Hi I am Elvis Ng from Heep Hong Society.  

Hong Kong parents face different pressures every day, especially those with preschool children. Often, stress arises from the personal expectation on children’s performance, parent-child communication, and children’s conduct. A survey conducted by Heep Hong Society " Social Work Service for Pre-Primary Institutions " from February to March 2022 on "Parental Stress and Resilience of Children" found that among 502 parents with preschool children, over half of them exhibited symptoms of depression. More than 40% of families with Special Educational Needs children were assessed as unhealthy, with resilience at a risk level.

Emotional resilience is based on six areas: parental emotional flexibility, coping abilities, self-compassion, common humanity, family support, and social support. This framework provides parents with more personal and interpersonal resources to face various difficulties and adapt to negative emotions and events. It enables them to maintain good emotional health even when confronted with challenges.

Those with lower emotional resilience are easier to be affected mentally and physically. For example, there may be persistent feelings of low mood, pessimism, or unhappiness. It can result in a loss of interest in daily activities and social events. Besides, this can also  lead to various physical symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite, fatigue, headaches, and stomachaches.

In response to this, Heep Hong Society, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Baptist University Department of Social Work, implemented the "Project PSI Preschool Children’s Parental Stress Intervention Study" from February 2022 to September 2023. This project was implemented in 32 kindergartens and 4 preschool rehabilitation service units. The study aimed to identify parents with low emotional resilience through the "Social Ecological Resilience Scale" and using "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" (CBT) to enhance parental emotional resilience and family functioning, reduce parental stress, and promote the emotional health of parents and children.

The "Project PSI Preschool Children’s Parental Stress Intervention’’ utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to assist parents of preschool children in recognizing personal thinking patterns and cognitive traps that arise in caring for their children. It involves learning different techniques to apply in changing thinking patterns, aiming to establish a new life experience and interpretation for parents of preschool children. This process aims to replace past negative experiences. This approach contributes to strengthening parents' ability to control their emotions and reducing emotional distress in the context of caring for preschool children.

Data from the CBT Intervention group indicates that, after intervention and in the three-month follow-up, the percentage of parents with negative emotions reaching a healthy level increased from 72% to 91%. The level of family functioning increased from 0.9% to 1.8%. The percentage of improvement in the difficulty level of children increased from 38% to 47%. The percentage of parents with high levels of emotional resilience reached from 60% to 76%. There was improvement in all four areas, and 90% of parents saw a return of their negative emotions to a healthy level. Some of these benefits persisted in the three-month follow-up.

Our partner, Professor Wong Fu-keung, Chair Professor of the Department of Social Work at Hong Kong Baptist University, also pointed out that the data reflects a corresponding decrease in emotional and behavioral difficulties in children when parental negative emotions are reduced. This indicates the correlation between parents and children in terms of emotional health. Effective intervention strategies not only assist parents in improving emotional health but should also enhance parents' resilience in facing adversity, indirectly improving the health and well-being of their children. 

We have established the "Social Ecological Resilience Scale" to help parents and peers understand their emotional resilience, to identify parents with low emotional resilience as early as possible. The public can visit Heep Hong Society’s website to access relevant information and conduct self-assessments to understand their own situations.

Social Welfare Department has been providing "Social Work Service for Pre-Primary Institutions" to support the parents since 2018. This year, the service is localised to four districts, our team is assigned to provide services in Sham Shui Po starting from August. We aim to provide immediate intervention, professional counseling, and referral services to the  pre-school children and their family members at risk of potential crisis.

I would like to dedicate this song Just Carry On by Terence Lam to everyone.