Parents in a loving and caring relationship is crucial to Hong Kong children's happiness, Lingnan University survey finds

27 Sep 2012

 
 

A caring and loving relationship between parents, and parents’ respect for children’s views and privacy are what Hong Kong children value the most in defining their happiness. While financial well-being is clearly important, it is far less important than having a warm, loving family that promotes effective communication and avoids strongly worded rebukes and disciplinary actions, according to the results of the latest happiness survey conducted by the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) of Lingnan University.

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From left: Prof Ho Lok-sang, Director of CPPS, Lingnan University; Dr C B Chow, Board Chairman of Early Childhood Development Research Foundation, and Dr Henry Au Yeung, Chairman of Fund Raising of ECDRF.
This study was commissioned by the Early Childhood Development Research Foundation and sponsored by Henderson Land Group. Conducted between November 2011 and January 2012, the survey covered 1,025 senior primary school and junior secondary school students aged between 8 and 17 from 14 primary schools and 15 secondary schools. Where possible, the sampled data was paired up with data provided by one of the child’s parents for analysis.

Like previous surveys, Happiness is found to be crucially determined by Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement (collectively known as the “LIFE scores”), each of which is measured on an 11-point scale from 0 to 10. If the child loves the parents and enjoys good relations with his/her parents (Love); if the child has a good sense of balance and understand success more in terms of achieving one’s potential than in terms of specific outcomes (Insight); if the child is able to face adversity (Fortitude); and if the child is actively engaged (Engagement), he or she will most likely be happy.

Children’s Love score can be attributed to a good relationship between the father and mother, parents’ respect for children’s opinions and privacy as perceived by the children, as well as parents’ attention to their children’s academic performance and extra-curricular activities. Together these factors contribute to over 63% of the child’s Love score.

Other key findings of the survey are summarised as follows:

Happiness declines with the children’s age and grade

On a scale of 0-10, children’s happiness keeps declining as they grow up and as they move up to more senior classes, falling from about 8 at the age of eight to below 6 at the age of 16. An average happiness score close to 6 is quite worrying, because it suggests that a significant number of children have a happiness score of below 6. The average happiness score for Secondary Two and Secondary Three were 6.40 and 6.29 respectively at local schools (somewhat higher, at 6.67 for secondary students at the international school in our sample). These are much lower than the Hong Kong average of around 7 in the adult surveys of recent years. The happiness score falls from 8.28 at Primary Four to 6.29 at Secondary Three among local schools. There is a similar decline at international schools, although we have only one international primary school and one international secondary school in our sample. The decline in happiness from Primary Four to Primary Five from 7.89 to 6.96 is especially striking, and is quite likely related to the high school work pressures in Primary Five, as grades from internal examinations are submitted to the government for secondary school placement.

The respondents’ LIFE scores also show a distinct decline with age except for the Engagement score, which refers to active participation in family activities and is thus comparatively narrow in scope. It continues to rise through Secondary Two to 6.68 but suddenly drops to 5.80 at Secondary Three.

LIFE scores transmit effects of religiosity

Religiosity appears to contribute positively to happiness too. However, tests indicate that religiosity works through the LIFE variables. There is no independent effect of religiosity on happiness when the LIFE variables are included in explaining happiness.

According to the survey results, the older the parents are, the less happy their children will be. This is likely to be related to an inter-generation gap between older parents and their young children. But tests indicate that if children feel that their opinions and privacy are respected by their parents, the age gap is no longer a problem.

Parents’ better education does not guarantee family happiness

Most of the children surveyed (about 65%) reported they have a happy, loving family. About 9% of the children reported low family happiness. In terms of actual behaviour, 59% of children come from families that can be characterised as loving and harmonious, while 3% of the children come from families characterised as disharmonious.

Tests indicate that loving family behaviour helps foster a perception of happy family. As explained earlier, a loving relationship between the parents is the strongest driver of children’s Love score. Financial well-being is also an important factor for happy families.

A surprising result is that better education on the part of the parents does not necessarily translate into happier families. This could be related to the stronger pressures on the children to live up to a higher expectation — their own or their parents’.

Another surprising result is that having siblings does not guarantee happier families either. Indeed, families with more than one child are more likely to be disharmonious. There is little doubt that having more than one child poses extra challenges on the family.

Adolescence a big challenge for parents

Parents who are better educated and enjoy higher incomes tend to be happier, although the happiness score of parents with monthly household income of more than HK$50,000 shows a slight dip.

The happiness score of parents peaks when their children reach 13 years of age and declines afterwards, falling from 7.05 to 6.41 when the children reach 15-17. This is noticeably lower than the average happiness of Hong Kong adults interviewed in the annual surveys.

Parents of girls tend to be happier than those of boys, as the survey results show. In addition, parents’ happiness tends to rise as the children’s happiness grows, but children’s happiness appears not so much related to parents’ happiness.

People and pressure key to happy schooling

Good teachers, good classmates and an interesting curriculum are important for children to enjoy schooling — in descending order of importance. Perhaps contrary to public expectations, the percentage of children who enjoy school life is higher in local schools than international schools, particularly for those in primary school. When asked about the bullying experience of children, it does not appear to be a serious problem in our sample.

Quite surprising is the fact that children’s happiness seems to be more adversely affected by pressures from extra-curricular activities than those from school work. The happiness scores of respondents with low and medium level of pressures from extra-curricular activities are 7.27 and 6.6 respectively, significantly lower than 7.75 and 6.91 of those with low and medium academic pressures. Respondents with high pressures from school work and extra-curricular activities have the same happiness score at 6.05.

Enclosed: PowerPoint presentation of the survey results

About Centre for Public Policy Studies, Lingnan University

The Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) of Lingnan University was established in 1994 to provide coordination and support for public policy research and exchange of ideas pertinent to the Hong Kong context. Research fellows of the Centre have conducted research and published widely in many areas of public policy, including housing, labour, health, public finance, social security, industrial policy, and financial markets. Their expertise is widely recognised and provides a solid basis for both commissioned and self-initiated policy research.