Objective  To examine the prevalence of adolescent risk behaviors under various parental risk factors and to analyze the impact of parental risk factors on adolescent risk behaviors.

  Methods  We retrieved the data on 9 400 students aged 12 – 18 years selected with stratified random cluster sampling in 112 junior high schools in 28 county-level regions across China from the two waves of China Education Panel Survey conducted during 2013 – 2014 for a baseline survey and 2014 – 2015 for a follow-up survey. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the impact of parental risk factors on adolescent risk behaviors.

  Results  We identified five self-reported major parental risk factor, of which, poor parent-child relationship demonstrated the strongest impact on the students' risk behaviors. Among the students reporting poor parent-child relationship, the prevalence rate was 39.51% for fighting, 17.28% for smoking/alcohol drinking, 25.93% for playing in internet bar/video arcade, 10.00% for intimate contact with the opposite gender, and 22.22% for puppy love and the prevalence rate of those risk behaviors decreased in a descending rank order among the students reporting with a father being drunk frequently, not living with parents, parental divorce or parental death, and perceived poor relationship between mother and father. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that parental risk factors had significant impacts on adolescent risk behaviors and could increase the likelihood of dangerous behaviors of the adolescents; poor parent-child relationship had the greatest impact, followed by parental divorce or parental death, on some risk behaviors of the adolescents.

  Conclusion  Parental risk factors are positively correlated with adolescent risk behaviors, with the poor parent-child relationship as the strongest parental risk factor. The results suggest that interventions on adolescents′ risk behaviors need to be promoted comprehensively in the society, school, and family.