Family functioning, filial piety and adolescent psycho-social competence in Chinese single-mother families experiencing economic disadvantage : implications for social work

Abstract

Based on the data collected from 432 single-mother families experiencing economic disadvantage in Hong Kong, the relationships among family functioning (mutuality, communication and harmony), filial piety and psycho-social competence (spirituality, resilience and positive future outlook) of adolescents were examined. Results showed that filial piety mediated the influence of family functioning to adolescent psycho-social competence in Chinese single-mother families experiencing economic disadvantage. The pioneer study underscores the importance of promoting family cohesion, communication and harmony which would contribute to adolescent positive development through adolescent filial piety. Implications of the findings for the development of the Chinese resilience model and social work practice are discussed.