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In Hong Kong, post-divorce families have long been conceptualised as "single parent families", thereby overlooking the fact that some non-resident parents do have continuous participation in the post-divorce families. With this over-generalised conceptualisation, social services have been focusing on bringing about successful single parenting and have ignored the possibility of post-divorce co-parenting and non-residential parenting in these families. It also reinforces the win-lose dichotomy in fighting over child custody. The author recommends re-conceptualising the post-divorce families as "binuclear families" to draw our attention to the possible participation and influence of the non-resident parents in these families. Promotion of forever-parenthood and family law reform would also help to induce change in the dominant social discourse. We need more empirical research on post-divorce families to clear the obscured picture and facilitate the formulation of an inclusive practice model with these families. Last but not least, as co-constructors of the social discourse on families in alternate forms such as post-divorce families, social work practitioners should enhance their reflexivity on family ideologies and beliefs in parent-child relationships.

基 於 离 婚 家 庭 被 等 同 於 单 亲 家 庭 的 理 解， “非 与 孩 子 同 住 的 父 ／ 母” 在 香 港 离 婚 家 庭 中 的 参 与 一 直 被 忽 略。 在 服 务 设 计 及 实 施 时 也 忽 略 了 离 婚 家 庭 中 “非 与 孩 子 同 住 的 父 ／ 母” 的 亲 职 参 与 及 “协 作 亲 职” 的 可 能， 这 理 解 也 强 化 了 孩 子 抚 养 权 于 父 母 在 离 婚 中 作 为 成 与 败 的 象 徵 意 义。 基 于 过 往 的 不 足， 作 者 提 出 在 概 念 层 面 上 以 “双 核 心 家 庭” 取 代 单 亲 家 庭 的 理 解 以 及 在 法 律 层 面、 实 务 层 面 以 至 训 练 层 面 上 所 需 作 出 的 改 革 考 虑。

強制性施虐者服務是現時香港家庭暴力防 治 服務缺少的一環。根據國外的經驗，本文展示強制性輔導的優點，並討論在現時的法律框架下，香港可以如何通過香港法例第298章《感化犯人條例》去展開法庭頒令的施虐者輔導服務。

Can governments really do anything to strengthen families? What are the implications of different policies for both governments and families? Based on his family-policy responsibilities in Hong Kong and the U.S., the author brings his own personal historical and international lessons of experience for consideration by the proposed Hong Kong commission on family-friendly policies. Competing advocates of family policies might share common historical misunderstandings and value assumptions but they can differ in their definitions of family failure and how government can help families directly through general policies or through problem-specific advocacy groups. In addition to providing the first although abbreviated history of Hong Kong's Urban Family Life Survey of the 1960s, the author proposes three charges to be included in the current commission's terms of reference and work plan.

Lone parent families are often portrayed as welfare-dependent, and social policies and social services can be hostile to and discriminating against lone parents especially in societies dominated by traditional familism, such as Hong Kong. This resentment of lone parent families has not been present throughout Hong Kong's history, but has arisen over the past decade. This paper is based on a study that traced the changing discourses of the lone parent family in Hong Kong. Adopting the Foucauldian concept of genealogy of knowledge and inspired by Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon's work on "genealogy of dependency", we trace the discourses of the lone parent family from the 1970s to the early 21st century. The term "lone parent" did not exist before the mid-1980s, and when it first appeared it was closely associated with vulnerability and charity. In the early 21st century, the lone parent discourse developed into a problematic discourse, with lone parents associated with welfare dependency, social security fraud, juvenile delinquency, family violence, and perceived as a threat to social stability. This paper notes that the "success" of this discourse may help to rationalize the cutting back of social security benefits for lone mothers and regulate welfare recipients.

In Asian societies, the sexual abuse experiences of male victims are rarely studied due to social gender role stereotype, which enforces the discourse that men are supposed to be tough and impossible to be hurt, and not to report sexual abuse. This research examines the life journey of 12 sexually abused male survivors in Hong Kong to explore their struggles. Results show: firstly, male survivors are caught in shame and excitement when talking about their abusive incidents. Shamefulness leads some of them to have negative self-esteem while excitement makes some of them addicted to sexual activities or even become homosexual; secondly, they feel insecure to tell others about it after being abused, because of masculinity identity; thirdly, relationship building is always hard for them since they do not know how to maintain distance with the others.

