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Developing a sense of belonging among immigrant youth in multicultural contexts has attracted significant attention from scholars during the last few decades. Studies have already underscored how various educational factors hinder or facilitate students’ sense of belonging to the school or the larger society. Although most students in Hong Kong schools are ethnic Chinese, a significant number of non-Chinese children make students diversity an essential aspect of schooling. The study investigated how schools can develop a sense of belonging among ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong.

As the education system in Hong Kong lacks a multicultural education policy, how can schools help develop a sense of belonging to the school and the larger society among young ethnic minority people? To answer this question, this paper consolidates the two sets of data originally gathered for two research projects. The data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with nine secondary school teachers (Chinese and non-Chinese) and 15 students (non-Chinese) and analysed thematically.

The thematic analysis of the qualitative data identified several challenges and opportunities for developing ethnic minority students’ sense of belonging in Hong Kong.

Researchers in comparative education can further explore how multicultural education and inclusive education approach together can help ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and cater to students' diverse learning needs across the education systems.

Given that the aims of multicultural education and inclusive education resonate with each other, schools can focus on the Whole School Approach to developing a sense of belonging among ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. However, policymakers and practitioners may need to adopt a multifaceted perspective on inclusive education that strives to ensure equitable quality education for all.

The study contributes to the existing body of scholarship on multicultural education and inclusive education. The study findings underscore the importance of an interdisciplinary research framework in education and advocate an integrative approach to supporting students with diverse learning needs in multicultural contexts.

Globally millions of children have a parent who is imprisoned. Research suggests that this has an adverse impact on the child and imprisonment of a parent is considered to be an adverse childhood experience (ACE). Parental incarceration will not only affect the child but the entire household and may result in further ACEs such as household dysfunction and parental separation making this group of children particularly vulnerable. This scoping review aims to adopt an international perspective to comprehensively examine the extent range and nature of literature both published and grey relating to parental incarceration and the potential impact on children’s emotional and mental health.

In this scoping review, the five stages identified by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) were used including identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting data, collating, summarising and reporting results. In addition, the included studies were appraised for quality using methodology-specific tools. A critical narrative synthesis was adopted to present findings and discussion.

Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the included studies, eight were retrieved from peer-reviewed journals and one from grey literature searching. Five categories with subcategories were identified affecting children’s mental health: 1) Relationships: parent and incarcerated child relationship; facilitators and barriers to maintaining contact; 2) Family structure; maternal or paternal incarceration; living arrangements during parental incarceration; 3) Children’s emotions: emotional recognition and regulation; resilience; 4) Prison stigma: social stigma; shame and secrecy; 5) Structural disadvantages: poverty; race/ethnicity.

This scoping review has highlighted how the imprisonment of a parent negatively affects their children’s emotional and mental health. Factors negatively impacting children’s emotional and mental health are interrelated and complex. Further research is required, including differences between paternal and maternal incarceration; impact of gender and age of child; poverty as an ACE and prison exacerbating this; and effects of ethnicity and race. An important policy direction is in developing an effective way of capturing the parental status of a prisoner to ensure that the child and family receive needed support.

Parents whose children have undergone an autism assessment often describe the process as extremely stressful. This affects how parents engage with services post-diagnosis, meaning less likelihood of using subsequent service support despite struggling to cope. Since parents already report many barriers to accessing services, e.g. long waiting lists, lack of co-ordination and limited resources (Sapiets et al. 2023), negative experiences during assessment should not pose another potential barrier to engagement. This study aimed to address how families’ needs can be better met during the assessment process.

In this qualitative study, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 parents whose child had undergone an autism assessment in the last five years. Thematic analysis determined key themes.

The six themes were: clarity and communication, access to support and resources, aftercare, recognition of parent concerns, personalisation of the assessment process and concerns around the use of personal protective equipment/online assessments. These themes led to criteria to assess the quality of autism assessment services in line with parent perspectives.

These parent-informed criteria could facilitate the consideration of parents’ views into service evaluations of autism assessment services across the UK.

Previous research indicates that the autism assessment experience is often extremely stressful and overwhelming for families (Crane et al., 2016). Despite this, guidance to improve autism services rarely prioritises the opinions and experiences of service-users and their families. The criteria presented here were derived from themes identified by interviewing parents on their experiences of the autism assessment process, thus shifting the focus onto service-users.

With global migration, the number of ethnic minority and migrant women receiving maternity health care in dominantly Anglo-European societies has increased significantly but they consistently have among the worst pregnancy and maternal outcomes. This paper aims to analyse gaps in structural (migration-related inequalities) and cultural (responsiveness to ethno-cultural practices) competencies among maternal health practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).

