hodge appears to make incorrect inferences about the relation of certain social and economic indicators (infant mortality, employment opportunities for women, and education) to Hong Kong's fertility decline, based on a multiple regression of these variables to the crude birth rate of Hong Kong for 1951–1967. Such modernization measures probably have at least a long-run causal relation to fertility decline. It is also possible that the family planning programme ofHong Kong may have added little to the effects, as the authors suggest. However, I do not believe that their multiple regression analysis establishes these conclusions.     

Do We Think Children Need a Mom and Dad?: Understanding How Gender Ideology Impact Attitudes Toward Same-Gender Parent Family Rights

Research and opinion polls demonstrate that attitudes toward same-gender parent families have been improving in recent years among Western countries; however, the history of oppression toward, and misconceptions about, same-gender parent families continue to be demonstrated in Australian family rights policies. Common misconceptions include the belief that children need both male and female role models, and this could be influencing peoples’ support for same-gender family rights and having a wider impact on legislation change. Yet a dearth of research exists exploring a connection between gender role beliefs and support for same-gender family rights using a broad international sample, including Australia. To investigate this connection, a sample (N = 615) from 18 English-speaking countries responded to a series of questions to determine the importance of gender norm beliefs on same-gender family prejudice. Regression analysis demonstrated that people with traditional beliefs about gender norms were more likely to endorse a negative attitude toward same-gender marriage and same-gender parenting. Findings suggest a link between socially prescribed gender norms and prejudice toward same-gender parent families that may be fueling arguments against same-gender family rights policies. The implications of these findings on same-gender parent families and their rights require future investigation.