SETTING out clear rules, encouraging children's independence and adopting open communication would promote children's self-esteem, psychosocial maturity and academic achievement, a recent report pointed out.
The 'Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Adolescents' Behaviour', conducted by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong, was aimed at finding out the types of parenting styles perceived by adolescents and exploring the relationship between these styles and adolescent behaviour in Hong Kong.
The report categorised four parenting styles, namely authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and neglectful, based on the results of the survey.
About 2,576 students filled out the questionnaire.
The report defined authoritative parents as those who provided clear standards, encouraged individuality and adopted open communication with their children while authoritarian parents controlled their children with an absolute set of criteria.
Parents who were very tolerant and used little punishment were classified as indulgent parents and neglectful parents were insensitive to their children's needs.
About 27.7 per cent of parents were classified as authoritative, 15.0 per cent authoritarian, 13.4 per cent indulgent and 43.9 per cent neglectful.