Measuring sex-role stereotypes: Attitudes among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents and the development of the Chinese sex-role inventory

A cross-cultural study of adolescent sex-role stereotypes illustrates possible methodological solutions to problems in measuring sex-role identification. A study was conducted with a sample of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents to develop a rating scale that would (1) define the sex-role stereotypes held by adolescents in Hong Kong and (2) serve as a measure of identification with sex-role stereotypes valid for use with Hong Kong samples. The Chinese Sex-Role Inventory (CSRI) was constructed, therefore, following the procedures of Bem in the creation of the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Creation of the CSRI illustrates the feasibility and value of using such procedures in research with adolescents in any society.This report is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the faculty of Harvard University. The research was supported by a National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health Grant 5-T32-MH14088, awarded to Beatrice and John Whiting to support graduate research in cross-cultural child development.     

Unpacking Cultural Variations in Peak-Experiences: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Early Childhood Recollection Between Hong Kong and Brazil

In this cross-cultural study, 115 Hong Kong Chinese and 117 Brazilian college students described a childhood peak-experience (occurring before the age of 14) and provided a self-rating on its enduring impact. Among various categories of peak-experiences, both Hong Kong Chinese and Brazilians reported interpersonal joy most frequently; the second most frequently reported category was external achievement for the Hong Kong sample and developmental landmark for the Brazilian sample. Compared with Brazilians’ narratives, those of Hong Kong Chinese were more social-focused, involving greater number of other people, but less specific. These characteristics of autobiographical memory, i.e., memory focus (self vs. social), memory specificity (specific vs. general), and the number of other people involved, significantly mediated the relation between culture and interpersonal joy. The present findings have extended research on peak-experiences to cross-cultural contexts and incorporated measures of autobiographical memory to unpack cultural variations in these two collectivist societies.     

Psychometric comparison of Chinese and English versions of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire with bilingual Hong Kong Chinese students

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) assesses two emotion regulation (ER) strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Researchers have used the ERQ in cross-national studies, such as with participants in Hong Kong. There is inconsistency in psychometric equivalence data for the ERQ in Chinese among adults, and prior research in Hong Kong contradicted the ERQ's original factor structure (Matsumoto et al., 2008). The present study examined the factor structure, reliability and validity of a translated Traditional Chinese-ERQ and the English-ERQ with Hong Kong college students. Results revealed that both versions replicated the original two-factor structure of the ERQ (Gross & John, 2003). Evidence of the measure's convergent, discriminant and predictive validity was obtained as well. Implications for cross-cultural scale validation particularly with Hong Kong Chinese students are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Validity of Holland's Model in Hong Kong

While Holland's model has been widely tested and found broad support in the West, it has not been tested in Hong Kong. Using a sample of 1813 entering freshmen, we investigated the cross-cultural validity of Holland's models of six interest or personality types in Hong Kong. Results indicated: (a) Holland's model as operationalized by UNIACT has considerable external validity; (b) the internal structure of the UNIACT was generally consistent with the formulations by Holland; (c) the cultural value of traditionality affected the fit between Holland's model and the student data in that Hong Kong students who hold stronger traditional values tended to behave less consistently with Holland's model than those who hold weaker traditional Chinese values. These findings were discussed in terms of their implication for future cross-cultural vocational psychology research and practices.     

Factor structure,validity, and reliability of the fear questionnaire in a Hong Kong Chinese population

This study examined the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Fear Questionnaire in Hong Kong. The sample consisted of 226 college students who were ethnic Chinese and they came from different parts of Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis produced three meaningful factors. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor model of Marks and Mathews (1979) in the present sample of subjects. Findings also showed that the Fear Questionnaire was both reliable and valid. Limitations of the study and implications for future research in this area were discussed. In particular, the need to assess the cross-cultural application of the Fear Questionnaire was stressed.This research project was supported by the Research and Conference Grants of the University of Hong Kong.     

Bicultural identity, bilingualism, and psychological adjustment in multicultural societies: immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation

ABSTRACT The present investigation examined the impact of bicultural identity, bilingualism, and social context on the psychological adjustment of multicultural individuals. Our studies targeted three distinct types of biculturals: Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong, Filipino domestic workers (i.e., sojourners) in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese college students. Individual differences in Bicultural Identity Integration (BII; Benet-Martínez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002 ) positively predicted psychological adjustment for all the samples except sojourners even after controlling for the personality traits of neuroticism and self-efficacy. Cultural identification and language abilities also predicted adjustment, although these associations varied across the samples in meaningful ways. We concluded that, in the process of managing multiple cultural environments and group loyalties, bilingual competence, and perceiving one's two cultural identities as integrated are important antecedents of beneficial psychological outcomes.     

