A narrative inquiry exploring Hong Kong millennial students' perspectives on parental involvements in their academic trajectories

Abstract

Academic achievement in Hong Kong is highly valued. In Hong Kong's examination-dominated culture, children are raised in an atmosphere of drilling, preparing, and practicing for tests and examinations that determine their future academic opportunities. Many parents of Hong Kong youth are highly involved in every aspect of their children's lives. Scholars and practitioners have speculated that this high level of parental involvement and focus on academic achievement often comes at the expense of a child's social and psychological development (Klein & Pierce, 2009; Tam & Chan, 2010), resulting in low capacity for self-care, low emotional intelligence, and low adversity quotient (Wong, 2009). This study aims to understand the educational journeys of Hong Kong youth and how they make sense of the roles their parents have played in shaping those journeys both positively and negatively, with the goal of identifying how to better support these youth and their caregivers. In this context, using Baumrind's Parenting Styles Theory (1967) and Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (1979), the study seeks to answer the following research question: What are the experiences of Hong Kong millennial students during their educational journeys, and how do they make sense of how their parents have shaped their academic, social, and psychological development? The research findings suggested that the participants felt the pressure to study oriented from their parents was intense, which often included tutorials and extra-curricular activities. Although most of them achieved high academic results and entered top-notch universities, because of tremendous pressures to study since childhood, they expressed that they were deprived of free time to play and freedom to choose. Each of the participant shared his/her view of education and cited in a similar fashion: freedom to explore, opportunities for creativity, and pursuit of one's interest were more fulfilling than remarkable academic achievement. Keywords: Hong Kong educational system, Hong Kong millennials, parental involvement, academic achievement, social and emotional development.