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access to core institutions to foster their development is increasingly
unequal and separate. The children from well-off families grow up in family
with two attentive married parents, they attend high-performing schools
and are equipped with the necessary life skills to assist in navigating the
future road ahead.

On the other hand, the children from low-income, working-class
families have little chance of accessing the social capital abundant in well-
off families, and thus are emotionally stunted and are unable to climb up
the social ladder. Putnam cited a landmark study by Hart and Risley (2003)
who estimated that by the time they enter kindergarten, the children from
well-off families hears 19 million more words than the children from poor
families and 32 million more words than the children whose parents are on
welfare. The inequality of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ results in children
having dramatically different outcomes later in life.

5.2 The Problem in Hong Kong

The studies by Murray and Putnam of class division have
important parallels in Hong Kong. In the past 30 years, the socioeconomic
divide between low- and high-income households has grown progressively
wider and economic inequality has segregated the rich and the poor into
different neighbourhoods.

The figures in Table 10 demonstrate that there is a larger
concentration of children living in single parent households in PRH estates
than in other types of housing. In 2001, 27,454 (or 44.7%) domestic households
with single parents live in PRH. In 2011, it increased to 42,820 (52.4%). In
2015, the number rose to 50,100 or 55.8% of domestic households with
single parents. Among all other housing types, the proportion has been
decreasing over the years.

Table 10. Number / share of children (1-18 years old) living at home with a single parent by
housing type

Source: Census and Statistics Department.

This is consistent with the observations discussed in the
previous chapter that low-income, divorced men and women are heavily
concentrated in PRH. It follows that the PRH estates have become a
conglomeration of single parent households that will have an adversarial
effect on a sizeable number of children. Their development is stunted
causing both income inequality and poverty.

Hong Kong’s public housing estates are transforming into areas

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