This paper reports research that examines general values and work values held by university students studying social work in Hong Kong. Comparison is also made with values held by similar students studying in different majors. Results indicated that social work students rated general values such as benevolence, self-direction, universalism and tradition higher than their non-social work counterparts. They also rated work values such as altruism, creativity, supervisory relations, independence and intellectual stimulation more highly. However, the social work students held lower values associated with economic returns, thus supporting a view that students with an inclination towards social work tend to espouse self-transcendence and intrinsic work values, and are less influenced by material rewards. Among the social work respondents, gender differences were found in both general and work values. Differences were also noted between the groups with different modes of study. Implications for social work education and future research are discussed.

This is a research brief on a qualitative study conducted from 2009 to 2010 in Hong Kong on the experiences of sexual violence victims in dealing with the various social systems and different professionals. The findings reveal that not only did the victims suffer from being sexually assulted, they also experienced a "secondary trauma". Secondary victimization is most serious in schools, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the judical system. The police, medical and social welfare systems need to be improved as well.

The purpose of this article is to uncover the trend of developing education courses for social entrepreneurship in higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The author had searched the syllabi or course descriptions across the websites of the higher education institutions in Hong Kong with the keywords of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. It was found that most of the social entrepreneurship courses offered were one-off single subject for undergraduate students, General Education courses, and minor courses, with only a few courses targeting postgraduates. It was also found that curricular differences among the courses offered by various schools or faculties were not that obvious. To understand this, the author had undertaken an analysis of the schools where these courses resided, course objectives, course content, and teaching and learning strategies among these various social entrepreneurship courses. Discussion of these has given insights to arguing for the need of multidisciplinary collaborations among social entrepreneurship educators.

Using a large-scale dataset from Hong Kong, this study describes the prevalence of cyberbullying and examines how gender and grade level relate to cyberbullying among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Participants were 1,855 students from secondary schools (Forms 1 to 7). Students were given an anonymous questionnaire that included a scale for reporting their experiences of cyberbullying. Responses indicated that 17.8% of students reported cyberbullying and 30.9% experienced at least one type of cyberbullying in the past three months. Curses, insults, and humiliation were the most common types of cyberbullying. Males reported higher rates of bullying and victimization than did females. The overall rates of bullying and victimization peaked in Forms 2 or 3 and in Form 6. Cyberbullying among secondary students in Hong Kong is a serious problem that needs immediate attention. Potential intervention programs should target males and students in Forms 2, 3, and 6. Programs should mainly aim to reduce online curses, insults, and humiliation by students.

A case in the Hong Kong Chinese context is presented in this paper to illustrate the use of both quantitative (Holland's SDS) and qualitative career assessment (Card Sorts) to help a 16-year-old girl overcome career indecision. Guided by both Holland's Hexagonal Career Types Theory and Socio-Cognitive Career Theory, a career counsellor can promote a client's positive changes after two counseling sessions. This case supports Tracey's (2002) and Nauta et al.'s (2002) postulated bidirectional causal path between self-efficacy and interests. In addition, it highlights that partial match instead of perfect match between Self-directed search (SDS) scores and choice of academic major is more pragmatic or effective while performing quantitative assessment. Finally, it points to the need for establishing local SDS norms, examining the Holland codes for occupations in Hong Kong, and researching the link between congruence and maximal career outcomes in future research.

This study aimed to contribute to an exploratory categorization of different adolescent drug rehabilitation service models in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews were conducted with local social workers working in the medical model setting, integrated model setting, and social model setting. There was a trend that hybrid models were used by the drug rehabilitation service providers and a shift to postmodernism was found in the current service settings.

Official data shows that in 2021, there were 1,423 street sleepers in Hong Kong (excluding other forms of homelessness). However, the Hong Kong government has only subsidized a few NGOs to operate temporary shelters and homeless hostels. In this context, the Society for Community Organization pioneered a non-government-funded program called "Friend Home Hostel," a relatively long-stay hostel. This paper reports on resident profiles in this program and scrutinizes the functions of this program, drawing on data collected from a questionnaire survey and 21 in-depth interviews. The findings from this study are used to discuss the prospects and challenges of long-stay hostels that prepare residents for pathways out of homelessness. This long-stay hostel offers a social service model for the government and other NGOs by adopting a unique practice setting in which innovative and persistent intervention can promote the health and welfare of homeless people.

