Background Residual dried blood spots (rDBS) from newborn screening programmes represent a valuable resource for medical research, from basic sciences, through clinical to public health. In Hong Kong, there is no legislation for biobanking. Parents’ view on the retention and use of residual newborn blood samples could be cultural-specific and is important to consider for biobanking of rDBS. Objective To study the views and concerns on long-term storage and secondary use of rDBS from newborn screening programmes among Hong Kong Chinese (...) parents. Methods A mixed-method approach was used to study the views and concerns on long-term storage and secondary use of rDBS from newborn screening programmes among Hong Kong Chinese parents of children 0–3 years or expecting parents through focus groups (8 groups; 33 participants) and a survey (n = 1012, 85% mothers) designed with insights obtained from the focus groups. We used framework analysis to summarise the themes as supportive factors, concerns and critical arguments for retention and secondary use of rDBS from focus group discussion. We used multiple logistic regression to assess factors associated with support for retention and secondary use of rDBS in the survey. Results Both in focus groups and survey, majority of parents were not aware of the potential secondary use of rDBS. Overall secondary use of rDBS in medical research was well accepted by a large proportion of Hong Kong parents, even if all potential future research could not be specified in a broad consent. However parents were concerned about potential risks of biobanking rDBS including leaking of data and mis-use of genetic information. Parents wanted to be asked for permission before rDBS are stored and mainly did not accept an “opt-out” approach. The survey showed that parents born in mainland China, compared to Hong Kong born parents, had lower awareness of newborn screening but higher support in biobanking rDBS. Higher education was associated with support in rDBS biobanking only among fathers. Conclusion Long-term storage and secondary use of rDBS from newborn screening for biomedical research and a broad consent for biobanking of rDBS are generally acceptable to Hong Kong parents given their autonomy is respected and their privacy is protected, highlighting the importance of an accountable governance and a transparent access policy for rDBS biobanks. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Adolescent mental health has become a growing concern. One unique challenge to adolescents’ willingness to seek professional mental health support is the concern of confidentiality breach by their parents. This concern may carry more weight in collectivistic cultures, such as China. The current study utilized a large parent sample (N = 460) recruited from six high schools and attempted to integrate cultural self-construal and parenting styles in the context of parental attitudes toward mental health professionals and desires to breach (...) confidentiality. Parental independent self-construal was related to more positive attitudes toward mental health professionals through higher authoritative parenting and negatively associated with authoritarian parenting. On the other hand, interdependent self-construal was related to less positive attitudes toward mental health professionals via higher authoritarian parenting and lower authoritative parenting. More positive attitudes toward mental health professionals, in turn, were related to lower desire to breach confidentiality. Permissive parenting did not play a significant role in this process. The present study illustrates the importance of understanding culturally specific factors and parental influences in therapeutic practices. (shrink)

Each generation of evolutionary biologists has brought a fresh wave of attempts to answer the evolutionary riddle of altruism. However, none describe how such a condition could incrementally evolve from a prior condition of non-cooperation. This chapter describes a mechanism that could spontaneously and incrementally give rise to a synergistic codependence among individuals within a social group. It shows that prolonged social living in the absence of reproductive cost can mask selection-maintaining traits important for autonomous living, causing them to drift (...) and degrade to the point where individuals can no longer succeed outside the social context. This ‘social addiction’ will subsequently favour traits that maintain social cohesion because of the high cost of group dispersion. This mechanism contributes a missing complementary component to existing selection-based explanations of the evolution of pro-social and altruistic behaviours. (shrink)

本书共分九章,内容包括:东方智慧、生机盎然的宇宙、自做主宰的人生、致知与躬行、中国古典哲学精神、艰难的心路历程、现代哲学精神的崛起、重建信仰世界、迈向新世纪的哲学精神等。.