Asian Parentig

This is an article taken from The Nation, Thailand's national newspaper.

The folk are fine in Thailand, whilst Singapore parents, Hong Kong parents, and Taiwanese parents can improve

Thai parents have scored the highest in a wide-ranging survey of teenagers across Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Conducted by Reader's Digest magazine, the survey polled 3212 teenagers between the age of 14 and 18 in Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.  Some 400 respondents from each country graded their parents on 38 criteria, including whether their parents knew their best friends' names, listened to their problems, gave them unconditional love and respected their privacy. 

"We think Thai parents have scored best in Asia because they strike a balance between intimacy and strictness," said Kiatsuda Suriyayos, managing editor of Reader's Digest magazine's Thai language edition.

She explained that Thai mothers generally scored low on giving good advice without preaching and lecturing.  Thai fathers in turn knew too little about fashion, their teenage offspring determined.  Thai parents also fell short when it came to helping their children do their homework.

"Thai parents, however, earned a very high mark for honesty," Kiatsuda said.

In general, Asian parents won high marks for being hardworking, loving, caring and morally upright.  They generally scored low when it came to losing their temper and educating their child on sexual matters.

How highly do Asian teens rate their parents?

Thais 89%

Indonesians 85%

Malaysians 83%

South Koreans 81%

Filipinos 80%

Singaporeans 73%

Hong Kongers 58%

Taiwanese 53%