Family Stress

When Academic Reality Fails to Meet Parental Expectation—Stress

Hong Kong is renowned for its education, ranking fourth internationally1; yet, it comes at a cost: immense stress. Hong Kong students know stress very well—Uncertainties about Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSEE) (Sun, 2000;

Yeung, 2012), peer pressure (Matsushima & Shiomi, 2003), and among other things, family pressure is the key contributing factor to stress (Wang, Yuen, & Slaney, 2009; Yau

& Smetana, 1996), and this leads to detrimental consequences like suicide among students (Yip et al., 2004; Lee, Wong, Chow, & McBride-Chang, 2006). In view of these dire implications of family stress, it is imperative to understand why family pressure faced by the

Roles inside the family extend beyond to relationships outside the family

(Yang, 1997). In order for the family to be well-reputed among relatives, parents have high expectation on their children (Chui, 2000), especially their academic success, which, in turn, brings in reputation and honor to the entire family, whereas failure in academic means disgracing the family (Chui, 2000; Wang, Yuen, & Slaney, 2009; Yu &

Chen, 2001). This mode of association subjects students to stress.

As parents perceive educational success as utmost importance, they heavily invest on children’s education, and thus expecting repayment in the form of educational success

(Chow & Chu, 2007). Typical investment comes in a form of money paid for extra-curricular activities, such that it is a de rigueur for children to learn one sport, two foreign languages and three musical instruments.4 While some parents invest by their

“lives”: Mainland family’s migrated to Hong Kong for their children to have better education in Hong Kong, at the expense of parents’ previous social networks and steady income back in China (Chee, 2010; Wong et al., 2009). Therefore, these children

As for the second solution regarding educating parents on parental style, it is noted that perception on the significance of academic success and parental styles are developed from the ingrained cultural context of Hong Kong, of which both are firmly anchored in one’s belief. Hardly could it be uprooted by education only. In order to change these perpetuated views, parental education should work concurrently with government policies which affect this trend. This includes the implementation of holistic approaches when assessing student’s ability, rather than the only public examination

HKDSEE; or providing more prospective channels for those who are

WHEN ACADEMIC REALITY FAILS 5 academically-incompetent. These altogether convey a message to parents that academic success is not the only ladder for social mobility, and after all, might lax their parenting styles. The last solution on students’ education on stress-relieving is not impeccable as well: because it is not known whether students will practice skills learnt in a real stressed-out situation, like they might be refrained from talking to social workers due to shyness.