About 70 percent of Chinese parents educate their children by means of consulting colleagues, relatives, friends or even accessing the Internet for help, whereas merely 10 percent turn to experts for advice, according to a survey conducted among 17,941 Chinese families across 14 provinces and municipalities by the Family Education Research Center under Beijing Normal University (BNU)'s Faculty of Education.

The statistics highlight an ongoing problem that Chinese parents are facing: Despite the great social demand, truly useful family education–related ideas and methods, particularly those tried and tested by field experts, have yet to be tapped into by the majority of families.

Also, while most parents surveyed said that they use logical reasoning and personal examples as ways to convince their children, 6.76 percent tend to suppress their young simply by appealing to the "authority of parents."

Chen Jianxiang, professor at BNU, suggests that parents should always pay close attention to their children's needs, the spiritual ones in particular. Parents should be looking to support and nurture their children's natural disposition and must avoid using any form of violence whatsoever as means of parenting.

In addition, the survey shows that mothers have been playing a major role in educating their children, as the fathers are generally too busy to take on a bigger role as far as learning is concerned. However, given the fact that many Chinese mothers are prone to anxiety, children will be adversely affected by this to some extent.

Parents are advised to assist each other in educating their children and to strike a balance between family and career. They should, however, never transfer this duty to the grandparents or rely on the unverified information on the Internet, nor should they believe others' experience or traditions, which won't prove to be satisfactory solutions for family education.

The organizers — the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co., Ltd — expressed the hope that this survey will shed light on the status quo of China's family education and provide parents with some suggestions, so as to ensure that children experience a rich, happy childhood.

(Source: www.cnwomen.com.cn / Translated and edited by Women of China)