Using a semi-structured interview guide, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 maternal health practitioners in NZ. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis framework.

The results highlight significant barriers around language and communication, cultural stereotyping by professionals, ethnic women’s own constraints around family and cultural expectations and their lack of knowledge about reproductive health. In addition, practitioners’ own ethnic differences are inseparable from their approach to structural and cultural competencies; there were instances of ‘over-’ or ‘under-’ reading of culture, practitioner constructions of ideal pregnancies and anti-racism concerns that shaped maternal care practices that were sensitive to, but also marginalised, ethnic migrant women who attended maternity services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study in NZ that examines the impact of complex dynamics of migration and culture on knowledge, beliefs and values of practitioners, in context of their own personal biographies. Identifying strategies to improve the way diversity is practiced in hospital settings can be transformational in improving maternal outcomes for ethnic migrant women in NZ.

This study aims to assess the nutritional status and physical fitness status of school children among major ethnic and Dalit populations, in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to mothers or caregivers of the children, followed by physical fitness assessments. Anthropometric indicators were used to evaluate nutritional status, including body mass index-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height, based on Centre for Disease Control guidelines. Physical fitness was assessed through tests for flexibility, abdominal, muscular, speed, and lower limb strength. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.

Approximately 45% of boys and 55% of girls had normal nutritional status. However, the study also identified varying percentages of children with stunted, underweight, wasted, and mixed nutritional issues, highlighting the prevalence of malnutrition among this population. Boys consistently outperformed girls in terms of physical fitness across all age groups, with 84% to 90% of boys meeting established fitness criteria. Girls face a 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold increased risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to boys. Lower-income group children exhibit a 2.6-fold and 1.6-fold increased risk of wasted conditions and underweight conditions. Children consuming meals twice a day have a 2.1-fold and 2.5-fold elevated risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to others.

This study highlights the need for interventions and strategies to improve the nutritional and health status of ethnic children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, considering their diverse dietary habits and lifestyles. By addressing these issues, the authors can empower these communities to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the region.

This study explores information behavior and perception and vaccination among America's three largest ethnic minorities, Hispanic, Black/African American and Asian, in COVID-19 context. Information behavior and perception are investigated from cultural and demographic characteristics, while vaccination is explored from COVID-19 related information behavior and utility/value of COVID-19 vaccine information.

Using Qualtrics survey panel, a national survey of America's Hispanic, Black/African American and Asian population was conducted to better understand the impact of cultural and demographic factors on COVID-19 related information. Data were collected in Fall 2021. Multiple and logistic regression were conducted to analyze data.

Results show that cultural factors (i.e. cultural identity, social identity, social capital and religiousness) exert significant impact on information value and seeking across all three minority groups, while some demographic factors, Republicanism and age, also significantly predict COVID-19 related information seeking and value for Black/African Americans and Hispanics, but less for Asian Americans. Lastly, information value was found to significantly predict vaccine status, willingness and eagerness, the three facets of vaccination as conceptualized in this study, for top three racial/ethic minorities.

The finding of this study reveal that there are variations in terms of the level and type of attachment to one's culture/social group in COVID-19 informational context. Between the three groups, granular differences were observed regarding the relationship between cultural factors and perceived COVID-19 information value. While cultural identity is most associated with African Americans, social capital is most evident for the Asian Americans, but social identity was the strongest predictor among Hispanics. Thus, this study offers important strategic insights into a unique population sample to better understand the impact of COVID-19 related information perception and vaccination implication.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on participation and time allocated to work from home (WFH) by ethnic/racial group.

The authors employ USA time-use data [American Time Use Survey (ATUS)] for the 2017–2020 period and a parametric approach in their analysis.

Estimates show that the time allocated to WFH increased during COVID-19, especially for women. This increase is likely driven by more workers shifting to WFH (higher participation) rather than by longer hours worked by those who already teleworked. The authors also find relevant differences in the impact of COVID-19 on WFH by ethnic/racial group. Among ethnic/racial groups, only Asians increased WFH compared to White Americans. Within this ethnic group, the authors find significant differences across genders. Asian men increased participation in WFH, whereas Asian women increased both participation and hours worked, compared to White American women. Differences in this racial/ethnic group could be explained by previous research, which demonstrates a higher ability of Asians to perform job tasks remotely. However, this finding could also be attributed to an increase in discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper contributes to the recent and limited literature exploring the heterogeneous impact of COVID-19 on participation and time allocated to WFH by ethnic/racial group. Understanding the mechanisms driving vulnerable populations' abilities to work during socioeconomic downturns is of high policy importance.

