Promotion of Family Bonding: The P.A.T.H.S. Program

Abstract

One of the most significant cultural heritages of Chinese society is that the core values of Confucianism place great emphasis on building harmonious interpersonal relationships. Project P.A.T.H.S. aims at helping students to build positive and healthy relationships with adults, teachers, and peers. It is intended that family bonding concerns both quantity and quality of the exchange between parents and children. The positive youth development (PYD) constructs inspiring the P.A.T.H.S. project and the activities implemented aim to promote adolescents thinking in terms of family, rather than selfish thinking. Improving family bonds has some other important consequences for adolescents that go beyond their relationship with their parents. Fourteen units are particularly significant to the development of family bonding; the rationale and the PYD constructs inspiring these units are presented with illustrations.