Sense of meaningfulness,sources of meaning,and self-evaluation of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong: implications for youth development programs

This study aimed to explore the direction of youth development programs for economically disadvantaged youth by examining how their sense of meaningfulness and sources of meaning were associated with self-evaluation. Based on a survey design of 373 low-income Chinese adolescents recruited from five schools located in districts with the highest percentages of low-income households in Hong Kong, the results indicate a positive association between their sense of meaningfulness and self-evaluation. The findings also show that the intrinsic sources of meaning (individualism, collectivism, and self-transcendence) were positively associated with self-esteem. The results suggest that extrinsic aspirations were not a major source of positive self-evaluation of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents living in low-income families. On the contrary, they derived life meaning from various intrinsic sources. Their perception of the intrinsic sources of meaning and sense of meaningfulness worked jointly to affect their self-evaluation. Given the value of existential meaning in youth development under economic hardship, practitioners and educators should work with low-income adolescents’ life process of awareness in order to bring them to the possibilities for richer and deeper experiences for personal development, relationship enhancement, community participation, and spirituality enrichment. They should also initiate comprehensive life skills training in all formal, nonformal and informal learning contexts.     

The Changing Financial Circumstances of Households with Children

SUMMARY. The last fifteen yeas have seen rapid changes in the financial circumstances of households with children. They are increasingly found among those on the lowest incomes and are over-represented among households dependent on income support for their survival. At the same time, changes in the social security system have left claimant families with greater financial responsibility and reduced access to additional sources of financial support from the state. The article reviews these changes in the economic welfare of households with children, paying particular attention to the circumstances of low-income families. It looks in turn at trends in household income, at changes in the social security system and at the patterns of debt and unmet needs reported by parents caring for children on low incomes.     

The elephant in the room: media ownership and political participation in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong’s open and law-abiding society, applying the political principle of “one country, two systems” presents a challenge to the Chinese government, particularly regarding its efforts to control media ownership. Focusing on the structure of media ownership in Hong Kong, this paper describes the ways in which the Internet – especially social media – has empowered activists and alternative media by providing a means of avoiding censorship and social control. This paper also describes the Chinese government’s use of political power and capital to censor and shape the media landscape in Hong Kong in order to dampen public interest in politics and influence public opinion. Finally, this paper attempts to identify potential solutions to this problem.     

Immigration Controls,Life-Course Coordination,and Livelihood Strategies: A Study of Families Living across the Mainland-Hong Kong Border

In-depth studies of families living across the mainland Chinese-Hong Kong border indicate how immigration controls can adversely affect the ability of families to synchronize members’ life-courses to provide for their own livelihoods. By disrupting family timetables, the immigration quota system that governs migration from the mainland to Hong Kong hampers the attempts of families to secure their long-term viability and arrange for inter-generational caring. Circumventing immigration laws through illegal migration is costly, and family care-givers are often forced to stay in Hong Kong without being recognized as residents. Mainland-Hong Kong families have a unique opportunity to live on one side of the border while members commute to work or study on the other side, but this strategy affects long-term social participation and is available only to families with the requisite social and economic assets. The research was supported by a grant from Oxfam Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Hong Kong Christian Action, the Industrial Relations Institute, and St. James’ Settlement made the interviews possible by helping us contact our informants. Caren Wong, Lo Kwok Wai, and Lai Yuen Mei provided competent research assistance. Chan Chu Fung was a tremendous help in our research on public policies. We must also thank our informants for agreeing to be interviewed and sharing with us personal information about their life.     

Social and Psychological Barriers to Private Retirement Savings in Hong Kong

Using a phone survey conducted among Hong Kong workers, we examined the association of institutional, social, and psychological factors with engagement in both private retirement savings and the total amount of savings. Alarmingly, this study demonstrates that approximately 42% of Hong Kong workers do not save privately for their retirement. We found that age, education, number of children, support from spouse and friends, social regulation, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are associated with engagement in private retirement savings. Among those who saved, age, education, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are related to the amount of savings. Measures that could increase the social support for retirement savings as well as enhance their financial knowledge and management ability should be developed and implemented so that more workers engage in private retirement savings. A promising policy option for the Hong Kong government is to offer a tax incentive to promote additional savings for old-age income protection.     

