Using the experience from the United States on positive youth development, researchers in Hong Kong developed the Project P.A.T.H.S., trained the potential program implementers and evaluated the developed programs. Because of the overwhelming success of the project in Hong Kong, the project was piloted in mainland China for several years. This project (supported by the Tin Ka Ping Foundation) was piloted in four cities in East China (Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou and Yangzhou) from 2011 to 2014. In this book, we present the training program in mainland China and also a leadership project for university students at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The chapters underscore the importance of evaluation, and we hope that the findings will motivate university teachers and others to utilise positive youth development principles within and outside of Hong Kong.

Young people are expected to learn academic or technical knowledge in a manufacturing economy, which can be referred to as hard skills (for example, to produce a car through assembly lines). In many countries today, countries have been shifting from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, which has resulted in young people expecting to gain skills that are non-technical and widely transferable to different settings. This skills are referred to as soft skills, which are basically related to the qualities of an individual. In this book, the authors include several chapters on soft skills development in adolescents with particular reference to Chinese culture. This book includes conclusions based on the data collected from the third year of the community-based P.A.T.H.S. Project in Hong Kong. It also discusses dreams, aspirations, hopes and related constructs in Chinese adolescents. Additionally, the authors also present chapters on the relationships between pornography consumption and positive youth development qualities; and the last few chapters document attempts to promote soft skills in university students. With the emergence and consolidation of a service or knowledge-based economy, the desired qualities in adolescents have changed. Obviously, soft skills development plays an important role in the employability of young people. It is also vital to the complete development of young people as individuals in the present and future.

Adolescent developmental issues are growing globally; studies show that the percentage of adolescent mental health issues such as depression and suicide continues to escalate. Adolescent addiction problems such as substance abuse, pathological gambling and Internet addiction are intensifying. Furthermore, interpersonal problems such as violence and bullying have grown in different forms, particularly in view of the growing development of social media such as Facebook. In many studies, it was estimated that around one-fifth of adolescents may require professional help because of their psychosocial problems. In this book, the authors present the first known scientific study on the psychosocial development in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. A large sample was used and validated measures of positive youth development, family functioning, parent-child relational processes and adolescent risk behaviour were included in the study.

With the conclusion of adolescence, a child develops into a teenager that may experiment with dating, smoking and drinking, and they may make important decisions without parental knowledge or guidance. These teenagers may also engage in risky behaviour, which may pose as a threat to their well-being and successful transition into adulthood. With this in mind, how can we can prevent adolescent risk behaviour? Traditionally, prevention scientists propose three forms of prevention. Primarily, attempts to reduce the harmful consequences of risk behaviour, such as treatment of risk behaviour (ie: mental disorders or substance abuse) are ideal. For some problematic behaviour which has already occurred, a better approach is to identify those who are at-risk as early as possible (ie: secondary prevention). For example, youth workers may identify those who have suicidal ideation and intervene as early as possible so that they will not harm themselves. In this book, the authors assess whether a community-based program in Hong Kong was effective in promoting adolescent development and explore what factors were associated with the program effects. The authors hope that the studies included in this book can help to reveal the successful experience of the project and provide some pointers for the development of programs for adolescents with greater psychosocial needs.