Enhancing Family Well-being Project

Shamshuipo District consists of 5.3% of the population in Hong Kong; and ranks the fourth most densely populated district in 2010 (Social Welfare, 2011). The proportion of single parents, elderly, newly immigrated mainland persons, ethnic minorities, comprehensive social security assistance recipients in this district are relatively high; whereas the median of monthly domestic household income is the lowest among all districts in Hong Kong (Census and Statistics Department, 2011). It is essential to provide substantial support for families with low income and under privileged condition. Apart from this, encouraging positive thinking among family members may be an effective way to enhance family well-being in this district (Linley et al., 2011). A considerable amount of evidence has demonstrated benefits of applying positive psychology principles on family well-being. Previous studies including the 'nun study' (Danner et al., 2001) and Harvard study (Peterson et al., 1988) suggested that people who are happy tend to be healthier and live longer.

'The Shamshuipo Well-being Movement' ('The Movement'), which adopted a positive psychology approach (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) to promote four character strengths ('gratitude', 'hope', 'resilience', and 'open-mindedness') among their residents to enhance family well-being had been initiated in the past two years, under the coordination of Social Welfare Department (SWD) of Shamshuipo District. Building on the success of 'The Movement', a community-based initiative named 'Enhancing Family Well-Being Project' is collaboratively developed between SWD of Shamshuipo District and the School of Public Health, the University of Hong Kong. This project will focus on training and mobilizing local community stakeholders, and developing, delivering, and evaluating community-based programmes for families in Shamshuipo District, to arouse public interests towards an enhanced family relationship, as well as family health, happiness, and harmony (3Hs). The collaboration is based on evidence that community-based participatory (CBP) approach provides an effective way to engage public health researchers and community members (NGOs, other major stakeholders, and participants) in an active partnership to take action, in order to promote social change (White et al., 2004; Macaulay, 2007; Berge et al., 2009; Shalowitz et al., 2009).

This project also adopts a cluster-randomized controlled design to evaluate the effectiveness of a theory-based action planning toolkit . The toolkit will be distributed to the participants for their use at home, like a 'homework assignment', for the purpose of enhancing their intention and practices of the suggested behaviours. The development of the booklet was guided by the theory of The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), which suggests that one's intention can be foster by knowing that the new behaviour has positive outcomes as opposed to the negative outcomes that accompany the current behaviour; and planning (action planning and coping planning) serves as an operative mediator between intentions and behaviour (Schwarzer, 2008). Previous evidence has shown the applicability of the HAPA in changing people's health behaviours, e.g., physical exercise, breast self-examination, seat belt use, dietary behaviours, and dental flossing; and its generalizability has been confirmed by Schwarzer (2008).

In summary, this is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project using a cluster-randomized controlled design; and applying positive psychology concepts to develop community-based interventions with a theory-based toolkit, in an attempt to enhance family relationship and family 3 Hs in the Shamshuipo District.

The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a community-based intervention programme (with the application of positive psychology) with a theory-based toolkit among families in the Shamshuipo District, on enhancing their family relationship and family 3Hs.