Ethnicity, level of study, gender, religious affiliation and life satisfaction of adolescents from diverse cultures in Hong Kong

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 776-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celeste Y.M. Yuen
Author(s):  
Xiang Li ◽  
Daniel T. L. Shek ◽  
Esther Y. W. Shek

Although mental health problems among Hong Kong university students are serious, there is a lack of studies examining the psychometric properties of related assessment scales and correlates. This study attempted to validate the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in Hong Kong university students and examine the demographic (gender), time (cohort), and well-being correlates (positive youth development attributes and life satisfaction) of psychological morbidity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the DASS (n = 6704). Gender and cohort invariance were further established using a multigroup CFA. The three-factor model of the DASS showed a superior fit and factorial invariance across gender and five different cohorts. Regarding gender and cohort correlates of psychological morbidity, males exhibited more depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms than their female counterparts. The intensity of psychological distress also escalated after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Furthermore, well-being measures (positive youth development and life satisfaction) were negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. In short, the Chinese DASS demonstrated good psychometric properties. This study also showed that gender, cohort (occurrence of political events), and well-being were associated with psychological morbidity indexed by the DASS measures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-202
Author(s):  
Wangqiong Ye ◽  
Rolf Strietholt ◽  
Sigrid Blömeke

AbstractAcademic resilience refers to students’ capacity to perform highly despite a disadvantaged background. Although most studies using international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data defined academic resilience with two criteria, student background and achievement, their conceptualizations and operationalizations varied substantially. In a systematic review, we identified 20 ILSA studies applying different criteria, different approaches to setting thresholds (the same fixed ones across countries or relative country-specific ones), and different threshold levels. Our study on the validity of these differences and how they affected the composition of academically resilient students revealed that the classification depended heavily on the threshold applied. When a fixed background threshold was applied, the classification was likely to be affected by the developmental state of a country. This could result in an overestimation of the proportions of academically resilient students in some countries while an underestimation in others. Furthermore, compared to the application of a social or economic capital indication, applying a cultural capital indicator may lead to lower shares of disadvantaged students classified as academically resilient. The composition of academically resilient students varied significantly by gender and language depending on which indicator of human capital or which thresholds were applied reflecting underlying societal characteristics. Conclusions drawn from such different results depending on the specific conceptualizations and operationalizations would vary greatly. Finally, our study utilizing PISA 2015 data from three countries representing diverse cultures and performance levels revealed that a stronger sense of belonging to a school significantly increased the chances to be classified as academically resilient in Peru, but not in Norway or Hong Kong. In contrast, absence from school was significantly associated with academic resilience in Norway and Hong Kong, but not in Peru.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore N Greenstein

*This paper uses materials from the World Values Survey and the EuropeanValues Study from 2006-2014 to study the relationship of gender and maritalstatus to life satisfaction. In an analysis of 103,217 respondents from 81nations I find that while there do not seem to be main effects of gender onlife satisfaction – that is, women are no more or less satisfied with theirlives than are men -- gender moderates the effects of geographical region,age, employment status, education, religious affiliation, and attendance ofreligious services on life satisfaction. In particular, there aresubstantial differences in the effects of marital status on lifesatisfaction by gender. The gender differences in most effects are sosubstantial that I argue that it makes no sense to analyze lifesatisfaction data without performing separate analyses by gender. *


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chee Hon Chan

Abstract Background Research has highlighted that satisfaction in health and social support are key areas of life affecting individual’s wellbeing. Many social and public health initiatives use these two intervention mechanisms to improve individual’s wellbeing. For the purpose of cost-benefit assessment, there has been growing interest in expressing these intervention effects in economic terms. However, only a handful of studies have ever estimated these effects in economic terms, and none of which examined in a Chinese context. The aim of this study is to extend this line of valuation work to estimate the implicit willingness-to-pays on the effects of improving individuals’ self-rated health status (SRH) and social support (SS) on their life satisfaction in the Chinese population. Methods Using individual’s life satisfaction data from a two-wave representative panel survey in Hong Kong (n = 1,109), this study first conducted a cross-lagged analysis with structural equation modelling technique to examine the causal effects of SRH and SS on life satisfaction, while simultaneously adjusting their reverse causal influences. The use of this cross-lagged approach was the effort to minimising the endogeneity problem. Then, substituting the respective estimates to the formulae of compensating surplus, the marginal rate of substitution of SRH and SS with respect to individual’s equivalised monthly household were estimated and were then expressed as the willingness-to-pays on the effect of improving individuals’ SRH and SS on their life satisfaction. Results The cross-lagged analysis ascertained the casual effects of SRH (β = 0.078, 95%CI: 0.020, 0.151) and SS on individuals’ satisfaction with life. The sample’s marginal rate of substitution of SRH and SS were found to be 1.28 (95%CI: 0.43, 2.15) and 1.36 (95%CI: 0.23, 2.49) respectively. Translating into the concept of compensating surplus, the implicit monetary values of improving the sample’s SRH from “poor health” to “excellent health” and their SS from “little support” to “a lot of support” are equivalent to an increase in their equivalised monthly household income by HK$56,000 and HK$39,400 respectively. Conclusions This study has implications for the cost-benefit assessment in wellbeing initiatives for the Chinese population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-336
Author(s):  
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao ◽  
Kevin Wong ◽  
Po-san Wan ◽  
Victor Zheng

This article, which is based on a comparative telephone survey conducted in 2016, examines the relationship between social mobility experience and the life satisfaction of people aged 18 to 35 in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Using both objective and subjective measures of social mobility, we found that young people’s perceptions of their own social mobility and that of the entire youth population correlated positively with life satisfaction. However, the objective upward experiences of intragenerational and intergenerational mobility did not have a significant effect on life satisfaction. In addition, the objective upward experiences of individuals were found to be uncorrelated with the perceptions of their own social mobility and that of the entire youth population. These findings suggest that young people will not become more satisfied even if they themselves have actually experienced upward mobility, because their positive perception of social mobility depends on whether they can move upward to their desired status. It is the expected social mobility and the competence to achieve rather than the actual past mobility experience that could affect the life satisfaction of the young generation in Taiwan and Hong Kong.


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