BEIJING -- Almost 70 percent of Chinese middle school students have
serious problems with their parents, the Beijing Morning Post quoted a survey as
saying.
The survey showed 6.62 percent of the surveyed
students are afraid of their parents while 13.13 percent of them loathe their
parents and 56.28 percent were extremely disgusted with or even hate their
parents. Only 4.75 percent of the young people surveyed said they like their
parents.
The recently conducted survey among 3,000 middle
school students in a Beijing district asked questions about their attitude
toward their parents and family education, the paper said.
For many families, conflict between parents and
children center on the student's school grades, their weight and their friends.
The survey showed that parental influence over children is decreasing, the paper
said.
Xiao Xiao, a third year junior middle school student
is perhaps typical of most kids when she complains; "I was scolded by my mother
because I didn't come first in the class in a mid-term exam."
Xiao Xiao in fact is already one of the top students
in her class, the paper said, stressing Xiao Xiao's parents hope she can study
at the Beijing University or even attend Harvard in the future.
Sun Yunxiao, an expert with the China Youth and
Children Research Center, said "parents pin unrealistically high expectations on
their children."
The research centre's own survey of parents showed
about 55 percent of parents hope their children will study for a doctoral degree
and 83.6 percent require their children to rank in the top 15 of their class.
Conflicts between parents and their children not only
come fromtoo high education expectations. Other causes of disconnection between
parents and children are family violence, parents' old fashioned ideas,
interference in a child's privacy including their choice of friends and time
spent surfing the web, the paper said.
Mr Hu, a father of a middle school student, wasn't
surprised by the survey results. He says too much concern over school marks is
putting tremendous pressure on families.
The paper said schools and family institutions should
work to improve family education and relations between parents and
children.