Investments in young children among low-income families

This article examines low-income parents’ monetary investments in their young children, asking how low-income families are able to afford spending on children. We investigate parental spending on child care and on goods in the home that may provide enrichment for young children. We find little evidence that households make spending trade-offs for either type of good. Instead, our results suggest that low-income households that can afford child care may be poor only temporarily and that they spend primarily when they are unable to avoid doing so because of family work patterns. For enrichment goods, parental education is a stronger predictor of spending.     

Mobility and work-residence matching for new immigrants in Hong Kong

Due to their prominence in contributing to Hong Kong's population growth in recent years, new immigrants' housing preference play a crucial role on shaping housing demand. However, previous studies have not focused on their characteristics. This study aims to identify the factors which influence residential mobility and work-residence matching of households with new immigrants, based on the most recent Population census data in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that households which contain Mainland Chinese immigrants are more mobile residentially and have better work-residence matching than those with non-Chinese immigrants. Besides, the work-residence matching preference is stronger for a household with all of its members immigrating to Hong Kong together. In addition, it is found that both district poverty and housing affordability keep households from obtaining better work-residence matching in general. The impact of the latter is particularly remarkable among households with foreign immigrants. These new findings would provide valuable implications for policy and market development.     

Assemblages and affect: migrant mothers and the varieties of absent children

Drawing from stories told by migrant women in Hong Kong, this article builds on previous studies of ‘left‐behind children’ and calls for greater attention to the spectrum of sorts of absent children and to the formation of queer or less normative forms of migratory families. Taking a two‐pronged approach, I present an on‐the‐ground ethnographic and affective approach through several vignettes, and consider key elements of a more mid‐range and distanced ‘global assemblage’ approach to the institutions and expert knowledge that shape the experiences and practices of migrant mothers, migratory families, and the spectrum of absent children. This article posits that one's biological children, perhaps the most familial of kin, can become familiar or even unfamiliar strangers through contemporary processes, technologies and practices of migration and separation, and that the process of migration makes and unmakes conventional and unconventional sorts of families. While affective and assemblage approaches are independently valuable, combined they offer richer understandings of the complex interplay of factors – at various levels – that shape normative and queer families and different types of children's absences.     

Promoting Bank Accounts to Low-Income Households: Implications for Social Work Practice

In the wake of the recent economic challenges, it is clear that social workers must be educated about the financial opportunities for low-income households. Encouraging low-income households to have a bank account at an insured depository institution, or become banked, is increasingly emphasized in policy and practice. Becoming banked offers the opportunity to avoid high-cost alternative financial services. Social workers can facilitate relationships between low-income households and the mainstream financial services industry to help families advance their long-term financial interest. Understanding the structure of all types of banks and credit unions is imperative. Implications for social work practice are explored.     

Seeking identity: the transborder lives of mainland Chinese families with children born in Hong Kong

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in‐depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse ‘identifications’ within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented.     

Does public housing reduce housing cost burden among low-income families with children?

ABSTRACT

About half of all renter households and over three-quarters of very low-income households in the United States experience a housing cost burden, with higher rates among families with children. Public housing may be an important tool for reducing families’ housing cost burdens. The current study uses nearly four decades of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Assisted Housing Database to explore the relationship between public housing and housing cost burden among children in low-income families. Results from fixed effects models suggest that public housing is associated with a greatly reduced risk of experiencing housing cost burden when housing assistance receipt is measured a year before housing cost burden. These findings highlight the importance of public housing for reducing low-income families’ housing cost burdens.     

Network domains in social networking sites: expectations,meanings, and social capital

This paper examines why the use of social networking sites (SNSs) leads to different results in cultivating bridging and bonding social capital for different groups of people. Based on in-depth interviews of 45 university students in Hong Kong, I find that Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong actively use SNSs for seeking practical information about offline matters, and they obtain substantial enacted support from other Mainland students of the same university through SNS use. As a result, they accumulate both bridging and bonding social capital. Local Hong Kong students, however, use SNSs mainly for social information seeking and are only able to accrue limited bridging social capital through SNS use. Drawing on the theory of network domains, I argue that the different offline network structures in which students are located – namely, homogeneous and closed networks versus heterogeneous and open networks – explain this difference. Students with closed offline networks have defined expectations of online ties; they think of their online activities as practical and leading to real changes in their status among peers. Those with open networks have indefinite expectations of their online audience; thus, they interpret online activities differently, thinking of them as recreational, and they are playful in their online behaviour. These different outcomes of online activities consequently lead to diverse results in social capital accrual.     

