Life education does enhance happiness and well-being

These days we are all interested in evidence-based policy studies. Here is a significant result. It came from this academic year's Hong Kong children's happiness survey. It confirmed earlier findings that life education enhances children's happiness.

In our earlier studies we found that students who agree that their schools offer life education are much happier than those who do not, but the finding may be queried as what constitutes life education may not be clear to students. For this reason this year's survey (2016-17) did not ask that question any more. Instead, we ask specific questions on whether the school organizes specific activities (talks, film shows, visits, drama, art and music, etc) to promote loving kindness, a culture of doing the best with little regard for interpersonal comparison, the courage to face challenges and difficulties, and whether the school encourages one to find one's interest and discover one's potential. These are aspects of life education, corresponding to Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement (LIFE) which reflect dimensions of "mental capital" that have been found to correlate strongly with subjective well-being in multiple studies.

Based on the percentage of students who agree or very much agree, out of each subsample (the total responses in each grade for each school), we compiled an index of life education for each school. We then compiled a School Happiness Index, which is the average of the happiness indices for each grade in the school. Since 10 primary schools and nine secondary schools participated in the survey, we have a total of 19 observations. A simple regression exercise shows that the Life Education Index explains 75 percent of the variance of the School Happiness Index among the 19 schools. This affirms the importance of promoting Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement, and suggests that nurturing these mental qualities in our children may be the life education we need to enhance children's happiness.

Along with the student survey we conducted a survey of teachers. Out of the 62 teachers who responded to our teacher questionnaire, 42 indicated that they are either interested or very much interested in life education. As to whether life education needs to be strengthened, 57 agreed, but the responses indicate some inconsistency, as many as 20 teachers think the existing curriculum has sufficient coverage of life education, while 26 think that extracurricular activities have included sufficient content of life education; 28 teachers agree that life education should be a subject taught as an independent subject, while 14 teachers believe the current subject Liberal Studies already offers adequate coverage of the contents of life education.

Corresponding to similar questions we asked of students, we also asked teachers about activities promoting Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement. We compiled an index of LIFE Education from Teacher's Perspective, and found that LIFE Education Index from Students' Perspective does correlate with LIFE Education Index from Teachers' Perspective among the 19 schools.

Perhaps answers to several of the other questions in the survey offer some clue about the ambivalence of some teachers over life education. Forty-four teachers say they face very high pressures, and that pressures have increased over the years; 48 say that work load is excessive and is a major source of their pressures; 51 say they feel very tired over their jobs, though 50 say that they find job satisfaction; 31 teachers indicate that their work has adversely affected family life. It appears that while teachers actually do think that life education needs to be strengthened, they may worry that this might add more pressures which are already not easy to handle.

An encouraging development is that the 2016-17 Hong Kong Children Happiness Index shows the first increase since its peak in 2013-14. Even more encouraging is the sharp increase in youth happiness. For those at 15 and above, happiness jumped from 5.79 to 6.51 on a scale of 0 to 10. This is truly remarkable. Students also report less pressure than in the previous year. This appears to contradict results from the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, which recently reported that students are facing higher pressures. Actually the two surveys need not contradict each other. The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups targeted mainly older students. Our survey targeted those from Primary 4 to Form 3. It is possible that in higher forms pressures may mount.

Regrettably, we also found some signs of warning. About 6 percent of all student respondents do not agree to "Life is worth living." About 4 percent of all student respondents are very unhappy, giving themselves a happiness score of 2 or lower on the scale 1-10. This calls for further study on these cases. At this point, it may be instructive to note a coincidence: 6 percent of all students had unhappy families. Unhappy families are noted by parents being in a sour relationship, and disagreement to "You have a warm, loving, family."

All in all, the latest survey by Chu Hai College of Higher Education found life education crucial in enhancing children's happiness. With a greater dose of life education, Hong Kong's children and youth will find greater happiness, and greater courage and resilience in facing difficulties.

(HK Edition 10/24/2017 page9)