Sociology Commons^™

Happiness Of Children As They Grow Into Their Teens : The Hong Kong Case, Lok Sang Ho

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

This paper reports the results of a dual survey of children from Primary 4 through Secondary 3 and their parents from Hong Kong conducted from November 2011 to January 2012. It confirms the often-cited result that happiness declines as the child moves into the teens, and finds that scores indicating Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement, which reflect aspects of mental capital essential to happiness, also tend to decline during adolescence. Pressures from extracurricular activities surprisingly appear to have a greater adverse effect on happiness than pressures from school work. Siblings add to disharmony at home, and parents’ education does not …