Sex Differences in Perceived Family Functioning and Family Resources in Hong Kong Families: Implications for Social Work Practice

Abstract

Although enhancing family functioning has become a rising concern of social workers in Chinese contexts such as Hong Kong, little has been known on perceived family functioning and family resources. To fill in this knowledge gap, this article reports part of the results of a telephone survey conducted in Hong Kong, aiming to identify the sex differences in these two areas. The results of the study have shown that Chinese women perceived better affective involvement, one of the crucial indicators of family functioning, than Chinese men. However, among the different family resources, men rated better physical and mental well‐being whereas women’s social connection was stronger than men’s. Further analysis have shown that the linkage of three family resources (namely stress coping efficacy, time spent with family and income) to perceived family functioning was statistically significant irrespective of genders. Implications of this study for social work practice are discussed at the end of the article.