The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Academic and Behavioral Adjustment Among Urban Chinese Adolescents

This article examines the relationship between parenting styles and adolescents' academic and behavioral outcomes. Based on data collected from eighth-graders in two cities in China, we find that the majority of Chinese parents adopt optimal parenting styles, such as democratic or authoritative parenting styles. Democratic parenting is the optimal parenting style among urban Chinese boys because sons of democratic mothers have better academic achievement and engage in fewer delinquent activities than sons raised by other types of mothers, including authoritative mothers. Sons of democratic fathers have better academic achievements than sons of other types of fathers, including authoritative fathers. Conversely, maternal warmth is essential to cultivating academic and behavioral competence among urban Chinese girls, and paternal warmth is crucial to reducing delinquency among girls. Girls of authoritarian or neglectful parents have lower grades and engage in more delinquent activities than girls of authoritative or democratic parents.