The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work

Depression is a significant public health issue, particularly in young adults of university age, and it is important to explore a protective factor to minimize the adverse effects of negative emotions. This study examined the mediating role of two hope components, agency thinking and pathways thinking, in the association between negative emotions and depressive symptoms in university students. Three hundred and fifteen Chinese undergraduates (211 females and 104 males) participated in this study (mean age = 22.08 years; SD = 2.74). The participants were invited to complete a self-administered online questionnaire measuring negative emotions, hope and depressive symptoms. In terms of bootstrapped mediation testing, the results indicated that negative emotions were partially associated with depressive symptoms through pathways thinking, but not agency thinking. These findings consolidate the complex nature of hope, and suggest that hope (through pathways thinking in particular) can be a protective factor in terms of university students' psychological outcomes. Possible explanations and clinical implications of our findings are discussed.

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.

Research in social work today is extensive and diverse, which is why it is justified to illuminate the concept of "research-based social work." Since different connotations — that is linguistic meanings — can be attached to the concept, it needs linguistic clarification. In this paper, the concept is outlined from a linguistic point of view by specifying its intensions. In conclusion, research-based social work is proving to be a key concept in modern social work, for which the meanings associated with the concept vary under different contexts. A kind of universal view of the concept is to understand it to refer to the acquisition and application of research-based information and the adherence to a style of working in accordance with scientific conventions to ensure the quality of good practice in social work.

Although the global movement to support early childhood well-being has resulted in the development and expansion of many programs to support early development and learning, most of these programs fall short of meeting the needs of highly vulnerable young children and their families. This paper discusses the complex, multiple needs of these children and their families and the importance of providing them with the comprehensive, customized services needed to address the many challenges these families face, particularly challenges caused by poverty. It includes an examination of the characteristics of programs and services that appear to hold promise for meeting the needs of these families and improving outcomes for highly vulnerable infants and young children, and why such extra-strength programs and services are scarce. The paper then explores the ways in which social workers can engage at both the practice and the policy level to address inequality and other forms of injustice and ensure that these programs and services are sufficiently available to the young children and families who desperately need them.

Since Esping-Andersen [(1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. New York: Wiley] classified 18 capitalist countries into "three worlds of welfare capitalism", comparative studies of welfare have been dominated by his work and the responses to it. This paper focuses on two important responses. Firstly, there is a criticism that East Asian welfare regimes have not been given sufficient attention in the study by Esping-Andersen (1990). Secondly, analysts have doubts about the assumption that welfare regimes have a high degree of internal policy cohesion. To make contributions to these two responses, two analytical tasks are conducted. Firstly, new health care, education and leave benefits policy domains covering 16 East Asian and European capitalist countries/territories are built. Secondly, evidence generated from these policy domains is used to inform the discussion of two arguments: (i) there is a lack of essential conditions for East Asian countries/territories to form their own unique category of welfare regime in the areas of education, health care and leave benefits; and (ii) welfare regimes have a high degree of internal policy cohesion.

源起於一個卑微的心願 — 讓身心俱疲的照顧者享有空閑時間，我們創立了「照顧者咖啡室」，希望藉此為照顧者爭取屬於她們的休息時間和空間，亦把照顧者議題推動到另一層次。「照顧者咖啡室」為無酬的照顧者提供一個喘息空間，讓她們放下日常照顧責任，藉著融合了婦女義工的手沖的咖啡、花茶和手工鬆餅，營造出友善的氛圍，讓照顧者從中放鬆身心、聊天，從而了解更多社會服務資訊，甚至連繫相關資源（香港婦女中心協會 2019: 7）。

近代在推行社工服務的過程中，都開始著重服務使用者有更大的參與。但是，在本地的社工教學中，服務使用者參與並未得到應有的重視和推廣，社工教育未有多思考和討論如何引入服務使用者參與去促進社工教學。本文的目的就是探討服務使用者參與和社工教學的關係，討論服務使用者參與對社工專業訓練的作用，更會介紹筆者在香港引入服務使用者參與的社工教學方法和經驗，分析應用這些方法的成效，最後總結引入服務使用者參與的社工教學方法對社工教育的啟示。

With the rapid development of technology, smartphones have become indispensable in our daily lives. Youths, in particular, are highly dependent on virtual technology, which is the primary means they use to interact with the outside world and acquire information. In response, the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, Hong Kong developed a virtual-based program namely the "Jockey Club YouChallenge Programme" (YouChallenge) for disadvantaged youth in 2017. "YouChallenge" aimed at increasing the positive and meaningful experience of disadvantaged youth through different tasks, to guide them to build a healthy living pattern by avoiding high-risk behaviors. This program was meant to be a ground-breaking intervention by implementing the online gamification strategy, and it repackaged social service as a game with different types of tasks that were then delivered to youths via a smartphone App. A pilot study was conducted to validate its impact. Results suggest that the online-gamification approach was more effective in reaching hidden youth than the conventional face-to-face approach, especially for those who could easily be neglected with conventional methods. Their pro-living index and living patterns were improved and the likelihood of high-risk behaviors was reduced. Unlike the conventional social services, this program was built on a smartphone App to get in touch with the youth and navigate them from virtual social media to reality to develop practical skills and pro-social goals in life.

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.