Premium
Sex Differences in Perceived Family Functioning and Family Resources in Hong Kong Families: Implications for Social Work Practice
Author(s) -
Ma Joyce L.C.,
Wong Timothy K.Y.,
Lau Yuk King
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
asian social work and policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.286
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1753-1411
pISSN - 1753-1403
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-1411.2009.00031.x
Subject(s) - psychology , telephone survey , coping (psychology) , social functioning , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , interpersonal relationship , marketing , business
Although enhancing family functioning has become a rising concern of social workers in Chinese contexts such as Hong Kong, little has been known on perceived family functioning and family resources. To fill in this knowledge gap, this article reports part of the results of a telephone survey conducted in Hong Kong, aiming to identify the sex differences in these two areas. The results of the study have shown that Chinese women perceived better affective involvement, one of the crucial indicators of family functioning, than Chinese men. However, among the different family resources, men rated better physical and mental well‐being whereas women’s social connection was stronger than men’s. Further analysis have shown that the linkage of three family resources (namely stress coping efficacy, time spent with family and income) to perceived family functioning was statistically significant irrespective of genders. Implications of this study for social work practice are discussed at the end of the article.