CityU’s Positive Education Laboratory and St James’ Settlement have jointly conducted a study entitled “Psychosocial well-being of children and parents in remarried families”. The principal investigator was Dr Sylvia Kwok Lai Yuk-ching, Associate Professor (SS) (second from the left), and the co-investigator was Dr Andrew Low Yiu-tsang, Assistant Professor (SS) (first from the left). A press conference was held to deliver the research findings on 15 May 2016, the International Day of Families, at CityU. The conference had wide press coverage, and the research findings were reported by 11 local newspapers.

The aim of the research was to examine the risk factors and protective factors for the psychosocial well-being of children and parents in remarried families. The findings have important implications for social work service planning to enhance the functioning of remarried families. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. A questionnaire survey was taken by 340 intact families and 27 remarried families. In addition, five remarried families participated in in-depth interviews.

The proportion of remarried couples in Hong Kong rose from 11.5% of all married couples registered in 1991 to 35.3% in 2013. Members of remarried families experience higher levels of stress and more psychosocial problems than members of intact families, according to research conducted jointly by the Positive Education Laboratory at the Department of Applied Social Sciences (SS), City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and St James’ Settlement, a non-governmental charitable organisation in Hong Kong.

Alarmingly, the children in remarried families were found to have more externalising problems (mean score: 13.54) and internalising problems (mean score: 16.15) than their counterparts in intact families (mean score for externalising problems: 10.89; mean score for internalising problems: 13.54). The children in remarried families also reported more depressive symptoms and lower levels of subjective happiness and self-forgiveness.

Compared with the parents in intact families, the parents in remarried families spent less time with and were less emotionally attached to their children; they also made more frequent use of corporal punishment and psychological aggression when disciplining their children, and used fewer positive disciplinary methods. As a result, the remarried families seemed to face more parenting challenges, which may have negative effects on children’s well-being, as pointed out by Dr Sylvia Kwok.

The wives in remarried families reported lower levels of marital satisfaction than their husbands. According to Dr Andrew Low, some wives in remarried families are fully occupied by family caretaking responsibilities, and are thus highly likely to experience stress. In particular, some women who had married for the first time but were immediately required to take on a maternal role felt inadequate in parenting their stepchildren. The stepmothers surveyed also complained of a lack of support from their husbands, friends or families of origin.

The findings of this research have important implications for the planning of social-work services for remarried families. Ms Wendy Wong, Senior Manager of Family and Counselling Services at St James’ Settlement, identified four key tasks for future service provision: (1) helping parents to establish co-parenting alliances, (2) enhancing communication and cohesion in remarried families, (3) fostering positive psychological attributes in children belonging to remarried families, and (4) building a supportive community for remarried families. Specifically, group work will be carried out with children in remarried families to alleviate their negative emotions and help them to adjust to their new family arrangements. In addition, group work will be conducted with newlywed couples in remarried families and those planning to remarry to help clarify their expectations of remarriage and discuss mutual parenting roles and responsibilities. Meanwhile, public forums will be held to educate the community about the needs of remarried families, as reported by Mr Raymond Wong at the Centre in Charge, WanChai Integrated Family Service Centre, St James’ Settlement.