Survey finds one in five Hong Kong parents spend too little time chatting with their children
Experts urge more conversations and family dinners, with interaction linked to academic performance
One in five parents chat with their children less than once a week – a trend that could affect performance in school, a new study has found.
Researchers at Chinese University surveyed 15,000 Primary Three, Primary Six, and Form Three students, finding that 14 to 20 per cent of children across the education levels held conversations with their parents less than once a week.
More than 80 per cent of parents ate dinner with their children almost daily, but 5 to 9 per cent did so only once or twice a month.
“It’s is alarming because this is unusual for this culture,” Florrie Ng Fei-yin, an associate professor in educational psychology at the university, said.
The report also found that students had a “moderately better” academic performance in English, Chinese, and mathematics when their parents discussed school life and had dinner with them more.
Greater parental involvement “generally leads to better academic achievement,” Dr Hau Kit-tai, professor of educational psychology at Chinese University, said.
