Does LIFE Education Have Positive Effects on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents?  - A Twin-City Exploration

Lok Sang HO; Ka Wai Maggie LAU; Mengxian Helen ZHAO; Patrick IP; Genevieve FUNG

doi:10.1007/s11482-026-10603-9

Does LIFE Education Have Positive Effects on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents? - A Twin-City Exploration

Lok Sang HO^*
, Ka Wai Maggie LAU
, Mengxian Helen ZHAO
, Patrick IP
, Genevieve FUNG

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

We propose a theory of life education that focuses on Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement. Love is a respect for life and a yearning to realize life’s potential. Insight represents the “how” of love, requiring a holistic perspective of life and understanding of priority and balance. Fortitude is resilience gained from experience and reflections. Engagement is Love and Insight in action day by day. We test the relationship between two alternative measures of subjective wellbeing on the one hand, and a life education index that measures the intensity of school activities promoting Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement on the other hand. We test four hypotheses using the same questionnaire in surveys conducted in Hong Kong in 2023, 2024, and 2025, totalling 8984 observations (18–19 schools each year), and in Shenzhen in 2024 totalling 3876 observations (8 schools). Bullying is seen to be symptomatic of a lack of Love and Insight, and therefore a lack of mental health. School LIFE education is found to ameliorate the prevalence of bullying, while family LIFE education is found to reduce the vulnerability of one’s being bullied at school. A huge gap is also found between the “Life Worth Living Index” in Shenzhen and that in Hong Kong. A plausible explanation is the “neijuan” or excessively competitive environment, which led to, among other things, “tangping” or lying flat, which reflects a lack of purpose in daily life, and probably contributing to lower sense of life worth living in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong.

Original language	English
Journal	Applied Research in Quality of Life
Early online date	13 May 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-026-10603-9
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 13 May 2026

Bibliographical note

The authors are grateful for the excellent research support of Jizheng Chen and Layla Xin Yan. We are also grateful to Prof. Simon Lam of Tung Wah College for his help and advice.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026.

Funding

Open Access Publishing Support Fund provided by Lingnan University. This study was supported by Shenzhen University-Lingnan University Joint Research Programme, Project Number: SZU-LNU 007/2324 (105012), and contributions by STEAM Education & Research Centre of Lingnan University, Dept. of Paediatrics of the Chinese University of HK, Dept. of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine of the University of Hong Kong and the HK Paediatric Society.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Life education index
Mental capital
Bullying
Happiness
Life worth living
Pressures
Logistic regression

Access to Document

10.1007/s11482-026-10603-9Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Does LIFE Education Have Positive Effects on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents? - A Twin-City Exploration",

abstract = "We propose a theory of life education that focuses on Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement. Love is a respect for life and a yearning to realize life{\textquoteright}s potential. Insight represents the “how” of love, requiring a holistic perspective of life and understanding of priority and balance. Fortitude is resilience gained from experience and reflections. Engagement is Love and Insight in action day by day. We test the relationship between two alternative measures of subjective wellbeing on the one hand, and a life education index that measures the intensity of school activities promoting Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement on the other hand. We test four hypotheses using the same questionnaire in surveys conducted in Hong Kong in 2023, 2024, and 2025, totalling 8984 observations (18–19 schools each year), and in Shenzhen in 2024 totalling 3876 observations (8 schools). Bullying is seen to be symptomatic of a lack of Love and Insight, and therefore a lack of mental health. School LIFE education is found to ameliorate the prevalence of bullying, while family LIFE education is found to reduce the vulnerability of one{\textquoteright}s being bullied at school. A huge gap is also found between the “Life Worth Living Index” in Shenzhen and that in Hong Kong. A plausible explanation is the “neijuan” or excessively competitive environment, which led to, among other things, “tangping” or lying flat, which reflects a lack of purpose in daily life, and probably contributing to lower sense of life worth living in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong.",

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author = "HO, \{Lok Sang\} and LAU, \{Ka Wai Maggie\} and ZHAO, \{Mengxian Helen\} and Patrick IP and Genevieve FUNG",

note = "The authors are grateful for the excellent research support of Jizheng Chen and Layla Xin Yan. We are also grateful to Prof. Simon Lam of Tung Wah College for his help and advice. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2026.",

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AU - ZHAO, Mengxian Helen

AU - IP, Patrick

AU - FUNG, Genevieve

N1 - The authors are grateful for the excellent research support of Jizheng Chen and Layla Xin Yan. We are also grateful to Prof. Simon Lam of Tung Wah College for his help and advice. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026.

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N2 - We propose a theory of life education that focuses on Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement. Love is a respect for life and a yearning to realize life’s potential. Insight represents the “how” of love, requiring a holistic perspective of life and understanding of priority and balance. Fortitude is resilience gained from experience and reflections. Engagement is Love and Insight in action day by day. We test the relationship between two alternative measures of subjective wellbeing on the one hand, and a life education index that measures the intensity of school activities promoting Love, Insight, Fortitude and Engagement on the other hand. We test four hypotheses using the same questionnaire in surveys conducted in Hong Kong in 2023, 2024, and 2025, totalling 8984 observations (18–19 schools each year), and in Shenzhen in 2024 totalling 3876 observations (8 schools). Bullying is seen to be symptomatic of a lack of Love and Insight, and therefore a lack of mental health. School LIFE education is found to ameliorate the prevalence of bullying, while family LIFE education is found to reduce the vulnerability of one’s being bullied at school. A huge gap is also found between the “Life Worth Living Index” in Shenzhen and that in Hong Kong. A plausible explanation is the “neijuan” or excessively competitive environment, which led to, among other things, “tangping” or lying flat, which reflects a lack of purpose in daily life, and probably contributing to lower sense of life worth living in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong.

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