Religion and civic engagement among America's youth

Scholars of civic engagement are noticing the consequences of religiosity. Scholars have seen the influence of religiosity on political and charitable behavior among adults. But does this pattern hold for adolescents? In this study, I use a new survey of American teenagers, the National Study of Youth and Religion, to assess the impact of intense religiosity on adolescent volunteerism and political activities. Evidence from multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that intense religiosity, measured in terms of behavior (frequent church attendance) and beliefs (theological conservatism) significantly increase the likelihood that teens will volunteer. However, adolescent political involvement is not related to religiosity.     

Relationships among the civic awareness,mobilization, and electoral participation of elderly people in Hong Kong

Given the significance of the elderly population in the burgeoning democratic politics of Hong Kong, research is necessary to elucidate the basis for elderly people’s electoral participation. Furthermore, questions regarding impacts of mobilization, and civic awareness on the participation are of important concern. In response to the questions, the present study is the first one surveying a representative sample of 831 Chinese elderly people (aged > 60) in Hong Kong. Using causal modeling techniques, it identified latent variables of civic awareness (including exposure to media on public affairs and political knowledge), electoral participation, and mobilization by politicians and estimated their relationships. Results showed that civic awareness had a strong effect on electoral participation and mobilization also had some significant effect. Electoral participation also appeared to be a function of the elderly person’s education, age, sex, community attachment, and membership in an elderly center. These findings suggest that Hong Kong elderly people’s electoral participation is subject to influence of power, both internally through civic awareness and education and externally through mobilization.     

Multicultural social work practice and South Asian migrants in Hong Kong

This paper explores how multicultural social work responds to the needs and structural issues faced by South Asian migrants in Hong Kong. Three working approaches, namely, the problem-solving approach, the strengths-based approach, and the rights-based approach are identified from our empirical data. The analyses demonstrate the generally insufficient awareness of the practice in critically addressing existing policies and power relations based on race. Moreover, there is a lack of critical reflection on the notion of culture and social workers’ ethnocentric biases. This paper argues that this insufficient awareness could lead to reinforcement of the existing social exclusion of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Using Hong Kong as an example, this paper reflects on the implications of applying Western-based literature and practice model in a non-Western society.     

Cumulative patterns of well-being among young social assistance recipients versus other youths

What are the levels of living conditions of young social assistance recipients compared to the youth population at large? This paper investigates living conditions among young social assistance recipients in Norway, compared to a similar age group within the total population. The overall distribution indicates a cumulative rather than compensatory pattern. Social assistance recipients trail behind the population at large across all indicators. They lag more behind the overall population with regard to cumulative levels-of-living scores than with regard to each and every indicator. This lends support to the notion that one should adopt an integrated approach in the treatment of youth living on social assistance, rather than focus on any single issue as “the” problem to assess.     

A comparative study of social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong

This article compares social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong. It finds that Macao delivers a higher level of social assistance benefits, whereas Hong Kong has a larger group of social assistance beneficiaries. The Hong Kong Government spends a larger amount on social assistance provision and imposes tougher controls on the recipients, compared to Macao. The results of the comparison indicate that Macao and Hong Kong differ markedly in the type of productivist welfare regime they belong and challenge the assertion that the two welfare systems form a distinct welfare model.     

Gambling and problem/pathological gambling among ex-offenders in Hong Kong

This paper considers the issue of ex-offenders who can be identified as having an addiction to gambling; one that has been long-neglected in Hong Kong. It reports on a study in which 378 ex-offenders were asked to assess their gambling involvement. The paper identifies the importance of social workers developing a better understanding of this issue in their work with ex-offenders and the findings suggest there is further scope for research and analysis about the extent of this problem and its management.     

Aetiology of anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong: a social work qualitative inquiry

This paper reports the results of a qualitative inquiry into the aetiology of anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong. These results are part of our main research project about family treatment and families with a daughter suffering from anorexia nervosa. This present qualitative study adopts a multiple case study approach (n = 8) and employs a multiple‐source data collection method, involving pre‐ and post‐family treatment interviews, clinical observations of the participants during the treatment sessions and home visits, as well as detailed field notes. The findings indicate that there are biological, psychological, socio‐cultural and familial interpretations of the aetiology of anorexia nervosa. This study challenges the dominant discourse on anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong, which states that the root of the disease lies in a desire for slenderness and beauty, and suggests instead that the aetiology of anorexia nervosa can be discovered only if approached from the systems level. Implications for social work practice are highlighted.     

