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• This study examined the impacts of a tiered program on children's socioemotional competence, behavioral adjustment, and pre-academic skills. • The program targeted second-year kindergarten students' socioemotional skills and provided additional training to third-year students with socioemotional difficulties. • After completing the program, children showed better socioemotional competence, behavioral adjustment, and pre-academic skills. Despite the importance of socioemotional competence, few social and emotional learning programs have been developed for and evaluated with non-Western communities. The Early Prevention, Early Identification, and Early Intervention Program is a tiered, school-based program targeting the socioemotional skills of all second-year kindergarten students in Chinese communities with the Little Garden Curriculum and providing additional training to third-year kindergarten students with socioemotional difficulties with the Little Greenhouse Curriculum. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial, this study examined the impacts of the program on 999 children (mean age in the pretest = 4.25 years; 48 % were girls) from 18 kindergartens from Hong Kong, China. Using kindergartens as clusters, children were randomly assigned to undertake the Little Garden Curriculum (n = 624) or join the wait-list control group (n = 375). Furthermore, children who had completed the Little Garden Curriculum but still showed socioemotional difficulties were randomly assigned to undertake the Little Greenhouse Curriculum (n = 87) or join the wait-list control group (n = 50). In other words, the intervention kindergartens used for the evaluation of the Little Garden Curriculum were randomly assigned into a new intervention group or a new wait-list control group for the evaluation of the Little Greenhouse Curriculum. In pre- and posttests, teachers rated children's socioemotional competence and behavioral adjustment, and children completed reading and arithmetic tasks. Results indicated that—controlling for child age, gender, and prior scores—children who had completed the Little Garden Curriculum showed better socioemotional competence, behavioral adjustment, and pre-academic skills (ten out of 12 outcome variables). Moreover, children who had completed the Little Greenhouse Curriculum showed higher scores on six out of 12 outcome measures. Findings highlighted the utility of using culturally relevant programs to improve the socioemotional competence of Chinese children at both the universal and the indicated levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The school is one of the most salient developmental contexts for children. However, little is known about the associations linking the school environment to child adjustment in a non‐Western context, not to mention the potential processes that may mediate these associations. Aims: This study examined the associations of school‐ and classroom‐level characteristics with child adjustment and tested whether these associations were mediated by teacher–child relationship qualities. Sample: Cross‐sectional data were collected on a representative sample of 1777 children (mean age = 55.14 months; 50% of them were girls) from 100 kindergartens in Hong Kong, China. Methods: Using self‐reported questionnaires, teachers rated their school‐level environments, their classroom chaos, their closeness and conflict with children and children's socioemotional competence and academic ability. Meanwhile, parents rated children's behavioural problems. Results: Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed that the school‐level environment and classroom chaos were uniquely associated with children's socioemotional, behavioural and academic adjustment. Moreover, the associations of the school‐level environment and classroom chaos with child socioemotional and academic adjustment were mediated by teacher–child closeness and conflict, whereas the associations of the school‐level environment and classroom chaos with child behavioural problems were mediated by teacher–child conflict only. Conclusions: Findings indicated how school‐ and classroom‐level characteristics may be uniquely associated with child adjustment and how teacher–child relationships may be implicated in the underlying mechanism, highlighting the potential utility of targeting school‐ and classroom‐level environments and teacher–child relationships in promoting child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We investigated how parental financial socialization was related to Hong Kong young adults' financial behaviors and well‐being amid COVID‐19. Background: We extended existing literature by including two types of financial behaviors: healthy money management (e.g., spending within budget) and financial enabling (i.e., overgiving and sharing financial resources). We focused on well‐being in financial and nonfinancial domains (i.e., financial well‐being and hopelessness, respectively). We also considered moderating roles of gender, family socioeconomic status (SES), and income changes during COVID‐19. Methods: We collected cross‐sectional survey data from 604 Hong Kong young adults and conducted structural equation modeling. Results: Parental financial socialization, on the one hand, promoted well‐being via healthier money management. On the other hand, parental financial socialization increased financial enabling and reduced well‐being. The examined associations varied across gender, family SES, and income changes during COVID‐19. Conclusions: Parental financial socialization was a "double‐edged" sword, and the examined associations varied for young adults with diverse experiences across gender, family SES, and income changes during COVID‐19. Implications: Efforts are needed to strengthen desired consequences and alleviate undesired ones of parental financial socialization. The different needs and experiences of young adults deserve attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: This cross-sectional study examined the class- and child-level associations of social-emotional competence with behavioral and academic adjustment among Chinese kindergarten children and tested teacher collectivistic socialization goals as a moderator. Participants were 523 kindergarten children and their mothers and class teachers from Hong Kong, China. The mean age of children was 4.37 years (SD = 0.60), and 53% of them were boys. