Children's Lived Experiences in Poverty in Hong Kong as a High-Income Asian Society.

Child poverty situated in different socioeconomic and environmental contexts has long been a central concern for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers. However, concerned research studies are predominantly adult-centric, confined to specific areas, or seldom found in Asian developed economies. Against the backdrop of this research gap, this study examines children's experiences of poverty in relation to economic and material aspects, social relationships and participation, and psychological and emotional wellbeing, and their ways of coping with the effects of poverty. Using a purposive sampling method, a total of 40 children participants aged 8-14 living in or near poverty were recruited for an individual interview. The study showed that children experienced a range of deprivations in relation to falling short of the resources, opportunities, and activities that are commanded by average young persons. Limited living space also stands out as a more severe problem that is difficult to cope with. The various coping strategies include small spending savvy tactics, parental buffering, compensation, and mental coping. Proximity to schools and NGOs can help children in poverty to cope with problems caused by deprivations in different aspects. Implications for research studies and practice for working with children in or near poverty are discussed accordingly.

A One-Year Prospective Follow-Up Study on the Health Profile of Hikikomori Living in Hong Kong.

Background: A prospective cohort study was conducted to follow-up on 104 participants on their changes of social, psychological and physical health as exposed to the hikikomori lifestyle. Methods: Participants were interviewed at baseline, 6 months and 12 months by administering a set of questionnaires and anthropometric measurements. Results: All three health domains of hikikomori were significantly improved over the follow-up period as evidenced by: (1) increased social network scores from 2.79 ± 1.80 to 3.09 ± 1.87, (2) decreased perceived stress scores from 21.18 ± 5.87 to 20.11 ± 5.79, and (3) reduced blood pressure levels from 118/75 to 115/71 and waist-to-hip ratios. Almost half of the participants have recovered from hikikomori by returning to the workforce in society; however, the health improvements were dominant in those that remained as hikikomori and were associated with the gradual swapping of exercise practices from light to moderate level strength. Conclusions: With intended exposure to social worker engagement, physical assessments of the cohort study triggered the social workers to encourage participants to do more exercises, which in turn enhanced their awareness of health modification towards a better health. Engagement of social workers could be considered as part of the intended exposure for all participants, which suggested social work intervention was effective in helping hikikomori recovery.

A Physical Health Profile of Youths Living with a "Hikikomori" Lifestyle.

A cross-sectional study was designed to understand the impacts of "hikikomori" lifestyle on physical health. A total of 104 eligible hikikomori cases were recruited from the social services network of Hong Kong with a mean age of 19.02 ± 3.62 (ranged 13-31) year-old, and had completed the set of questionnaires and a series of anthropometric and physical health measurements. Despite SF36 score of 84.0 indicated good physical functioning in general, participants were lived sedentarily with high incidence of hypertension at 15.4% and prehypertension at 31.7%. Occurrence of hypertension and prehypertension in cases living as hikikomori >6 months were 3 times and 1.5 times higher than those newly onset cases, respectively. The blood pressure levels were correlated with age and all obesity index parameters measured including waist circumference and body mass index. Results also observed a shift of body weight from underweight to overweight and obesity along the hikikomori duration. Half of the hypertensive cases involved the elevation of systolic blood pressure, which suggested higher odds of cardiovascular complications. In conclusion, the hikikomori lifestyle could be a risk behavior that may harm the younger generation physically by promoting obesity and hypertension and probably other chronic illnesses.