Nicole W. T. Cheung

Is Hong Kong Experiencing Normalization of Adolescent Drug Use? Some Reflections on the Normalization Thesis

The upsurge of consumption of party drugs among adolescents in recent years in Hong Kong has been part of the global trend of adolescent recreational use of drugs at rave parties, discos and similar party settings. Scholars in Western societies have recently proposed the thesis of “normalization of adolescent drug use” to describe such a trend. The normalization thesis points at three major aspects of the normalization phenomenon, namely, a rapid increase of the prevalence of drug use in young people, the widespread popularity of recreational drug use that is closely linked with the recent arrival of dance club culture, and a receptive attitude towards drug use as a normal part of leisure. This article aims to examine whether the normalization thesis can be applied to analyze the situation of adolescent drug use in Hong Kong. Data are drawn from official statistics and a recent survey conducted in 2002–2004 of drug use of Hong Kong marginal youths (N = 504). The case of Hong Kong only partially supports the thesis. Our findings show that the normalization of drug use among young people has occurred in Hong Kong, but the extent of normalization is smaller than those in Western societies like the United Kingdom. They also suggest that a recognition of possible cultural differences may be complementary to the normalization thesis. Limitations of the study are also noted.

Strain, Self-Control, and Gender Differences in Delinquency among Chinese Adolescents: Extending General Strain Theory

Agnews general strain theory (GST) and Gottfredson and Hirschis self-control theory represent significant theoretical developments in sociology of deviance over the last two decades. Both theories offer unique insights into the well-known controversy of gender disparity in crime and delinquency. Incorporating their ideas and testing them in a Chinese context, this study investigates the role of self-control, which has been seldom included in GST assessments, in moderating the strain-delinquency relationship and analyzes whether this conditioning effect varies by gender. Using data from 1,015 Chinese students in Hong Kong, negative binominal regression models found that self-control is a gender-specific conditioning factor of strain. Self-control mitigates the effects of certain strains on delinquency for females only. Yet, unexpectedly, coercive parenting decreases male delinquency and moderates the impact of low self-control in males. The implications of Chinese cultural forces for the perception of strain and the conditioning influence of self-control merit closer attention.

Social Capital and Risk Level of Posttreatment Drug Use: Implications for Harm Reduction among Male Treated Addicts in Hong Kong

Since relapse is common among treated addicts, harm reduction efforts should be made to minimize their levels of risk in their reuse of drugs. This paper applies the social capital framework to analyze how a treated addicts social network affects the risk level of posttreatment drug use. Embeddedness in a pro-social network reestablished by a treated addict can facilitate positive social capital in the forms of tutelage of a normal life, informal social control from nondrug-using people, and lessening of perceived public discrimination. On the contrary, reentering a network of active addicts can produce negative social capital in the forms of tutelage of the addict lifestyle, lack of informal social control from nondrug-using people, and reinforcement of perceived public discrimination. The possession of positive social capital greatly enhances the treated addicts likelihood to reduce the risk level of posttreatment drug use, whereas the possession of negative social capital reduces such likelihood. Data used in this paper were extracted from a study of 200 male former clients of a voluntary residential treatment agency in Hong Kong. Implications of the findings for helping male treated addicts to generate positive social capital as a posttreatment harm reduction measure are discussed.

Low Self-Control and Co-occurrence of Gambling with Substance Use and Delinquency Among Chinese Adolescents

Relatively little is known about gambling co-morbidity in Asian youth populations. The role of trait self-control in co-morbidity also remains under-explored in the gambling literature. This study examined the association between gambling, substance use and delinquency among Chinese adolescents, and the extent to which these forms of risk behavior are commonly predicted by low self-control. Data from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of a stratified, random sample of 4,734 high school students aged 12–23xa0years in Hong Kong were analyzed. The prevalence of gambling pathology, frequency and attitudes showed statistically significant, positive and consistent relationships with tobacco use, alcohol use, and delinquent acts at the pxa0<xa0.001 level. Further analyses revealed that low self-control significantly (pxa0<xa0.001) predicts at-risk/probable pathological gambling, frequent gambling, strong permissiveness toward gambling, heavy use of tobacco and alcohol, and delinquent involvement, even after controlling for the potential shared correlates of socioeconomic characteristics, parental monitoring and peer delinquency. Hence, the concept that gambling problems and strong receptivity to gambling are likely to be part of a general problem behavior syndrome is evinced cross-culturally among young people in a Chinese context. It may also be cost-effective to increase intervention efforts to improve the self-control deficit in adolescents, as this should reduce their gambling and concurrent problem behavior.

Rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in Guangzhou, China: psychological health, victimization, and local and trans-local ties.