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, class teachers rated children's social-emotional competence and their own socialization goals, and mothers rated children's externalizing behaviors and school readiness and provided demographic information. Also, in structured interviews, children completed a Chinese word reading test. Multilevel models indicated that, controlling for child gender and age, mother age and education, and teacher experience of teaching, the class average of child social-emotional competence – which indicated the overall social-emotional climate of the classroom – was linked negatively to child externalizing behaviors and positively to child school readiness and Chinese word reading ability. Moreover, children who scored higher on social-emotional competence – compared to their own class average (i.e., their everyday companions) – scored lower on externalizing behaviors and higher on school readiness. There was no evidence of the moderating role of teacher socialization goals, however. Practice or Policy: Findings pointed to the utility of using class-wide initiatives to promote the overall classroom climate and using child-specific activities to promote individual social-emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of a bilingual Chinese-English reading program on Chinese children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families. Ninety-nine children in the third year of kindergarten (K3) were recruited from five local kindergartens in two low-SES districts in Hong Kong, China. Children in the intervention group who participated in 15-weeks of language and literacy intervention were compared to a control group of 40 children who attended only regular literacy classes in their kindergartens. ANCOVA analyses revealed that after controlling for child gender and age, the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on the posttest in Chinese phonological awareness and morphological awareness, English phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and English word reading. These results point to a reading program's utility, emphasizing multi-component interventions for early bilingual language and literacy learning. Practice or Policy: Findings support the development of locally derived, evidence-based reading programs to cater to low-SES children's learning needs. These findings may also provide research-based evidence for formulating public policies and services, targeting the early language and literacy issues for low-SES children and their families and raising public awareness of the influence of poverty on child development in the early years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the latent structure of socioemotional competence among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong, China, developing and validating a culturally relevant, teacher-reported measure, the Chinese Inventory of Children's Socioemotional Competence (CICSEC). Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected on two samples of children from Hong Kong (N1 = 1,731; N2 = 475). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that, children's socioemotional competence was best represented by a two-level, four-factor model, a model that was invariant across child gender and grade levels. Four first-level factors, cognitive control, emotion expressivity, empathy and prosocial behaviors, and emotion regulation, were identified, and they were subsumed under a second-level, overarching factor: socioemotional competence. CICSEC demonstrated many good psychometric properties: The entire scale and the four subscales exhibited excellent internal consistencies. Moreover, it demonstrated criterion validity by being correlated positively with school readiness and negatively with problem behaviors. It also demonstrated incremental validity by explaining unique variance in school readiness, above and beyond an existing measure of children's socioemotional competence. Practice or policy: Findings pointed to the advantages of using culturally specific, locally derived measures in assessing socioemotional competence and understanding child adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The childhood suicidality in Hong Kong is as high as that of the older adolescents. • Depression, bullying, and loneliness are common risk factors for childhood and adolescent suicidality. • Growth mindset and self-compassion are protective factors of childhood and adolescent suicidality. • More age-specific, contextual, and culturally relevant initiatives can be developed for young people suicide prevention002E. Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people worldwide. Few studies examined the factors of childhood suicidality and compared them with adolescent suicidality to meet their age-specific needs. We examined the similarities and differences in risk and protective factors of children and adolescent suicidality in Hong Kong. A school-based survey with 541 students in grades 4–6 and 3,061 students in grades 7–11 from 15 schools was conducted. We measured the demographic, familial, school, mental health, and psychological factors of suicidality. Hierarchical binary logistic regressions were performed to examine the association between correlates and child and youth suicidality, and the interaction effects of these factors and school-age groups. Approximately 17.51% and 7.84% of secondary school respondents and 15.76% and 8.17% of primary school respondents reported suicidal ideation and attempt, respectively. Common correlates for suicidal ideation were depression, bullying, loneliness, self-compassion, and growth mindset, while those for suicide attempt were depression and bullying. Secondary school respondents with higher life satisfaction reported less suicidal ideation, while primary school respondents with higher self-control reported fewer suicide attempts. In conclusion, we recommended recognizing the factors of suicidal ideation and attempt in children and adolescents to tailor preventive strategies in a culturally sensitive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the association of parental self-stigma with child adjustment, and whether parenting self-efficacy and parenting distress mediated the association. Cross-sectional data were collected from 186 families living with kindergarten children identified to have disabilities in Hong Kong, China (mean age = 61.62 months; 76% of them were boys). Using questionnaires, 173 mothers and 112 fathers reported their own self-stigma, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting distress, as well as their children's prosocial behaviors and externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Multigroup, path analyses revealed a group-invariant model for both mothers and fathers. Controlling for children's gender and age, parents' self-stigma was linked to fewer prosocial behaviors and more externalizing and internalizing behaviors among children. Moreover, such links were partially mediated by parenting self-efficacy, but not parenting distress. Theoretically, the findings highlighted the importance of considering family processes when examining the potential impact of parental self-stigma on child adjustment. Practically, the findings pointed to the utility of helping both mothers and fathers to deal with public stigma and increase their parenting self-efficacy in supporting the development of children with disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]