Welfare attitudes and social class: the case of Hong Kong in comparative perspective

Based on a survey of Hong Kong residents, this article explores the attitudes towards the welfare state and whether or not there are significant differences between different social classes with regard to their approval of the welfare state. The findings were then compared with those for Sweden and the USA. The study shows that Hong Kong residents strongly approve of the welfare state. The strength of their support is similar to that in Sweden and is far stronger than in the USA. In Hong Kong, the influence of social class on attitudes towards the welfare state is negligible. In some cases, the privileged classes expressed greater approval for the welfare state than the underprivileged classes. This is in striking contrast to the experiences in Sweden and the USA where the underprivileged classes are more supportive of the welfare state than are the privileged classes.     

Raising Self-esteem through Social Networking Intervention for Older Chinese Adults in Hong Kong

Sudden physical changes can take a toll on older adults' self-esteem. Broadening their social support networks is one approach to retaining their self-esteem. This quasi-experimental study aims to test the effectiveness of a social networking program to raise self-esteem. The results from split-group analyses demonstrate that those who maintained active participation exhibited higher self-esteem. The results provide significant implications for future practice, especially to the less-educated males.     

借鉴香港法治经验，在粤港澳紧密合作中创新——香港专业立法起草制度分析

实行立法起草的专门化是香港法治经验之一：香港法律改革委员会是为了从制度上保证社会各方对立法活动的参与而设立的，是专业研究立法的机构，为法律草拟科提供研究成果，在香港立法活动中发挥着重要的作用。广东省与香港有着不同的法律制度和法律体系，在立法制度方面是不能进行机械比较和模仿；但我们可以学习其法治精神，从技术上学习其先进经验，提高我省的行政立法水平.     

Family‐centered kindergarten social work services in Hong Kong: A pilot project

Social work services at schools in Hong Kong will begin a new chapter in kindergartens in 2018–2019 school year. Early childhood professionals have long considered family‐centered service delivery best practice. This paper reports a pioneer project on a family‐centered approach in kindergarten social work services in Hong Kong. The project was illustrated according to the following family‐centered principles: (a) The family as the unit of attention, (b) Linking families with community resources, (c) Flexible and individualized service provision, and (d) Creating partnerships and supportive relationships. The value and contributions of family‐centered social work services in kindergartens and implications for social work training in Hong Kong are discussed.     

Seeing flowers through the mist: how social workers in disability services retrospectively view their educational experiences related to case management in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This article is principally designed to examine social workers’ retrospective views on their past educational experiences with case management in disability services to supply a deficiency that very little literature attention has been paid to how prior professional education shape their case management practice. Using qualitative methods, 13 social workers selected by purposive sampling were invited to participate in in-depth interviews. The qualitative data were analysed to generate some themes. Three themes found are “from ‘rarely heard of it’ to ‘remember it being referred to’”; “buy a lottery ticket before starting a field placement”; and “Ambiguity”. These themes indicate that social work education related to case management was lagging behind, which may exacerbate social work’s polarisation and lead to social workers’ confusion about their professionality. As a result, an urgent need for greater knowledge of case management in university education and in-service training should be addressed in Hong Kong.     

Ambivalences and Dilemmas in Handling Family Violence Cases among Youth Workers in Hong Kong

This qualitative study investigates practice problems experienced by youth workers as they handled family violence cases. The findings show that practice problems experienced by youth workers in handling family violence cases might include: (at the individual level) role confusion, lack of sufficient knowledge and skills, and ethical tensions; (at the messo level) problems of multi-agency coordination; and (at the structural level) high risks associated with the impoverished community where they worked. It is recommended that the competence of youth workers in dealing with family violence cases could be enhanced through better training and multi-agency collaboration.     

Validation of the ultra-short scale for measuring work engagement among social workers in Chinese contexts

Based on 683 valid questionnaires collected among a convenience sample of social workers from Hong Kong, Macau and three other cities in mainland China, this study investigated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the three-item ultra-short Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (C-UWES-3). The results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the discriminant validity of C-UWES-3 by differentiating its three items from other five items measuring emotional exhaustion and role ambiguity. The concurrent validity of C-UWES-3 was supported by its superior explanatory power to the original nine-item version of the scale (C-UWES-9) in relation to explaining social workers' turnover intention. The convergent validity of C-UWES-3 was supported by its correlations vis-à-vis factors in the job demands-resources model such as job demands, job resources, turnover intention and collective psychological ownership. The C-UWES-3 showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81). Overall, the C-UWES-3 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties for informing future research.     

