Parenting styles, parent-adolescent conflict, and psychological well-being of adolescents with low academic achievement in Hong Kong

Chinese secondary school students with low academic achievement (N = 365) responded to instruments measuring their perceived paternal and maternal parenting behavior and styles, and their conflict with the father and the mother. Results generally showed that more positive perceptions of specific parenting behavior, global parenting style, and parent-adolescent conflict were associated with a lower level of psychological symptoms and higher levels of positive mental health or coping resources. It was also found that compared with maternal characteristics and mother-adolescent conflict, paternal parenting characteristics and father-adolescent conflict were more strongly related to adolescent mental health.