This paper aims to investigate the increasing trend of multigenerational co-living in the USA and to research the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of such decision.

This study uses the 2017 American Housing Survey data to run descriptive and regression analysis.

The authors find household income appears consistently to be the most significant factor determining multigenerational co-residence decision across all household compositions. Latino households are most likely to co-reside with multiple generations, followed by Asian and African American households. Immigrants tend to live in multigenerational co-residential housing units with smaller sizes and more impoverished neighborhoods, but show greater flexibility in making residential arrangements once they gain better education. In addition, older householders or female householders are significantly more likely to co-reside with multiple generations. Living in metropolitan areas has no impact on co-residence choice, although some evidence suggests that multigenerational co-residential families tend to live in inferior neighborhoods.

This study provides updated evidence on multigenerational co-residence choice in the contemporary United States. The findings provide evidence on how households make residential choices in response to financial hardships and contribute to the theoretical understanding of the variations of such decisions among immigrants and different ethnic and aging groups.

This study on multigenerational co-residence choice imposes important practical implications. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic creates ideal research setting to study how households cope with the tremendous uncertainties in the job markets and financial markets. Although multigenerational co-living may work well for some households with lower or moderate-income for financial reasons, it is not an attractive option for every family.

Sharing a home with multiple generations can be challenging. Policymakers should design policies and programs to provide households with guidance on how to live peacefully in multigenerational settings and make multigenerational co-living an appealing and cost-effective housing option for American families of all means.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new evidence on the determinants of multigenerational co-residence decision. This study’s findings are fundamental to guide policymakers in carrying out policies and programs aimed at providing a more appealing and cost-effective housing arrangement for American families. The evidence on the senior and minority subsamples are especially meaningful as the vast majority of the baby boom generation in the USA is aging and substantial growth is expected in multigenerational households over the next several decades. Understanding the increasing burden of old-age depression in aging societies will help policymakers prioritize public resources in city planning to address the needs of this rapidly growing population.

The study examines the prevalence and correlates of perceived discrimination across ten Asian American ethnic groups. The goal is to disaggregate an artificially created broad categorization of Asians into subgroups to reveal the existing intragroup differences.

Bivariate and multivariate analyses were based on data from the 2016 National Asian American Survey (NAAS). The exclusion of missing data on all variables used in the analysis revealed a final analytical sample size of 4,276.

Compared to all other Asian American ethnic groups, Cambodians report the lowest frequency of perceived discrimination on all outcome measures. On the contrary, the prevalence of perceived discrimination is highest for Bangladeshis and Indians on lifetime and job-related discrimination and for Indians and Japanese on day-to-day discrimination. Nearly all Asian American ethnic groups are more likely to report one or more types of perceived discrimination than Chinese Americans. The observed relationships disappear for Cambodians, Pakistanis and Japanese but persist for Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Hmong and Indians after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Among the socio-demographic controls, gender, birthplace, education and employment status are found to be significant predictors of perceived discrimination.

The findings of the study further the discussion on the importance of disaggregating minority groups and considering their heterogeneous experiences of perceptions of discrimination in the United States.

Although the Singapore model of ethnic integration through its public housing programme is well known, the formula for replicating its success elsewhere remains underexplored. This study aims to identify the criteria for successful transplantation, specifically by identifying the housing tenure types that are most amenable to the implementation of the Singapore model.

Through a comparative study of two common law jurisdictions – Singapore and England – this article highlights the differences in their housing landscapes and how such differences impact upon the adoption of ethnic integration policies through housing. The article also unpacks, through a cross-disciplinary lens, the concepts of public housing and housing tenures, drawing heavily on socio-legal and housing literature.

The authors observe that the implementation of ethnic integration policies is best justified and most easily achieved in leasehold estates that exhibit a strong tenurial relationship with the state retaining a more than notional role. Public housing in Singapore being an exemplar of this model, the implementation of its ethnic integration policy is relatively straightforward. By contrast, the shrinking public housing sector in England means that adoption of a similar policy would have limited reach. Even then, the political–legal environment in England that promotes home ownership is potentially hostile to the adoption of such policy as it may be seen as an infringement of private property right.

The cross-jurisdiction comparison is supplemented by an interdisciplinary analysis that seeks to bridge differences in the categorisation of tenure in housing and law literatures so as to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue.