Skip to content

Press Releases, Statements and Submissions

Press Release

Study on Core Life Values for Parenting Education

The Women's Commission (WoC) announces today (September 4) the findings of its Study on Core Life Values for Parenting Education.

Speaking at the press conference, WoC Chairperson Ms Sophia KAO said, "Harmonious families are the cornerstone of a harmonious society and building harmonious families has been a common issue of interest to all sectors in the community. In response to the needs and concerns expressed by many women groups, the Commission has put nurturing caring families as one of its work foci in the past two years, with particular emphasis on parenting education.

"WoC has held a number of meetings with experts in the field of parenting education, Government departments and non-governmental organisations to identify gaps and areas that need to be further strengthened. Among other things, the Commission notes that many of the parenting education programmes place emphasis on the skills on bringing up children and solving issues encountered in the parenting process. There has not been sufficient attention paid to the development of the value system of our next generation. The Commission therefore sees a need for further study in this aspect," Ms Kao said.

The WoC commissioned the Policy 21 Ltd. in late 2005 to conduct a research on the core values for parenting education for instilling in the children for their personal nourishment.

"The study was conducted by several stages. The literature review, together with 6 focus group discussions and 3 in-depth interviews with education practitioners, experts in the parenting field and parents, were completed in early 2006. Based on the findings, a set of 32 core values had been identified and a school survey was conducted in May 2006 to assure the content and validity of the list. Following confirmation of the validity of the list, it was adopted for a household survey conducted on a random sample of 1,144 parents and their children drawn from the population between June and August 2006," said Mr YIP Hak-kwong of Policy 21 at the press conference.

"In order to ensure the representativeness of the surveys, in the school 2 survey, questionnaires were sent to 100 primary and 100 secondary schools that were randomly selected, covering different bands of schools across the territory. Among them, a total of 127 school principals, 121 school social workers and 114 parents' representatives of the Parent-Teachers Associations (PTA) returned the completed questionnaires. For the household survey, 572 pairs of parents and their children were interviewed," Mr YIP added.

Key findings of the surveys are summarised at the annex.

"The survey results revealed that these 32 core values identified were widely considered as important and very important by all groups of respondents. Of the 32 core values, the values which were considered comparatively most important by the different groups of respondents are: Self-reliance (自力更生), Self-restrained (有節制), Honesty (誠實), Filial pity (孝順), Mutual respect (互相 尊重), Politeness (有禮貌), Caring and loving towards family members (關懷愛 護家人), Endurance ( 忍耐), Peace ( 愛好和平), Responsible ( 負責任), Independence (獨立自主), " said Dr YEUNG Ka-ching, one of the Co-Convenors of the Working Group of the Commission overseeing this study.

"In general, school principals gave a higher score on the level of importance of all values, followed by school social workers, parents' representatives of the PTA and parents. Children gave the lowest score on average," Dr YEUNG said.

"The findings also suggested that mothers in general had a higher expectation of children's behaviour as compared with fathers. On the perceived performance of youths in the population, fathers in general had a more favourable assessment as compared with mothers. On the perceived performance of adults in the population, sons in general had a more favourable assessment as compared with daughters," Dr Yeung said.

"The Women's Commission believes that parents are playing an important role in the socialisation process. Their own behaviour and value also significantly affects the attitude and value of their children. Equipping parents, both mothers and fathers, with quality parenting education emphasising on core life values is an important empowerment process for them, which would in turn help nurture a younger generation with ability and integrity," concluded Ms KAO.

Mr NG Sui-kou, member of the Working Group of the Commission 3 overseeing this study, was also present at the press conference.

The WoC is exploring collaboration opportunity with community organisations to conduct a pilot project on quality parenting in a district. The idea is to establish a support network for parents to share experience and offer mutual help on parenting issues, with participation of different stakeholders in the district. It will also provide a platform to promote quality parenting education and the importance of instilling the core life values to children and youth.

 

Women's Commission
September 04, 2006

 

