Importance of emotional competence in designing an antidrug education curriculum for junior secondary school students in Hong Kong

Adolescent substance abuse is a serious problem in Hong Kong. Antidrug education campaigns should aim at enhancing students' understanding of the effects of illegal drugs to themselves. Moreover, life skill training is important in helping adolescents face life's challenges without attempting to do drugs. A major component of life skill training is the promotion of emotional competence. The present study outlines the importance of emotional competence and adolescent development. For an antidrug education campaign to be effective, adolescents should be able to identify their emotions and understand their own emotion regulation mechanism. Likewise, they should be made aware of the consequences of their emotions and emotion-driven behaviors. Finally, the use of an inspirational story with a strong message against substance abuse to trigger emotions is recommended for designing an antidrug education curriculum. All these components are integrated in the newly developed curriculum of the P.A.T.H.S. Project in Hong Kong. © 2011 Ben M. F. Law and Tak Yan Lee.published_or_final_versio

Secondary 1 training program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong: an evaluation based on program participants

A total of 1744 participants comprising 44 groups participated in a 3-day Secondary 1 Training Program of Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong. At the end of the training program, the participants were invited to respond to a subjective outcome evaluation. Results showed that the assessment tools are internally consistent. Descriptive statistics revealed that evaluations of the respondents are positive in terms of the training program content, interaction, trainers' performance, self-performance, administrative arrangement, and overall satisfaction. Overall satisfaction was predicted by training content, trainers' performance, self-performance, and interaction. Training content and trainers' performance explain half of the total variance. The present findings reiterate other studies regarding the effectiveness of the training program of Project P.A.T.H.S. in promoting the participants' knowledge, attitude, and skills in delivering the program.published_or_final_versio

Using positive youth development constructs to design a money management curriculum for junior secondary school students in Hong Kong

This paper aims to discuss the relationships between the selected positive youth development constructs and the enhancement of Hong Kong junior secondary school students' money management skills, values, and attitudes. Various issues of money management of adolescents are reviewed. These issues include the need for money management programs for adolescents, the content and coverage of an appropriate money management program, and its relationships with the selected positive youth development constructs. The curriculum units for secondary 3 students are taken as examples to illustrate the design of the program. It is believed that promoting cognitive competence, self-efficacy, and spirituality could be an effective way to enhance students' money management skills, values, and attitudes, thus preparing them better for facing the finance-related issues in life. © 2011 Patrick S. Y. Lau et al.published_or_final_versio

Validation of the cultural influence on helping scale among Chinese adolescents

2010-2011 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Validation of the beliefs against volunteering scale among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

2010-2011 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Psychosocial factors influencing individual well-being in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

Conference Theme: The Future of Quality of LifeConsistent with some previous literature, adolescents' life satisfaction exhibits a decreasing trend[8-10], while their hopelessness level is increasing. Adolescents’ decreased life satisfaction and increased hopelessness could be explained by the confusions and developmental challenges they face during transitional process, notably the increase of studying pressure/future career decisions and problems engendered by peers or dating. This study has developed an integrated perspective for measuring different levels of factors that associated with adolescent life satisfaction and hopelessnesspostprin

Validation of the Beliefs Against Volunteering Scale among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Participation in volunteer service is an indicator of quality of life. This study attempts to validate the Beliefs Against Volunteering Scale (BAV), an assessment of the negative beliefs about volunteerism among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. The BAV was administered to 5,946 Chinese adolescents. The BAV and its subscales were found to be internally consistent. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed two factors (i. e., "conceptual bias" and "instrumental bias") against volunteering. This supports the factorial validity of the test. The BAV scores showed a differentiation of volunteers versus non-volunteers, thus supporting the criterion-related validity of the test. The negative correlations between BAV and (1) measures of positive beliefs about volunteering; and (2) purpose in life demonstrated the construct validity of BAV. The findings suggest that BAV is a reliable and valid instrument in assessing underlying negative beliefs about volunteerism among Chinese adolescents. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Beliefs About Poverty

Department of Applied Social Science