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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1527268
Improving children and adolescents' quality of life, personal growth, well-being, and safety through health-behavioral education: A pre-post intervention study
Provisionally accepted
Czarina Leung *
Tim Leung 
Daphne Lau 
Rachel Ng 
Shahira Fatin Shelly Chutke 
Cayla Pui Jing Xi Dai Josephine Yu Jason Jia - Be Priceless, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
Hong Kong children and adolescents are living with alarming deterioration of mental health and escalating risks of violence and self-harm. SEED (Self-value, Empower, Educate, and Protect from Dangers) health-behavioral education provided to children, caregivers, and care service providers by Be Priceless is the only Hong Kong program that integrates safety with mental, physical, and social well-being. 526 children aged 6 to 17 years were recruited into a pre-post intervention study from May 2021 to September 2024. The impact of our SEED health education intervention was evaluated on four outcome measures: health-related quality of life, emotional regulation, well-being/resilience, and safety. Relative to pre-course baseline, all four measures showed significant improvements after intervention which persisted for 6 months, with large effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.66-0.92, all P < .001), and especially for those who were ethnic minorities or with special education needs. These results provide evidence that the SEED health education of Be Priceless is an efficacious intervention that improves children's well-being and safety, while promoting health equity and inclusivity in Hong Kong.
Keywords: Child, Adolescent, Health Behavior, Health Education, behavioral intervention, risk reduction, health and well-being, quality of life
Received: 13 Nov 2024; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Leung, Leung, Lau, Ng, Fatin, Chutke, Pui, Dai, Yu and Jia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Czarina Leung, Be Priceless, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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