Community psychology in Hong Kong: Past,present, and future

The expansion of mental health services during the 1960s from a single remote mental hospital to centers and clinics in mainstream communities fostered the development of community psychology in Hong Kong. Few psychologists were initially involved in the local community mental health movement, but its momentum resulted in increasing numbers of practitioner psychologists working in community-based service settings. Community psychology in Hong Kong today consists primarily of service delivery, but also includes applied research, community organization/consultation, and community education. Despite having many parallels with the American situation, key concepts underpinning the practice of community psychology in the Territory possess their own character as a reflection of nuances in the local scene. Prospects for the continued development of community psychology in Hong Kong appear favorable. Of special relevance is the field's potential contribution to a better understanding of the psychological phenomena associated with the Territory's sociopolitical transformation in 1997.     

The adaptation of Chinese adolescents in two societies: a comparison of Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong and Australia

This study aimed to compare the adaptation of two groups of migrant Chinese adolescents with their nonmigrant peers. The migrant adolescents included 55 Chinese migrant adolescents who migrated to Australia (Chinese‐Australian) and 111 China‐born adolescents who migrated to Hong Kong (Chinese‐Hong Kong). The nonmigrant adolescents included 157 Anglo‐Australian adolescents residing in Australia and 456 Hong Kong‐born Chinese adolescents residing in Hong Kong. There were three research questions in this study. First, would there be any differences in the adaptation of Chinese migrant adolescents in different societies of settlement? Second, would migrant adolescents experience more adaptation problems than nonmigrant adolescents? Third, would there be any differences in the adaptation of adolescents in the two societies, Australia and Hong Kong? It was hypothesized that: (1) mainland Chinese migrant adolescents in Hong Kong would experience more adaptation problems than Chinese migrant adolescents in Australia; (2) migrant adolescents would report better adaptation than nonmigrant adolescents; (3) adolescents in Hong Kong would report poorer adaptation than adolescents in Australia. The participants were requested to complete a questionnaire on various adaptation outcome measures including life satisfaction, self‐esteem, psychological symptoms, academic satisfaction, and behaviour problems. The results indicated that Chinese‐Australian adolescents reported better psychological adaptation but Chinese‐Hong Kong adolescents reported better sociocultural adaptation. Adolescents resident in Australia reported higher psychological adaptation but lower sociocultural adaptation than those in Hong Kong. Migrant adolescents reported better psychological and sociocultural adaptation than their nonmigrant counterparts. The results were discussed in relation to the social and educational systems of the two societies.     

The Utility of the Revised Life Orientation Test to Measure Optimism among Hong Kong Chinese

To examine the utility of the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) to measure optimism among Hong Kong Chinese, the psychometric properties of the revised and the original versions of the Life Orientation Test were compared. A total of 248 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduates were studied in the fall and 165 of these participants were tested again 5 months later. Results indicated that the LOT-R is a reliable and valid measure of dispositional optimism among Hong Kong Chinese. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the LOT-R represents a one-factor model of optimism better than does the original version. Despite its brevity, the LOT-R is psychometrically sounder than the original sclae. These findings point to the feasibility of replacing the original with the revised scale in future research among Hong Kong Chinese. However, the utility of the revised test in cross-cultural comparisons may still be limited by the absence of emic components. Further research on optimism in the Chinese people with the LOT-R should pay more attention to the identification of emic dimensions.     

Is expressive suppression always associated with poorer psychological functioning? A cross-cultural comparison between European Americans and Hong Kong Chinese

The habitual use of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy has been consistently linked to adverse outcomes in a number of domains, including psychological functioning. The present study aimed to uncover whether the suppression-health relationship is dependent on cultural context, given differing cultural norms surrounding the value of suppressing emotional displays. We hypothesized that the negative associations between suppression and psychological functioning seen in European Americans would not be seen among members of East Asian cultures, in which emotional restraint is relatively encouraged over emotional expression. To test this hypothesis, we asked 71 European American students and 100 Chinese students from Hong Kong to report on their use of expressive suppression, life satisfaction, and depressed mood. A moderation analysis revealed that expressive suppression was associated with adverse psychological functioning for European Americans, but not for Chinese participants. These findings highlight the importance of context in understanding the suppression-health relationship.     