Informal family long-term caregiving has become an appealing policy topic in Hong Kong in recent years. The Hong Kong Government has released a commissioned report on caregivers of the elderly and persons with disabilities. It is timely to gauge the views of the policy stakeholders accordingly. This paper uses qualitative methods to review the existing carer policies and services and collect the experience and views of caregivers and frontline workers. It investigates the issues related to informal caregivers and discusses possible future directions.

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language use and understanding. This retroactive report aimed to summarize the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lived experience of people with aphasia (PWA) and caregivers. Their perceptions of the quality and effectiveness of these services were compared with service providers (speech therapists). About half of the PWA received speech-and-language therapy during phase 1 of COVID-19 (first half of 2020), but this issue of missing therapy sessions improved in phase 2 (the third and fourth waves of infection between July 2020 and October 2021). The pandemic reduced PWA’s social interactions and increased negative emotions in PWA and caregivers. Most speech therapists only commenced telepractice after the first COVID-19 outbreak, but in-person sessions resumed in phase 2. While most service receivers were in favor of teletherapy, therapists identified limitations and recommended suggestions for future implementation.

Welfare dependency is becoming a conspicuous problem in Hong Kong. Welfare claimants are accused of being overly dependent on welfare and lacking incentive to work. Welfare is even equated with "spiritual opium", that which erodes work incentive. Lone parents and the unemployed are among the groups blamed the most. This paper produces evidence, based on our research on lone mothers in Hong Kong, to refute the accusation of welfare dependency. The arguments that lone mothers are consciously maximising their social security benefits and that they are better off on benefit, as postulated in rational choice theory, is fallacious. We should therefore try to understand the welfare dependency of lone mothers not by reference to an alleged "dependency culture", but rather through a more holistic appreciation of the interactions among a variety of structural forces such as discrimination in the labour market, gender inequality in marital relation, low wages, inadequate child care facilities and the poverty traps within the social security system.

近年福利开支的增长逐渐成为香港社会的热门话题，有人提出「综援养懒人」的论说，甚至有立法局议员将社会福利等同于「精神鸦片」，批评福利发展会削弱人的工作意愿，以致过分依赖社会福利。在这个讨论中有些社群成为被攻击的对象，例如单亲家庭、失业人士等，因为这些社群领取综援的增幅较大。本文作者曾进行几项有关单亲母亲的研究。建基于这些研究，本文铺陈出有关理据驳斥单亲母亲过分依赖综援的论说，资料显示单亲母亲并非福利太好而作出放弃工作、依赖综援的「理性选择」。反之，因为种种结构性的因素如传统的性别观念、缺乏工作机会、低工资、缺乏劳工保障、性别及年龄歧视、家庭责任歧视、缺乏幼儿服务、家庭支援服务不足、缺乏房屋服务等，以致单亲母亲被困于贫穷中。要解决这个问题，我们需要改善有关服务及各服务间的相互配合，而非靠削减综援金额。

This paper reviews the flexible notion of Chinese citizenship and compares the teaching and learning of citizenship in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in recent decades. Collectively called the “three Chinas,” each of the societies has its own political history and ruling ideology, even if they all are identified as Confucius-heritage societies. Each society, however, has also endured significant social, economic, and/or political changes in the past three decades or so and they currently represent three distinct stages of democratization and corresponding phases of educational reforms. In what ways does the present-day citizenship education in each of the societies reflect her political history and identity and differ from each other in curriculum priorities and pedagogical practices? In what sense is there commonness in the conceptualization and teaching of citizenship across these Chinese societies? After a review of literature, we present preliminary findings of a primary survey conducted in December 2013 of secondary school teachers who teach the subject of political and citizenship education, as well as college students in-training to teach the subject. In the analysis, we also compare current findings to similar empirical research done in the recent past, both in China as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, to gauge the degree of continuity and change in the meanings of “good” citizenship, and practice of citizenship education in each society as viewed by subject teachers.

Mainland China and Hong Kong are two representatives during the Cold War, standing on the opposite side. They had close connections in the past, and share much similarities at the present. After the Cold War, particularly after the handover in 1997, many migrants moved to Hong Kong to seek more opportunities and became connected with the world. This study will review the flow of the students from Mainland China and Hong Kong pursuing their higher education. Particularly, a comparative study in a longer period will be examined, including the flow of the Hong Kong students to Mainland China for higher education before 1949, the stagnation during the Cold War, as well as the flow from Mainland China to Hong Kong after 1997.