Trajectories of Personal Well-Being Attributes Among High School Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

How personal well-being of adolescents changes over the high school period is not entirely clear in the scientific literature. Using 15 positive youth development (PYD) attributes as indicators of well-being, the current study investigated the related developmental trajectories among a large sample of Hong Kong adolescents from Grade 7 to Grade 12. Individual growth curve modeling revealed that while variation existed across different PYD attributes, nine out of 15 positive youth development attributes declined in the early adolescence but showed a rebound or a slower rate of decline in the late adolescence. The current study serves as a pioneering attempt to chart the normative profiles of Chinese adolescents’ personal well-being over time. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Transformation and Development of University Students through Service-Learning: a Corporate-Community-University Partnership Initiative in Hong Kong (Project WeCan)

“…The PYD questionnaire was originally developed and validated by Shek and Lin (2016), which was largely informed by the CPYDS discussed in Section Two. It comprises a) Positive development constructs (pretest Cronbach's α = .85, posttest Cronbach's α = .93), where they were further divided into social competence (3 items, sample item: BI know how to communicate with others^), emotional competence (3 items, sample item: BWhen I am unhappy, I can appropriately express my emotions^), cognitive competence (4 items, sample item: BI know how to find the causes of and solutions to a problem^), behavioral competence (2 items, sample item: BI can express views that are different from others^), moral competence (4 items, sample item: BI fulfill my promises^), self-determination (3 items, sample item: BI am confident about my decisions^), clear and opportunities to practice leadership everyday^), and c) other psychosocial variable, i.e.…”

The Importance of Positive Youth Development Attributes to Life Satisfaction and Hopelessness in Mainland Chinese Adolescents

“…With an interval of only 1 year, this study can be regarded as a "short-term" longitudinal study. As early Chinese adolescents encounter many adjustment problems (Shek and Lin, 2017), it would be interesting to ask whether PYD attributes predict student well-being from Grade 7 to Grade 8. Despite their limitations, short-term longitudinal studies with two waves of data collected over a short period of time are not uncommon in the field.…”

“UNHAPPY” Environment for Adolescent Development in Hong Kong

“…Besides looking at the prevalence of adolescent developmental problems, related risk and protective factors (particularly PYD attributes) are also explored in the articles. In view of the intensification of adolescent problems in Hong Kong [20,21] and lack of related review articles in the field, these articles are important. Also, as there is a negative relationship between PYD and adolescent risk behavior [5,22,23], it is important to ask how we can promote PYD in young people, which would eventually help to reduce adolescent risk behavior.…”

“…There are two reasons for this argument. First, there is evidence that young people in Hong Kong show problems in psychosocial competencies [20,21]. Second, there is a wealth of studies showing that intervention programs on psychosocial competencies promote the holistic development of young people [24,25].…”