Maternal Beliefs,Adolescent Perceived Maternal Control and Psychological Competence in Poor Chinese Female-Headed Divorced Families

Based on the data of 337 female-headed divorced families living in poverty in Hong Kong, the relationships among maternal beliefs (Chinese cultural beliefs of familism, maternal expectations of children’s future, maternal attribute of children’s achievement to effort), adolescents’ perceived maternal control and adolescent psychological competence (indexed by beliefs in the future, clear and positive identity, and resilience) were examined. Results indicated that adolescents’ perceived maternal control mediated the influence between maternal beliefs and adolescent psychological competence in poor female-headed divorced families in Hong Kong. With the paucity of research on family beliefs and indigenous parenting practice, the present study underscores the importance of maternal beliefs and maternal control on nurturing adolescent psychological competence in Chinese divorced families facing adversity, which contributes to the development of Chinese familial model of resilience. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

An epidemiological study on work and family stress among Chinese in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, with a population of over six million in a modern city, has been shown to be a very stressful place to live in. However, epidemiological data from a big-scale study in this regard are lacking. The present territory-wide survey, from a sample representative of the general population, was aimed to investigate the work and family stress of Chinese adults in the community with respect to the impact on their psychological well-being. The psychosocial context was considered as an important source of stress. The results showed that coping with work demands and rearing children were reported as the highest stress responses. Moreover, workers in Hong Kong took an instrumental attitude, i.e., one emphasizing material rewards, in order to reduce the job stress arising from interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.     

Maximum Likelihood Methods in Treating Outliers and Symmetrically Heavy-Tailed Distributions for Nonlinear Structural Equation Models with Missing Data

By means of more than a dozen user friendly packages, structural equation models (SEMs) are widely used in behavioral, education, social, and psychological research. As the underlying theory and methods in these packages are vulnerable to outliers and distributions with longer-than-normal tails, a fundamental problem in the field is the development of robust methods to reduce the influence of outliers and the distributional deviation in the analysis. In this paper we develop a maximum likelihood (ML) approach that is robust to outliers and symmetrically heavy-tailed distributions for analyzing nonlinear SEMs with ignorable missing data. The analytic strategy is to incorporate a general class of distributions into the latent variables and the error measurements in the measurement and structural equations. A Monte Carlo EM (MCEM) algorithm is constructed to obtain the ML estimates, and a path sampling procedure is implemented to compute the observed-data log-likelihood and then the Bayesian information criterion for model comparison. The proposed methodologies are illustrated with simulation studies and an example. The research described herein was fully supported by a grant (CUHK 4243/03H) from the Rearch Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region. The authors are thankful to the Editor, the Associate Editor, and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments which improve the paper significantly, and are grateful to ICPSR and the relevant funding agency for allowing the use of their data. Requests for reprints should be sent to S. Y. Lee, Department of Statistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong.     

ACCULTURATION, INTERNALIZATION OF WESTERN APPEARANCE NORMS, AND EATING PATHOLOGY AMONG JAPANESE AND CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT WOMEN

In the context of the sociocultural model of eating disorders, this study investigated the hypothesis that Westernization would be positively associated with eating pathology among non-Western women. International participants from Japan ( n = 26), Peoples Republic of China ( n = 25), Taiwan ( n = 30), and Hong Kong ( n = 25) who were studying in the United States completed the Eating Attitudes Test, Symptoms Checklist, Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire, the American–International Relations Survey, and a demographic questionnaire. Awareness and internalization of Western appearance norms were positively associated with eating disordered symptoms, but acculturation was not. Results lend further support for the sociocultural model. It is suggested that measures of eating pathology and acculturation be closely examined with respect to their cross-cultural relevance, particularly when conducting research involving international populations.     

Antecedents of career exploration among Hong Kong Chinese university students: Testing contextual and developmental variables

In this study we investigate the antecedents of career exploration. We apply the perspectives of Flum and Blustein [Flum, H., & Blustein, D. L. (2000). Reinvigorating the study of vocational exploration: A framework for research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 380-404] for the first time in Hong Kong, and we also test culture-specific factors in exploration. A quantitative research study was conducted with Chinese students from a university in Hong Kong over a period of up to six months to examine relationships between career exploration and its antecedent variables. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of 271 students and a longitudinal sample of 101 students who participated in either a student internship or a series of career seminars. The results demonstrated that relational support and prior career exploration were related consistently to career exploration as hypothesized, but the claim that achievement motivation is an antecedent of exploration received only limited support. The framework of Flum and Blustein [Flum, H., & Blustein, D. L. (2000). Reinvigorating the study of vocational exploration: A framework for research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 380-404] was found very relevant in our conceptualization and analysis of career exploration in the Hong Kong context. Implications of this study are discussed and suggestions are made to further extend career exploration research in Hong Kong and other Chinese societies.     

