This book reviews the theories regarding commonly occurring developmental issues among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong, the application of Positive Youth Development (PYD) to a large-scale primary prevention program and the impact of PYD on student well-being, indexed according to adolescent developmental issue. Using multiple strategies, it presents the overall constructs and frameworks supporting P.A.T.H.S. in response to the various psychosocial needs of Hong Kong's youth. Some of the issues covered include substance abuse, sexual behavior, internet addiction, bullying and cyber-bullying. The book argues for the effectiveness of the school-based program in promoting student well-being in modern Hong Kong society and will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, university instructors, researchers, social workers, pediatricians, youth workers, educators, administrators, psychologists, school principals and allied professionals looking to promote whole-person development in junior form students and especially those with an interest in education in China.

This book reviews the theories regarding commonly occurring developmental issues among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong, the application of Positive Youth Development (PYD) to a large-scale primary prevention program and the impact of PYD on student well-being, indexed according to adolescent developmental issue. Using multiple strategies, it presents the overall constructs and frameworks supporting P.A.T.H.S. in response to the various psychosocial needs of Hong Kong's youth. Some of the issues covered include substance abuse, sexual behavior, internet addiction, bullying and cyber-bullying. The book argues for the effectiveness of the school-based program in promoting student well-being in modern Hong Kong society and will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, university instructors, researchers, social workers, pediatricians, youth workers, educators, administrators, psychologists, school principals and allied professionals looking to promote whole-person development in junior form students and especially those with an interest in education in China.

This book is based upon a special issue published in the International Journal on Disability and Human Development and permission has been obtained from the publisher De Gruyter in Berlin to publish this modified version of the papers in this book. We earnestly hope that through the special issue and this book, that more attention will be put on the developmental problems of university students and ways to promote holistic development of university students in the context of higher education.

This book is based upon a special issue published in the International Journal on Disability and Human Development and permission has been obtained from the publisher De Gruyter in Berlin to publish this modified version of the papers in this book. There are several areas of research that should be conducted with reference to Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage. First, there is a need to understand how factors in different ecological systems influence the psychological well-being of poor adolescents. Second, as family social capital is an important resource within families experiencing economic disadvantage, studies on how different family processes affect adolescent development should be carried out. Third, as far as adolescent developmental outcomes are concerned, it is argued that besides measures of morbidity and symptoms, adolescent developmental assets and strengths should be studied. Fourth, as studies on parental differences on family processes are almost non-existent in the context of poverty, it is important to study this issue in adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage. In response to these research gaps, they were examined in the papers in this special issue. In this book, several papers reporting evaluation findings for the second piloting exercise are included. Because there are few validated positive youth development programs in the Chinese context, it is our modest wish that the accumulated evidence can give us some insights about the usefulness of having positive youth development subjects designed for university students.

In the prevention science approach, focus is put on identifying risk and protective factors in adolescent risk behaviour. Based on this approach, many research and prevention programs have been generated in the past few decades. Nevertheless, over-emphasis of adolescent developmental problems has been criticised as focusing too much on adolescent developmental problems and pathologies. In response to this criticism, an alternative approach highlighting the importance of positive youth development has been proposed.

Young people are regarded as future assets of the society. Hence, adolescent prevention programs are commonly developed to tackle adolescent risk behaviour and positive youth development programs are designed to promote holistic development in adolescents. However, a survey of the literature shows that research on adolescents is mainly confined to the Western societies. For Chinese psychologists, paediatricians, psychiatrists, and allied human service workers, knowledge about adolescent development is largely developed in the Western culture. To what extent is Western knowledge on adolescent development applicable to Chinese young people? Are Chinese adolescent risk behaviours similar to those in Western societies? To what extent are intervention programs, such as adolescent prevention programs, applicable to Chinese people? These are important questions to be addressed by human service professionals working with Chinese adolescents and their families.

There is co-morbid occurrence of adolescent problem behaviours, and these behaviours manifest differently and vary in severity. For instance, some adolescents who suffer from stress and distress become addicted to substance and internet use, whereas some act out in the form of misbehaviour and delinquency. In particular, research findings have shown that there are gender differences; with boys tending to employ externalising and risk-taking behaviour as ventilation, while girls tend to internalise stress and become depressed. Nevertheless, different problem behaviours may share similar aetiologies. Adopting the ecological approach, adolescents' behaviours result from the complex interplay between themselves and the surrounding environment. These issues will be addressed in this book with experience from research from Hong Kong in a Chinese context.

Adolescent substance abuse is a growing concern in Hong Kong and there has been several peaks in adolescent substance abuse in the past two decades. In fact, these peaks mirrored the global trend of abusing non-opiate psychotropic substances and the growing belief among young people that psychotropic substance abuse is non-addictive and it is a trendy choice of life. Evidence-based practice is still very primitive in the fields of youth work and adolescent prevention in Hong Kong and there are many obstacles involved. This book examines how adolescent prevention and positive youth development programs can be developed in different Chinese contexts.