The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women

Wong C‐K, Tang K‐L, Ye S. The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 381–392 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Declining fertility is a problem in many advanced industrialised countries, calling for government action. While positive findings have been established between family policies and fertility levels in European countries, empirical studies on family‐friendly policies and their impact on fertility levels have been few and far between in East Asia. Based on a random telephone survey of 645 young women, this study examined the perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth among Hong Kong women of childbearing age. Also investigated was whether public policies could have an impact on the decision to have a child. The findings give support to both the risk‐society theory and the rationality theory; family‐friendly policies such as tax credits, extended childcare and flexitime enhance the risk management capacity of women and reduce the cost of child rearing. The study also found that demographic factors such as age, education, and having children or not are significant to the intent to bear children.     

Poverty affects access to regular source of primary care among the general population in Hong Kong

A territory‐wide two‐stage stratified random sample of 2,282 community‐dwelling Hong Kong adults were surveyed between 2014 and 2015 to investigate the association between poverty and regular source of primary care utilization. Poverty was operationalized by income‐poverty and deprivation. About 94% of our sample reported having regular source of primary care (Western and/or Chinese medical practitioner) and about 69% among them were in private sector. Multivariable logistic regression showed that people who were income‐poor and deprived were less likely to have regular source of primary care (income‐poor: OR = 0.523, p = .027; deprived: OR = 0.488, p = .007) and visit private primary care doctors (income‐poor: OR = 0.445, deprived: OR = 0.222, both p < .0001). Those who had chronic diseases were more likely to have regular source of primary care (multimorbid: OR = 10.709, p < .0001), but less likely to access care in the private sector (one chronic disease: OR = 0.690, p = .019; multimorbid: OR = 0.374, p < .0001) than those without. Further, being older and less skilled were significantly associated with less likelihood of visiting a private doctor. Path analysis showed that the number of chronic diseases had significant indirect effect on having regular source of primary care with being income‐poor and deprived as the mediators (β = ?.0183, p = .0016). Therefore, despite a public health‐care system that aims to deny no one from adequate health care for lack of means, regular source of primary care in Hong Kong is found to be pro‐rich. Future policies should tackle the problem of health‐care inequalities to meet the needs of the underprivileged.     

The political activities of social workers in the context of changing roles and political transition in Hong Kong

The article reports on a fourth study on the political participation of social workers based on a methodology developed by Gray and Collett van Rooyen (2000). Thus far studies have been conducted in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The present study examined the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It begins with a review of the politicisation of Hong Kong's social workers, tracing developments from the 1960s onwards. It then examines the literature on political participation in social work, particularly various typologies of political activity, in order to add to theory relating to this important aspect of social-work practice. Thereafter, it outlines the conceptual framework and methodology used in the study, the results of which provide the basis for the discussion of the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It ends with an in-depth discussion of the implications of the findings for the political role of social workers in Hong Kong's changing political context.     

The role of perceived social reality in the adoption of postmaterial values: The case of Hong Kong

While much research in the past four decades has demonstrated a turn toward postmaterial values in many developed countries in the world, there are continual debates regarding the factors behind such cultural changes. This study examines the role of certain cognitive factors in the adoption of postmaterial value orientations. Analysis of three surveys conducted between 2012 and 2016 in Hong Kong illustrate that postmaterial values are, at the individual level, tied to criticisms against social inequality and immobility. The relationship is stronger among better educated people and people with higher levels of news exposure. The analysis contributes to the broader literature on cultural change in modern societies by suggesting that social affluence is not a sufficient condition for the rise of postmaterial values. Instead, specific combinations of social conditions and a process of cognitive mobilization could initiate a postmaterial turn.     

The role of the social innovation and entrepreneurship development fund in fostering social entrepreneurship in Hong Kong: A study on public policy innovation

Creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship in tackling complex socio‐economic challenges is at the forefront of government policy agendas globally. Although several policy mechanisms have been proposed to this end, whether and to what extent those policy mechanisms may (re)shape the social entrepreneurship environments have rarely been explored. By examining the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund), a recent policy project aimed at fostering social innovation in Hong Kong, this article presents a rare empirical exploration to illustrate how public policies can potentially drive social innovation. We explore first the impact of the SIE Fund in fostering innovation among its funded social enterprises, and second, how the SIE Fund may have influenced Hong Kong's social entrepreneurship environment. Results show that the projects under the SIE Fund exhibit characteristics distinct from the social enterprises prior to the inception of the SIE Fund. In addition, evidence of innovations in terms of product, process, marketing, and innovation in developing new or improved social practices were also identified. This study illustrates how specific public policy mechanisms may potentially facilitate the diversification, inclusion, innovation, and expansion of the social entrepreneurship environment. Findings carry substantial policy implications, in particular to neighbouring East Asian societies typically characterized by a strong government, and face similar structural, demographic and socio‐economic challenges that necessitate innovative solutions.     

Child learning and family mealtime environment,parenting style and family functioning among preschoolers in Hong Kong

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.