Mindfulness Based Flourishing Program: A Cross-Cultural Study of Hong Kong Chinese and British Participants

The Mindfulness Based Flourishing Program (MBFP) is an online 8-week intervention developed for enhancing wellbeing with the use of mindfulness practices, through targeting a range of positive variables. The efficacy of the MBFP has been demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial, and in order to further establish it as an intervention with widespread application, cross-cultural validation is warranted. The current study was conducted with the primary aim of testing the validity of the MBFP with a Hong Kong Chinese population, as well as verifying its positive effects. A randomized wait-list controlled design was adopted with 115 participants (92 females, mean age = 31.50). Intervention outcomes were compared between Hong Kong Chinese and British participants. Five positive variables were examined (self-compassion, meaning in life, positive and negative emotions, gratitude, and mindfulness), and measures were taken pre- and post-intervention. Significant gains in wellbeing measures were observed in both the Hong Kong Chinese and the British experimental groups. Levels of wellbeing post-intervention were also higher for the two experimental groups as compared to their control counterparts. The current study provides preliminary evidence for the MBFP’s cross-cultural validity, and strengthens previous claims for its efficacy as a new, accessible alternative for enhancing wellbeing.     

Using a small sample Q sort to identify item groups

A small sample of 40 second-year university students in Hong Kong were asked to perform a Q sort on the 36 items of a questionnaire used to assess six dimensions of student approaches to learning, the Learning Process Questionnaire. Participants were instructed to sort the items into as many groups as they liked with the only conditions being that all items within a group be as similar as possible in perceived meaning and that no item be placed into more than one group. By treating participants' responses as a form of multiple-choice data and by applying optimal scaling, three solutions were obtained. A two-dimensional plot of the optimal item scores for the first two solutions yielded 10 clearly defined item clusters suggesting a possible ten-factor model as opposed to the six-factor model found in studies of this questionnaire. The implications of using this approach to identify potential competing factor models, especially within a cross-cultural context, are discussed.     

Development of Family Therapy in Hong Kong

This paper provides an insight into the development and growth of family therapy in Hong Kong. Family therapy was introduced in Hong Kong in the early 1980s and is now gaining ground. The authors give a historical account of the development of family therapy in Hong Kong, and report on its progress and achievement for the past three decades there. The field has gone through several stages of development. The 1980s were marked by an importation of Western family therapy models, during which overseas expertise was tapped to promote family therapy. The 1990s were characterized by a blossoming of different schools of family therapy on the local scene. Most schools established their own practice centers, and training packages were tailor-made for local use. The 2000s were an important era of family therapy development in Hong Kong. The field has nurtured a new generation of leaders (both academics and front-line practitioners and trainers) who play an essential role in advancing its development. The paper concludes by identifying problems in clinical practice, professional training, and research and knowledge development, and proposes ways of overcoming these difficulties.     

Pedagogical issues in the teaching of classroom guidance curriculum—a hybrid Hong Kong case

Unlike many other places in the world, guidance lessons in Hong Kong are taught mainly by class teachers rather than school counsellors. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as East meets West and given that guidance is essentially a concept from the West, it is important to investigate what kind of pedagogy is suitable for teaching guidance in Hong Kong. This paper examines what teaching guidance lessons are like in Hong Kong for the researcher and for some primary teachers. A qualitative case study methodology is used. Data are drawn from the author's own experience in a primary school teaching attachment and interviews with guidance professionals, primary school principals, teachers and students in three selected primary schools in Hong Kong. Pedagogical issues for the teaching guidance curriculum are explored and discussed. The researcher argues for a hybrid guidance pedagogy for the teaching of classroom guidance in Hong Kong. Findings are applicable to countries facing similar issues in parallel mixed cultural settings.     

Linking Gestures: Cross-Cultural Variation During Instructional Analogies

Deictic linking gestures, hand and arm motions that physically embody links being communicated between two or more objects in the shared communicative environment, are explored in a cross-cultural sample of mathematics instruction. Linking gestures are specifically examined here when they occur in the context of communicative analogies designed to link two distinct yet mutually informative representations. Video coding of eighth-grade mathematics lessons in the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong revealed that teachers in the higher achieving regions (Hong Kong and Japan) used reliably more linking gestures concurrent with verbal linkages than did U.S. teachers. Further, they were significantly more likely to tailor their gesture use to the recency of students’ experiences with source than U.S. teachers. The overall data align with growing evidence that U.S. teachers may not systematically capitalize on pedagogical opportunities to draw linkages between representations and that gestures may play a key role in doing so.