Despite the emerging literature on the health of rural-to-urban migrant children in China, few studies have addressed victimization stressors and stress-buffering mechanisms related to the social relationships that link migrants to their host cities (local ties) and home communities (trans-local ties). This study compared rural-to-urban migrant adolescents and urban native adolescents to examine the relationships between victimization, local and trans-local ties, and mental well-being that might be unique to migrants. Participants were 482 migrant students and 838 urban native students in the eighth grade in Guangzhou who completed a school-based survey in spring 2011. Victimization was associated with suboptimal psychological health in both the migrant and urban native samples. Social ties directly boosted psychological health in both samples, with the effects of trans-local and local ties proving equally important among migrant adolescents. While both local and trans-local ties moderated the effect of victimization on migrant adolescents, that moderation mattered less for urban native youth. These results highlight that a better understanding of victimization stress and how it is affected by the locality of social ties as a coping resource could help to protect the health of young migrants in urban China.

Social strain, couple dynamics and gender differences in gambling problems: Evidence from Chinese married couples

Knowledge of the influence of couple dynamics on gender differences in gambling behavior remains meager. Building on general strain theory from the sociology of deviance and stress crossover theory from social psychology, we argue that the strain encountered by one partner in a social setting may affect his or her spouse. For instance, the wife of a man under more social strain may experience more strain in turn and thus be at a higher risk of developing disordered gambling than the wife of a man under less social strain. Using community survey data of 1620 Chinese married couples, we performed multilevel dyad analyses to address social strain and couple dynamics, in addition to their roles as predictors of gambling behavior in both spouses. This was a community survey of Hong Kong and therefore was not representative of China. Based on the DSM-IV screen, the rates of probable problem gambling and pathological gambling among male partners (12.8% vs. 2.5%) were twice those among female partners (5.2% vs. 0.3%). We also found that the social strain experienced by a male partner significantly predicted both his and his wifes likelihood of developing gambling problems. Although a female partners exposure to social strain was a significant correlate of her gambling problem, it had no significant association with her husbands gambling behavior. These results suggest that the cross-spouse transference of social strain may be a gendered process.

Social Strain, Self-Control, and Juvenile Gambling Pathology Evidence From Chinese Adolescents

Despite recent concerns over youthful problem gambling, few gambling studies have looked into Asian adolescent populations. This study of a stratified, random sample of high school students in Hong Kong is designed to estimate the prevalence of gambling pathology among Chinese adolescents and to examine the relationships between social strain, self-control and gambling pathology. Based on the DSM-IV-J gambling screen, the rates of probable pathological gambling and at-risk gambling in this sample are 1.1% and 2.4%, respectively. Social strain and low self-control are predictive of gambling pathology, and a higher level of self-control can dilute the adverse effect of social strain on gambling pathology. These findings suggest that besides the social control, support and learning mechanisms often emphasized in juvenile gambling research, a greater understanding of the role that social strain plays and how it interacts with personality traits such as self-control may be informative in the management of gambling-related addictions in adolescents.

Crime and Criminal Justice in Hong Kong

Now that 15 years have passed since the reversion of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China in 1997, and despite China’s “One Country, Two Systems” promise, there is still a controversy of whether Hong Kong has been able to enjoy a truly free hand in managing its own affairs, or has been subject to China’s covert or overt control. One social issue that is a thermometer of this debate is the status quo of the criminal justice system. This paper firstly describes how official and unofficial crime statistics are gathered, and how they portray the crime situation in Hong Kong. Next, the features of the major components of the criminal justice system are briefly reviewed. Developed on the basis of the common law of the British, the criminal justice system in Hong Kong is one of the best indicators of the degree of autonomy that Hong Kong can exercise in the post-1997 period. The paper also reviews the changes of the criminal justice system in Hong Kong since 1997, and discusses the new challenges ahead for the criminal justice system. The main challenges concern the need of the Hong Kong SAR Government to establish a new instrumental legitimacy of its legal system, and the increasingly violent confrontations of political protestors with the government that undermine law and order.

Changes of the Drug Scene in Hong Kong

This chapter traced the changes in the drug scene of Hong Kong, focusing on how the historical dominance of heroin had lost ground to psychoactive drugs, especially ketamine, among young drug users since the mid-1990s. The upsurge of psychoactive drug use in young people during the period from the mid-1990s to 2010s was explained with respect to rapid social, economic, and cultural changes that had occurred since the 1980s, as well as the normalization of recreational use thesis which has been a popular perspective on the global phenomenon of young people’s drug use at the turn of the century. Moreover, normalization in Hong Kong has been facilitated by a process of neutralization of ketamine use involving the comparison of ketamine and heroin, which is unique to young drug users in Hong Kong.

Socio-demographic and Psychosocial Correlates of Drug Use

This chapter described how socio-demographic factors and psychosocial factors have affected the continuation/discontinuation of drug use in the sample of young and active or former drug users in the longitudinal survey. Results showed that socio-demographic variables were not related, or only weakly related, to drug use, whereas a number of psychosocial variables were strong predictors of drug use, including permissiveness to regular drug use, permissiveness to occasional drug use, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and depression. How these significant psychosocial variables affected each other was also examined.