Social Work Contribution to Desistance Among At-Risk Youth.

Desistance as a process to forgo delinquent habits is an important target for intervention into youth at risk of delinquency. The intervention through social work services, nevertheless, has not clearly demonstrated its effectiveness. For such a demonstration, the present study examines the contribution of social work services with reference to the voluntaristic theory of action.

Engaging adolescent girls in transactional sex through compensated dating.

Transactional sex through so-called compensated dating in adolescent girls is a problem in need of public concern. Compensated dating typically involves the use of information communication technology to advertise, search, bargain, and eventually arrange for transactional sex. The technology enables the sexual partners to maintain privacy and secrecy in transactional sex.

Bonding as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

The concept of bonding as a positive youth development construct is reviewed in this paper. The goals are fourfold. First, theoretical perspectives of bonding are delineated.

Resilience as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

The concept of resilience is reviewed from a range of disciplinary perspectives in this paper. Both broad and narrow definitions of resilience are highlighted and a working definition of resilience is proposed to inform research, policy and practice. Different psychological, social and ecological protective factors, particularly competence, optimism, and bonding to family and cultural beliefs are highlighted.

Helping adolescents with greater psychosocial needs: subjective outcome evaluation based on different cohorts.

The Tier 2 Program of the Project P.A.T.

Construction of an integrated positive youth development conceptual framework for the prevention of the use of psychotropic drugs among adolescents.

This is a theoretical paper with an aim to construct an integrated conceptual framework for the prevention of adolescents' use and abuse of psychotropic drugs. This paper first reports the subjective reasons for adolescents' drug use and abuse in Hong Kong and reviews the theoretical underpinnings. Theories of drug use and abuse, including neurological, pharmacological, genetic predisposition, psychological, and sociological theories, were reviewed.

Teaching money literacy in a positive youth development program: the project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong.

In view of the high impact of materialistic orientation among children and adolescents, financial educational programs are provided as preventive measures. Without a clear framework, it is impossible to evaluate these programs. The goals of this paper are threefold.

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.

Improving social competence through character education.

Character education is supposed to meet early adolescents' need (i.e., eighth and ninth graders) for strengthening social competence.

Qualitative evaluation of the Project P.A.T.H.S.: findings based on focus groups with student participants.

Ten focus groups comprising 88 students recruited from ten schools were conducted to understand the perceptions of students participating in the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.

A case study on the implementation of a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.H.S.) in Hong Kong: learning from the experimental implementation phase.

This investigation of the implementation of a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.

A case study on the implementation of a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.H.S.) in a changing education policy environment.

This investigation of the implementation of a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.

Parental behavioral control in academic and non-academic domains: a three-year longitudinal study in the Chinese culture.

For over three consecutive years, 2559 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 12.65 years at Wave 1) responded to instruments assessing their perceived parental behavioral control based on measures of parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, and discipline. The results show that compared with parental control in the academic domain, parental control in the non-academic domain (peer relations domain) was relatively weaker, using parental knowledge, parental expectation, parental monitoring, and parental discipline as indicators, and a decline in parental behavioral control occurred over time.

Process evaluation of the implementation of the Secondary 2 Program of Project P.A.T.H.S. in the experimental implementation phase.

This study aimed to understand the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program (Secondary 2 Curriculum) delivered in the Experimental Implementation Phase of the Project P.A.T.

Positive youth development programs targeting students with greater psychosocial needs: subjective outcome evaluation.

The Tier 2 Program of the Project P.A.T.

Effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of Project P.A.T.H.S.: objective outcome evaluation based on a randomized group trial.

There are two tiers of programs in the Project P.A.T.

Perceived parental control processes, parent-child relational qualities and psychological well-being of Chinese adolescents in intact and non-intact families in Hong Kong.

This paper examines whether Chinese adolescents' perceptions (N = 3,017) of parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness as well as parental control based on indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, parent-child relational qualities (perceived parental trust, child's trust of the parents, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and child's satisfaction with parental control), and adolescent psychological well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem) differed in intact and non-intact families. Results showed that relative to non-intact families, parental behavioral control processes were higher and parent-child relational qualities were better in intact families. In contrast, parental psychological control was higher in non-intact families than in intact families.

Qualitative evaluation of the project P.A.T.H.S. based on the perceptions of the program participants.

Qualitative evaluation was carried out to understand the perceptions of the students participating in the Tier 1 Program of the P.A.T.

Chinese approaches to understanding and building resilience in at-risk children and adolescents.

This article discusses the prevailing Chinese belief systems that have bearings on the perception and practices of promoting resilience among children and youth in a major city in China. It briefly describes a huge social intervention program entitled "Understanding the Adolescent Project" to combat the problems among grade 7 students identified as adolescents at risk from 2001 to 2004 in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. A critical review of the problems encountered by social workers in the delivery of the program is presented to support the move to provide the preventive program for grade 4 students with clinical symptoms on a screening tool for identification of at-risk status.

Convergence of subjective outcome and objective outcome evaluation findings: insights based on the project P.A.T.H.S.

A total of 546 students participated in the Tier 1 Program of the P.A.T.

Subjective outcome evaluation of the project P.A.T.H.S.: findings based on the perspective of the program implementers.

A total of 52 schools (n = 8679 students) participated in the experimental implementation phase of the Project P.A.T.

Development and validation of a positive youth development scale in Hong Kong.

The development of the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS) is outlined in this paper. The CPYDS assesses 15 aspects of positive youth development, including bonding, resilience, social competence, emotional competence, cognitive competence, moral competence, behavioral competence, self-determination, self-efficacy, spirituality, positive view of the future, positive self-identity, prosocial involvement, prosocial norms, and recognition for positive behavior. Based on a Well Adjustment Group (N=162) and a Poor Adjustment Group (N=264), the present findings showed that the CPYDS and its subscales possess acceptable internal consistency.

Perceived parental control and psychological well-being in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong.

Chinese secondary school students (N=2,758) responded to measures of perceived parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline and demandingness), parental psychological control, and adolescent psychological well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). Results showed that composite parental behavioral control was weakly related to parental psychological control, whereas discrete aspects of parental behavioral control were differentially related to parental psychological control. Although parental psychological control was negatively related to adolescent psychological well-being, parental behavioral control was positively related to adolescent adjustment.

Perceived parental control processes in Chinese adolescents: implications for positive youth development programs in Hong Kong.

Chinese secondary school students (N=3,017) were asked to respond to instruments measuring their subjective evaluation of parental behavioral control (including indicators of knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline and satisfaction), parental psychological control, and psychological well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). Results showed that while a significant proportion of Chinese parents did not exercise behavioral control over the peer domain of their children, some parents were high in their psychological control. Relative to the peer domain, parents generally exerted more behavioral control in the academic domain of their children.