Annex

Key findings from the Study on Core Life Values for Parenting Education

  1. In the survey, a list of 32 core life values have been identified:
    1. 1) 有節制 Self-restrained
    2. 2) 誠實 Honesty
    3. 3) 有公民意識 Citizenship
    4. 4) 積極 Positive mindset
    5. 5) 寬恕 Forgiveness
    6. 6) 上進 Strive to improve
    7. 7) 包容Tolerance
    8. 8) 孝順 Filial pity
    9. 9) 互相尊重 Mutual respect
    10. 10) 廉潔Incorruptible
    11. 11) 為他人著想 Considerate
    12. 12) 有禮貌 Polite
    13. 13) 節儉 Frugality
    14. 14) 體諒別人 Understanding others
    15. 15) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving
            towards family members
    16. 16) 自力更生Self-reliance
    17. 17) 忍耐 Patience
    18. 18) 自強不息 Strive to improve Citizenship
    19. 19) 平等 Equality
    20. 20) 愛好和平 Peace
    21. 21) 負責任 Responsible
    22. 22) 正義 Righteousness
    23. 23) 自信 Confidence
    24. 24) 獨立自主 Independence
    25. 25) 尊重他人的權利 Respect the rights of the others
    26. 26) 具批判性思考 Have critical thinking
    27. 27) 堅毅 Persistence
    28. 28) 勤勞Diligence
    29. 29) 樂於助人 Willing to help others
    30. 30) 勇敢Courage
    31. 31) 愛國Patriotic
    32. 32) 誠懇 Sincerity
  2. Based on a Likert scale of 9, with "1 – 4" denoting low or very low, "5" denoting medium and "6 – 9" denoting high or very high level of importance, the results revealed that the average score for each of the 32 core values was above 6, indicating that the respondents, on average, considered that the level of importance for these core life values was high or very high.
  3. The top 5 core life values which were considered comparatively most
    important by the five groups of respondents are :-

    School Principals

    1. 1) 自力更生Self-reliance
    2. 2) 有節制 Self-restrained
    3. 3) 誠實 Honesty
    4. 4) 愛好和平 Peace
    5. 5) 獨立自主 Independence

    School Social Workers

    1. 1) 自力更生Self-reliance
    2. 2) 有節制 Self-restrained
    3. 3) 誠實 Honesty
    4. 4) 獨立自主 Independence
    5. 5) 互相尊重 Mutual respect

    Representatives of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA)

    1. 1) 自力更生Self-reliance
    2. 2) 誠實 Honesty
    3. 3) 愛好和平 Peace
    4. 4) 忍耐 Patience
    5. 5) 獨立自主 Independence

    Parents

    1. 1) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving towards family members
    2. 2) 負責任 Responsible
    3. 3) 孝順 Filial pity
    4. 4) 誠實 Honesty
    5. 5) 自力更生Self-reliance

    Children

    1. 1) 孝順 Filial pity
    2. 2) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving towards family members
    3. 3) 負責任 Responsible
    4. 4) 有禮貌 Polite
    5. 5) 互相尊重 Mutual respect
  4. School principals in general gave a higher score for all values, followed by school social workers, representatives of PTA and parents. Children gave the lowest.
  5. In general, mothers accorded a higher level of importance to the core life values, as compared with fathers. Among the children respondents, daughters in general had higher ratings of importance for all 32 core life values, as compared to ratings given by sons.
  6. Parent respondents generally expected their children to occasionally or always behave according to these core life values. Mothers generally had a higher expectation on their children's behaviour as compared with fathers.
  7. The top 5 core life values according to which the parents expected the children to behave and the top 5 core values perceived by the children as being their parents' expectation on them are as below:

    Parents' Expectation on Children

    1. 1) 孝順 Filial pity
    2. 2) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving
      towards family members
    3. 3) 負責任 Responsible
    4. 4) 上進 Strive to improve
    5. 5) 有禮貌 Polite

    Children's Perceived Expectation on themselves by their Parents

    1. 1) 孝順 Filial pity
    2. 2) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving
      towards family members
    3. 3) 負責任 Responsible
    4. 4) 上進 Strive to improve
    5. 5) 有禮貌 Polite
  8. Based on a Likert scale of 9, with "1 – 4" denoting poor or very poor, "5" denoting average and "6 – 9" denoting good or very good, the results revealed that parent respondents considered the performance of youths with regard to the 32 core life values as average. When asked how they perceived the performance of the adults, the children respondents also considered their performance as average.
  9. The top 5 core values with comparatively higher scores on the perceived performance of the youths and adults respectively are as follows:

    Performance of Youth Perceived

    1. 1) 愛好和平 Peace
    2. 2) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving
       towards family members
    3. 3) 自信 Confidence
    4. 4) 樂於助人 Willing to help others
    5. 5) 廉潔Incorruptible

    Performance of Adults Perceived by Children Respondents

    1. 1) 關懷愛護家人Caring and loving
      towards family members
    2. 2) 自力更生Self-reliance
    3. 3) 勤勞Diligence
    4. 4) 獨立自主 Independence
    5. 5) 自信 Confidence
  10. When asked on the difficulties and problems faced in the parenting process, most of the parent respondents indicated that they had occasionally encountered problems. Among the parent respondents, more fathers had indicated that they often and sometimes encountered problems in the parenting process, as compared with the mothers. The top 5 problems most frequently encountered as indicated by the parent respondents are as below:
    1. 1) Did not have time to be with children
    2. 2) Did not know how to solve the academic problem of children
    3. 3) Did not understand children
    4. 4) Did not know how to communicate with children
    5. 5) Did not know how to relieve pressure of children