Preventing economic hardship among Chinese elderly in Hong Kong

Over the next 20 years, Hong Kong will face a rapidly aging population as the number of older adults aged 65 or above increases to approximately 1.4 million by 2021, that is, 17% of the total population. In 2001, there were 1.2 million adults aged 45-59. To assess the differences between these middle-aged adults and the current cohort of older adults, we identified the challenges that Hong Kong society will face in meeting the financial needs of older adults in the coming two decades. In this paper, we examine the retirement economic status of three groups of older adults: those who are financially independent, those who are financially supported by their adult children or children-in-law, and those who are receiving welfare assistance. We describe the current situations of these groups, prevailing social policy, future trends, and recommend policies for tackling problem areas.     

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.

     

A Task-based Language Teaching Approach to Developing Metacognitive Strategies for Listening Comprehension

In second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learning, learning strategies help learners perform tasks, solve specific problems, and compensate for learning deficits. Of the strategy types, metacognitive strategies manage and regulate the construction of L2 or FL knowledge. Although learning strategies are frequently taught via teacher demonstration, an alternative but underresearched approach is through embedded instruction in tasks. To develop strategy awareness in language learning, the present study aimed to investigate how well a task-based teaching framework was able to develop intermediate Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students’ metacognitive awareness of listening comprehension. Eighty-eight sophomores participated in the study, which used a quasi-experimental design. The experimental group received strategy-embedded task-based listening instruction for 18 weeks, whereas the control group received only strategy-based instruction. Listening tests and questionnaires were used in the pretest and posttest stages. The results showed that the experimental group improved their metacognitive awareness of strategies for listening and outperformed the control group in the listening test. The students in the experimental group considered tasks to be an important medium of input enhancement for improving listening ability.     

义利之辨的困境与出路

义利之辨和其他判断一样,要么是分析的,要么是综合的。换言之,义利之辨有两种基本模式:分析判断和综合判断。义利之辨的分析判断和综合判断在理论上催生了其极端形式:道禅两家既不重利、也不崇义,把义利之辨由虚无推进到涅槃,从而否定了义利之辨的可能性和必要性。义利之辨的寂灭只是一种自我陶醉的幻相,透过幻相就可以探求到它潜藏着自由法则的重生因素。义利之辨的先天综合判断扬弃了其分析判断与综合判断,完成了由自然法则向自由法则的历史转变,也在某种程度上综合并超越了功利论和义务论。     

Application of the International classification of functioning,disability and health in Taiwan: victory of the medical model

Since July 2012, eligibility for disability benefits and services in Taiwan has been assessed based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. This study examines disabled people’s experiences of this new assessment system: does it incorporate the social model or a multidimensional understanding of disability and assess the needs of disabled people adequately? In-depth interviews were employed with 24 disabled persons to answer these questions from the perspective of disabled people. The findings show that the new assessment model is still medicalised: social roles and social participation are not considered, the assessment process is dominated by professionals, users’ perspectives are not included and only those who are assessed to have a high level of disability are satisfied with the new system while many others would prefer the old assessment system. These findings have relevance for the analysis of needs assessments of disabled people in different countries.     

Notebook computer use with different monitor tilt angle: effects on posture, muscle activity and discomfort of neck pain users

This study aimed to evaluate the posture, muscle activities, and self reported discomforts of neck pain notebook computer users on three monitor tilt conditions: 100°, 115°, and 130°. Six subjects were recruited in this study to completed typing tasks. Results showed subjects have a trend to show the forward head posture in the condition that monitor was set at 100°, and the significant less neck and shoulder discomfort were noted in the condition that monitor was set at 130°. These result suggested neck pain notebook user to set their monitor tilt angle at 130°.     

The Relationship Between the T2 Statistic and the Influence Function

Hotelling's T² statistic has many applications in multivariate analysis. In particular, it can be used to measure the influence that a particular observation vector has on parameter estimation. For example, in the bivariate case, there exists a direct relationship between the ellipse generated using a T² statistic for individual observations and the hyperbolae generated using Hampel's influence function for the corresponding correlation coefficient. In this paper, we jointly use the components of an orthogonal decomposition of the T² statistic and some influence functions to identify outliers or influential observations. Since the conditional components in the T² statistic are related to the possible changes in the correlation between a variable and a group of other variables, we consider the theoretical influence functions of the correlations and multiple correlation coefficients. Finite-sample versions of these influence functions are used to find the estimated influence function values.     

Immigration,living arrangement and the poverty risk of older adults in Hong Kong

Using 2011 census data, this study investigated how living arrangement affects disparities in poverty between older adults (aged 65 and older) who migrated to Hong Kong from Mainland China and those who were born in Hong Kong. Our sample consisted of 29,987 immigrants and 9,398 natives, all of whom were ethnic Chinese and living in Hong Kong at the time of the census. We found higher poverty rates among older immigrants than among natives, a disparity that persisted even after adjusting for living arrangement, human capital characteristics, assimilation‐related variables, household composition and demographic characteristics. We also found that living arrangement moderated the impact of immigrant status on the poverty risk among older adults, and that the impact was due mainly to the number of earners in the household. The implications of our results with respect to poverty among older adults and anti‐poverty measures are discussed.     

Development of Financial Capacity in Adolescents

This study aims to check whether the framework of developing financial capacity of adolescents is similar as that of college students, as well as whether adolescence, compared to college age, is the better age for objective financial knowledge to trigger the positive cycle of developing financial capacity. Using a convenience sample of 967 adolescent students from five Hong Kong secondary schools, this study conducted structural equation modeling to evaluate the development of financial capacity. Both subjective and objective financial knowledge in adolescents can be internalized into financial self-beliefs. Subsequently, these self-beliefs influence their financial behavior. The effect of objective financial knowledge on the financial self-beliefs, which is weak for college students, was much stronger for adolescents. The framework of developing financial capacity of adolescents is similar as that of college students. Adolescence, compared to college age, is the better age for objective financial knowledge to trigger the positive cycle of developing financial capacity.     

义务论还是德性论？——走出“康德伦理学是义务论”的误区

长期以来,人们把康德伦理学判定为义务论,这是康德伦理学研究的一个误区。实际上,康德伦理学是批判的德性论。从马克思的实践本体论看,德性是自然界一切潜在属性实现的力量,道德德性是人的一切潜在属性实现的力量。因此,伦理学的根本就是道德德性,伦理学就是德性论或德性学。这也证明了康德伦理学只能是德性论。