It makes sense to have well-planned, research based approaches to adolescent health and education, which can be incorporated into the curriculum by teachers, within the normal context of the school. The studies described in this book examine the various factors that influence the quality of health promotion programme implementation.

Drug Abuse in Hong Kong

To what extent is Western knowledge on adolescent development applicable to Chinese young people? Are Chinese adolescent risk behaviours similar to those in Western societies? To what extent are intervention programs, such as adolescent prevention programs, applicable to Chinese people? This book answers these questions.

A team of researchers from five universities in Hong Kong have constructed a positive youth development package for junior secondary school students in Hong Kong. The new curriculum covered in this book is closely related to the emerging adolescent developmental issues in Hong Kong and the global contexts.

In the prevention science approach, focus is put on identifying risk and protective factors in adolescent risk behaviour. Based on this approach, many research and prevention programs have been generated in the past few decades. Nevertheless, over-emphasis of adolescent developmental problems has been criticised as focusing too much on adolescent developmental problems and pathologies. In response to this criticism, an alternative approach highlighting the importance of positive youth development has been proposed.