title: Perceptions of adolescents among teachers and social workers in the context of training programs in Hong Kong.
abstract: This article explores whether professionals working with young people hold a negative view on adolescents in Hong Kong. Data were collected from 1112 participants from 23 workshops in a 3-day training program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong. In the workshop, there was a group activity inviting the participants to describe the characteristics of contemporary young people in Hong Kong. The findings showed that positive comments about adolescents were only half of the negative comments. The common themes that emerged from the negative comments included: "problematic self-conceptions", "do not have long-term life goals", "irresponsible", "materialistic", and "calculative". The common themes that emerged from the positive comments included: "good at learning new things", "energetic", and "creative". The themes apparently reflected sociocultural characteristics of the contemporary Hong Kong Society.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Hong Kong, P.R. China. daniel.shek@polyu.edu.hk
authors.forename: Daniel T L
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Shek
authors.forename: Chitat
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D004517:Education, Professional; D005178:Faculty; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D015397:Program Evaluation; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012940:Social Problems / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012947:Social Work; D013240:Stereotyping