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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter May 1, 2012

Socio-demographic and family correlates of hopelessness among adolescents in Shanghai, China

  • Xiao Y. Han and Daniel T.L. Shek EMAIL logo

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.


Corresponding author: Professor Daniel T.L. Shek, PhD, FHKPS, BBS, JP, Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Room HJ407, Core H, Hunghom, Hong Kong, P.R. China

Received: 2011-3-20
Accepted: 2011-5-8
Published Online: 2012-05-01
Published in Print: 2012-05-01

©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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