A study of the relation of parent-child interaction and certain psychological attributes of adolescents in Hong Kong

The study deals with the relations of parent-child interaction among Hong Kong adolescents with certain psychological attributes including intellectual abilities, attitude to home, social interest, academic motivation and popularity. In view of the emphasis on examination results in the Hong Kong community, it was also found useful to investigate aspects of the relations of parent-child interaction by itself, and together with the above psychological attributes, to school achievements. By the use of the Ginsburg Parent Image Differential Test, twelve parental factors were identified for parent-child interaction. The AH4 Test was used to assess intellectual abilities. Original measures were constructed for the other psychological attributes. The subjects were students aged around 17 in Form IV classes of a stratified random sample of Hong Kong Anglo Chinese schools where English was the main medium of instruction. Certain hypotheses were tested by the use of the following statistical techniques: product moment correlation, principal components analysis, stepwise multiple regression, and analyses of variance and covariance. Considering the particular social context in Hong Kong, cross-cultural evidence from U.S.A.,Mexico, and Singapore was also examined and found to support the argument that the Hong Kong situation was rather unique. Hence interpretation of the results was restricted to the cultural, social, economic, and educational pattern of Hong Kong. The main trends clearly identified in th~ study were that mothers tended to be more responsible for significant aspects of their adolescents' cognitive development and fathers more so for the affective characteristics. In general, more pressures were put on the boys than on the girls by parents, especially by the mother: boys, too, proved generally superior to girls in cognitive abilities, but inferior in the affective traits. These findings were found to be in agreement with the boy-centred society and patriarchal home practices of traditional Chinese culture in Hong Kong