Abstract
Chinese secondary school students (n=3022) responded to measures of adolescent hopelessness, perceived parental behavioral control, parental psychological control, and parent-child relational qualities. Results show that roughly one-fifth of the Chinese adolescents displayed signs of hopelessness. Adolescent hopelessness was positively related to age, and boys displayed a lower level of hopelessness than did girls. Adolescent hopelessness was also related to parental education, marital status of the parents, and economic disadvantage. Whereas parental behavioral control was negatively related to adolescent hopelessness, parental psychological control was positively associated with adolescent hopelessness. Adolescents who perceived parent-child relational qualities to be better showed a lower level of hopelessness. Parental psychological control and parental trust emerged as the two important predictors of adolescent hopelessness in Chinese adolescents.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston