Study on Hope and Emotion Regulation, Drawn From TWF's Life Skills Programme
Summary
The City University of Hong Kong conducted this study in partnership with The Women's Foundation to investigate the relationship between the psychosocial well-being of secondary school students in Hong Kong and the importance they attach to hope, virtues, emotion regulation and attention to positive/negative information
Study 1 was a cross-sectional survey study with 712 students from three different secondary schools. The students' levels of hope, virtues, emotion regulation, attention to positive/negative information, and psychosocial well-being were assessed. Hope and virtues were found to be strongly predictive of psychosocial well-being of secondary school students. A conceptual model was developed to reveal the underlying dynamic of the relationship between hope and virtues and psychosocial wellbeing. The results revealed that their attention to positive information is also a significant factor in affecting the psychosocial well-being of secondary school students.
Study 2 was a computerised study involving 91 participants selected from the pool of Study 1 participants. Positive and negative attentional biases were computed by averaging reaction times to emotional stimuli presented in the experiment. Significant associations between positive attentional bias and psychosocial well-being were found in Form 2 students, revealing the importance of positive attention in information processing.
The results of this research highlight the importance of hope, virtues, and attention to positive information on the psychosocial well-being of secondary school students.The findings support the need for Hong Kong to develop a comprehensive programme to strengthen teenagers’ resilience, particularly the enhancement of hope and virtues as well as cognitive tools to increase their attention to positive information. It was also felt that a further study on the developmental trajectory of the attentional preference of teens would be helpful.
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