Objective   To examine the situation of courtesy languages using and its relationship with parenting style among primary school students.

  Methods   Totally 849 students of fourth grade were selected from 6 primary schools in Shanghai city with convenience sampling and were surveyed with an anonymous questionnaire in August 2015 to collect information on social-demographic characteristics of the students and parents, the frequency of courtesy languages usage in the students, and the parenting style of the students.

  Results   Among the students, the reported proportions of using the polite expressions every day were 91.8 % for " Goodbye”, 86.7 % for " Thank you”, 75.5 % for " Sorry”, 66.5 % for " Hello”, and 62.1 % for " Please”, respectively; there were significant differences in the reported proportions of polite expressions usage (P < 0.05 for all), except for the usage of the expression of " Sorry”, with generally higher proportions in the girl students than in the boy students. There were significant gender differences in the scores for two dimensions of parenting style, with a higher score for involvement among the girl than among the boy students (26.31 ± 4.01 vs. 25.34 ± 4.53) and a higher score for psychological autonomy among the boy than among the girl students (15.22 ± 4.27 vs. 14.13 ± 4.22) (both P < 0.05). There were significantly positive correlations between the reported proportions of using polite expressions and the score of involvement dimension of parenting style and between the proportions (except for the usage of " Goodbye”) and the score of strictness/supervision dimension of parenting style (both P < 0.05); no significant association of psychological autonomy dimension of parenting style with polite expressions usage was observed among the students.

  Conclusion   The usage of courtesy language needs to be promoted among primary school students, especially among boy students. The involvement and strict/supervision dimensions of parenting style are significantly correlated with courtesy language usage among primary school students.