Prof. Janet Tsin Yee Leung is Professor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She obtained her MSc from University of Sussex and PhD (Social Work) from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with the honor of Distinguished Thesis Award. Janet is a registered social worker. She had been a service supervisor in a multiservice non-governmental organization supervising a wide range of services including children and youth services, school counseling services, training projects for dyslexic children, family support programmes, service for the homeless people, and community development projects. 

Janet’s research interests include poverty, family process, adolescent development and wellbeing, and parent education. Her studies mainly focus on four areas: (1) family processes and adolescent development in economically disadvantaged families; (2) the phenomenon of overparenting and its impacts to parent and adolescent wellbeing; (3) family resilience in families facing adversities; and (4) program evaluation on parenting programs and positive youth development projects. In her studies, she examined indigenous family processes (such as parental sacrifice, adolescent filial responsibilities, parenting perfectionism) that have contributed to adolescent development and wellbeing. Janet expands her study on overparenting, and has conducted longitudinal studies to examine the associations of overparenting with adolescent development in Chinese contexts. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn have made adverse impacts to Hong Kong families. Janet received a grant of $18.9 million from Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to initiate the “Promoting Family Resilience” Project between 2021 and 2024. The Project includes e-learning modules on family resilience. community-based intervention programs, professional training workshops and family research.  

Janet has participated in 26 research projects in the capacity of Principal Investigator (ten projects), Co-Principal Investigator (nine projects) and Co-Investigator (seven projects). The total amount of the research grant obtained was over HK$76 million. She has obtained grants for one ECS and three GRF projects from the General Research Council. She received the Research Fellow Award from the International Society of Quality-of-Life Studies in 2019. 

Janet’s publications appear in different peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Family Process, Journal of Research on Adolescence, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Journal of Social and Personal Relationship, Journal of Adolescence, Child Indicators Research, Research on Social Work Practice and British Journal of Social Work. She is one of the editors of The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development published in 2020. She is currently the Associate Editor of Applied Research in Quality of Life and China Journal of Social Work. 

Janet is currently the Chairperson of Social Work Panel in APSS. She received two educational awards, namely Gold Winner, Sustainability Award of Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards 2018 (A Tale of Two Cities: A Service-Learning Subject for Migrant Children in Shanghai and Needy Youth in Hong Kong) and Silver Winner, Ethical Leadership Award, Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards 2018 (Nurturing Ethical Leaders of Tomorrow) in the capacity of a team member.

• Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
• Master of Arts in Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex, The United Kingdom  
• Bachelor of Social Science (Social Work), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong