The correlations between young night drifter phenomenon and family characteristics in Yuen Long district

Abstract

The Yuen Long District is one of the 12 new development towns in Hong Kong. Upon the rapid growth of the population, various social problems has appeared which include youth gangs and violence activities. In order to understand the young night drifting phenomenon in Yuen Long, we adapted the qualitative research method by conducting in-depth interviews with 10 teenagers who are spending some of their time at night on the street. In addition, we spent time in the Yuen Long district at night to conduct field observation of the phenomenon to order gain an understanding of the situation before we approach our target interviewees. The three main objectives of the research are: 1) to identify the decision factors of teenagers staying on the street at night; 2) to gain an understanding of their family characteristics, especially since a significant number of new immigrants from China are living in Yuen Long district; and 3) to identify is there a linkage between the teenagers staying on the street at night and their family characteristics. From our research, it indicates that most of the Young Night Drifters in Yuen Long come from low-income families. Some of them suffer from parental abuse, so they don’t have a close relationship with their families. In addition, some of the Young Night Drifters immigrated to Hong Kong recently, they are experiencing cultural difference and language barriers, since not all of them speak fluent Cantonese nor English. Such difficulties of integrating into their new lives in Hong Kong had further lowered their self-esteem and desire to join mainstream society. Modern Young Night Drifters are not involved in illegal activities or civil offense based on our observation and interviews – they were actually are ‘victims’ to a certain extent instead of ‘trouble makers’ of society.