Life Satisfaction, Positive Youth Development, and Problem Behaviour Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships among life satisfaction, positive youth development, and problem behaviour. A total of 7,975 Secondary One students (4,169 boys and 3,387 girls; with most aged 12) of Chinese ethnicity recruited from 48 schools responded to validated measures of life satisfaction, positive youth development and problem behaviour. While life satisfaction was positively correlated with different measures of positive youth development, these measures were negatively correlated with measures of substance abuse, delinquency and intention to engage in problem behaviour. Based on a series of structural equation models, a non-recursive model was found to best fit the data, which suggests that adolescents having higher levels of positive youth development are more satisfied with life and have fewer problem behaviour, with life satisfaction and problem behaviour negatively reinforcing each other.

Prevalence and associated factors of emotional and behavioural problems in Chinese school adolescents: a cross‐sectional survey

“…Parental factors were significant predictors of emotional and behavioural problems with poor parent–adolescent relationship the strongest predictor of risk. Previous studies have suggested that parent–child interaction is a significant predictor for behaviour outcome (Hemphill & Littlefield ) and children experiencing parent–child conflicts have poor mental health (Sun & Shek ). It is also reported that that good parent–child communications decrease the prevalence of delinquency (Cernkovich & Giordano ).…”

“…Furthermore, negative life events in the family have been reported to increase the risk for psychopathology in adolescents (Harland et al . ) and parent–child conflicts to be predictive of adolescent behavioural problems (Hemphill & Littlefield ; Sun & Shek ).…”

“…Children of single parent and step-parent have been reported to have more behavioural problems than in intact families (Zukauskiene et al 2003). Furthermore, negative life events in the family have been reported to increase the risk for psychopathology in adolescents (Harland et al 2002) and parent-child conflicts to be predictive of adolescent behavioural problems (Hemphill & Littlefield 2006;Sun & Shek 2010).…”

The Psychological Well-being of East Asian Youth

“…With a sampling number of 7,975 junior secondary-school students in Hong Kong, Sun and Shek (2010) found that 25.8 % of respondents had drank, 11.4 % involved with vandalism, 10 % assaulted, 6.7 % ran away from home, 6.2 % truanted, and 3.4 % had sexual relationships with others in the past 6 months. In particular, 19.4 % of the respondents reported that they had committed vandalism, 18.3 % truanted, 13.1 % smoked or drank, 11 % were involved with violent behaviors, 3 % ran away from home, and 1.4 % had sexual relationships with others.…”

Psychological Correlates of Violent and Non‐violent Hong Kong Juvenile Probationers

“…High SWLS scores indicate a more positive self‐evaluation of subjective well‐being. Sample items include, “In most ways my life is close to my ideal”, and, “If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.” The internal consistency of the SWLS was reported to be at an acceptable level in recent studies with Hong Kong Chinese participants (ranging from 0.74 to 0.87; Chan, ; Shek, ; Sun & Shek, ). Similarly, the α coefficient of this study was 0.84, which was regarded to indicate a high internal consistency.…”