ABSTRACT
A comparison has been made of 364 Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong with no history of migration outside of China, with 363 Chinese adolescents who had migrated to Britain, and 381 British Europeans with no history of migration. Comparison levels of self-esteem (using the Coopersmith scale) and experience of and attitudes to school and teachers was made between the three samples. Self-esteem levels in both the British-Chinese and BritishEuropean groups were significantly better than those of the Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. An important covariate of higher levels of self-esteem was satisfaction with the school environment, and perceived levels of support from teachers. The longer that the British-Chinese youth had been in Britain, the better were their levels of self-esteem, and their satisfaction with their schools. It appears that the climate of education in Hong Kong, in which pupils are subjected to a more authoritarian model of education, is reflected to some degree in reduced self-esteem levels. These findings are consistent with those, which have identified educational pressures as one source of higher levels of suicidal ideation in secondary school students in Hong Kong.