Violence against Wives and Children in Hong Kong

Studies on family violence toward wives and children in Hong Kong, although limited, are consistent with the ecological model that explains this violence as the interaction of a confluence of factors that are at work at different levels. In this paper, four clinical cases are selected to demonstrate the applicability of the model in Hong Kong. The immigration background of the family, low socio-economic status, perceived lack of support, and Chinese values on obedience to authority stand out as contributory factors to violent acts. A multi-faceted and multi-leveled prevention program to achieve zero tolerance of violence is proposed that prescribes caution as to the possible double victimization of individuals and families by the larger social system.     

Parent-Child Relationships,Parental Relationships and Children's Self-Esteem in Post-Divorce Families in Hong Kong

Abstract

In recent research on post-divorce families in Hong Kong, there has been a shift away from the assumption of pathology, and in favor of a trend of increasing attention to children's resilience and the benefits of a continuous parental relationship. There remains, however, a lack of empirical knowledge to guide social work practices in this area in contemporary Hong Kong. The present study is designed to examine how children's relationships with both parents and the different patterns of parental relationships impact children's self-esteem. Sixty-nine post-divorce families participated in the survey. The findings of a positive impact of quality relationship with both parents supported the promotion of active involvement of both parents. The likelihood of increased parental conflicts, however, makes the co-parental involvement a double-edged sword as far as the children are concerned, while an avoidance/low-conflict pattern of parental relationship is found to be the most beneficial pattern for the children. To enhance the well-being of children, a secure residential parent-child relationship with a noncompetitive nonresidential parent-child relationship is deemed beneficial.     

Validating the Scale Measuring Dysfunctional Parenting with Hong Kong Adolescents

Dysfunctional parenting in situations requiring discipline is an important issue in Hong Kong. However, few scales for measuring dysfunctional parenting have been validated in the local context. The current study validated, with a sample of Hong Kong adolescents, a dysfunctional parenting scale that has been widely adopted in the West. A total of 965 adolescent students (males 43.3%, mean age 14.6, and range 12–18) were recruited for this study. Principal component analysis with varimax rotations and Tucker’s congruence coefficient were adopted to examine the factor structure of the scale and its stability. Cronbach’s alpha and correlation analysis were used to assess the internal consistency and the convergent and divergent validity of the scale and of each subscale identified. Three stable factors (laxness, overreactivity, and verbosity) were extracted, and their individual items demonstrated good internal consistency. The convergent and divergent validity of the scale (and subscales) were confirmed by its positive association with the material hardship of the families, the parental stress, and the antisocial behavior of the adolescents, their haughtiness and loneliness, and by its negative association with the adolescents’ social skills. Unlike previous studies that investigated parents’ rearing of young children, where verbosity was not detected as a significant factor, in adolescents, verbosity was detected as a factor affecting discipline. For adolescents in Hong Kong, verbosity is shown to be a dysfunctional parenting behavior; this is also true of Western adolescents but differs from traditional Chinese cultural beliefs.     

Transnational family strategies and education in the contemporary Chinese diaspora

Abstract In this article I examine the role of education in the family strategies of recent East Asian migrants, contributing to intellectual debates around transnationalism and the contemporary Chinese diaspora. Empirically, the article provides an insight into the experiences and objectives of an often‐neglected group within studies of Chinese migration – students. I also attempt to understand the particular role that children play within a wider family project of capital accumulation. Drawing upon the work of Bourdieu, I emphasize the significance of different forms of capital in underpinning the spatial strategies of East Asian families. The research for this article was conducted in Vancouver, Canada and Hong Kong, involving in‐depth interviews with university students, recent graduates and their families. In conclusion, in the article I maintain that a geographically informed theory of ‘cultural capital’ and its relationship to the family unit can help elucidate recent patterns of trans‐Pacific, transnational mobility, moving beyond more common ‘political’ and ‘economic’ interpretations of this contemporary migration.     

