Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 9;17(14):4957. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17144957.
A positive future orientation (FO) is associated with a range of positive outcomes. It is a crucial resilience factor that assists individuals to navigate developmental difficulties during the transition to young adulthood and during periods of social adversity. Exposure to negative social context threatens young people's FO. The social demonstrations and the outbreak of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong over the past year have caused considerable hardship to the local society. Under such circumstance, young people in Hong Kong may develop a negative FO. Scant research has directly examined the relationship between perceived social hardship and FO as well as the underlying mechanism among Hong Kong young people. In this study, we tested the idea that young people's perceived social hardship would be negatively related to FO via belief in a just world, a well-known foundation for individuals to think, feel, and plan their future. Participants were 554 students recruited from eight universities in Hong Kong. They filled in self-report questionnaires online. Results of structural equation modeling supported our hypothesis. These findings shed light on how to nurture Hong Kong young people to develop a positive mindset during periods of social hardship.
积极的未来取向（FO）与一系列积极的结果相关。它是一个关键的适应因素，可以帮助个体在向成年早期过渡以及在社会逆境时期应对发展困难。接触负面的社会环境会威胁到年轻人的 FO。过去一年，香港的社会动荡和新冠疫情的爆发给当地社会带来了相当大的困难。在这种情况下，香港的年轻人可能会产生消极的 FO。很少有研究直接考察香港年轻人感知到的社会困难与 FO 之间的关系，以及其中的潜在机制。在这项研究中，我们验证了这样一种观点，即年轻人感知到的社会困难会通过对公正世界的信念与 FO 呈负相关，公正世界信念是个体思考、感受和规划未来的重要基础。参与者是从香港八所大学招募的 554 名学生。他们在线填写了自陈式问卷。结构方程模型的结果支持了我们的假设。这些发现为如何在社会困难时期培养香港年轻人的积极心态提供了启示。