Child care subsidies and care arrangements of low-income parents

While enrollment into early education programs has increased significantly in the past two decades, many low-income children still do not attend these programs due to lack of funding and access. This study uses data from the 2005 National Household Education Survey to examine the effects of child care subsidies on the enrollment of low-income children in early childhood education programs. Multinomial regression results show that families that receive child care subsidies are more likely to place their child in center-based preschool programs. The analyses also show that subsidy receipt increases the probability of using center care for low-income households. These findings indicate that policies aimed at increasing funding and availability of early education for low-income families can help close the gap in enrollment.     

Hong Kong and China in 1997

In 1997, Hong Kong changes from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. While officially it has been agreed that the status change should not alter the economic or social conditions in the territory substantially, many people believe that residents' lives will be considerably affected. Hong Kong society has always been highly mobile and fluid in terms of migration, and it is only very recently that over half of the population have been born in the tenitory Many elderly people in Hong Kong were bom elsewhere and many Hong Kong families are fragmented, with members living in China, elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, North America, Australia, and Britain. The potential impact of 1997 on the lives and conditions of elderly residents is only now forming a focus of concern. This article considers what may happen in the closing years of this century and early next when the SAR emerges. There is already growing popular belief that, for financial and social reasons, some elderly people are going back to China for their retirement. However, evidence from a survey of 419 noninstitutionalized respondents found relatively few expressing a desire or willingness to retire to China. This article concludes with a discussion of why this may be so. A major reason may be that, with the increasing ease of visits between Hong Kong and China, Hong Kong elderly people might feel more comfortable with alternately living in China and Hong Kong instead of taking the bold decision of permanently living in China.     

Home and school influences on the behavioral and academic outcomes of low-income children of color

Framed within contextual systems model, this study examines how home and school operate together to shape behavioral and academic outcomes for 544 low-income African American (56%) and Latino/a (44%) elementary school-aged children (mean age?=?7.88 years, SD?=?1.46, 50% male). Using data from Welfare, Children, & Families Study: A Three City Study and multiple group path analysis, we found that for children in kindergarten through third grade, the adequacy of the home resources was positively related to applied problem scores (e.g. math literacy) and negatively associated with externalizing behavior. For fourth- to sixth-graders, the adequacy of classroom resources was negatively associated with applied problem scores. For both age groups positive teacher–child relational quality was also a positive predictor of externalizing behavior. Results revealed that barriers to parental involvement in school were a negative predictor of applied problem scores for low-income children in early and later elementary school. Implications for policy and practice aimed at strengthening opportunities for children and families from marginalized communities are discussed.     

The economic role of immigrant wives in Hong Kong

The objectives of this study were to compare the employment pattern of immigrant wives with native-born wives in Hong Kong, to examine the independent influences of sociodemographic characteristics and the assimilation experience on employment behavior of immigrant wives, and to establish the extent to which immigrant wives' employment is affected by social and demographic factors and conditioned on the assimilation strategy adopted by their families. Data of the 1986 census were used, based on a 1% sample of currently married women 20-44 years old. 5478 women were identified by place of birth and length of residence in Hong Kong and 3214 native-born women were used as a comparison group. Of this 5478, 2018 women were earlier immigrants from mainland China who had lived in Hong Kong for more than 5 years and 246 were recent Chinese immigrants. Labor force participation of the native born was 51.87% and that of China born was 48.89%, however, early immigrants had a rate of participation of 46.84% and recent immigrants had 66.81%. The labor market incorporation of early immigrants showed that 10.28% were self-employed and 13.13% were outworkers, which was in contrast to the native-born, who were more represented in employee occupations. 79.12% of native-born were wage employees compared 69.58% of early immigrants. Immigrant wives were disadvantaged regarding education and vocational training; their wages were substantially lower than those of the native-born women. Immigrant families had an average of 2.2 children, compared to 1.7 for natives. Logit analysis showed that age had a negative relationship with labor force participation, while education had a positive effect, and recent immigrants had a significantly higher labor force participation. Multinominal logit analysis found that more educated and better skilled women were significantly more likely to engage in wage employment. Children in the family restricted women's participation in wage employment.