Objective  To explore parenting style and its influencing factors among Tibetan adolescents in Lhasa city.

  Methods  We conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey among 871 students recruited with multistage cluster sampling in a junior high school, a senior high school, and a university in Lhasa city in September and October 2015. Short Form Egna Minnen Barndoms Uppfostran (s-EMBU) was adopted in the survey. Rank sum test was used in univariate analysis, and multiple linear regression was used in the multivariate analysis.

  Results  Similar parenting style of the fathers and mothers was reported by the students. With the increment of age, the students perceived less parental rejection and more emotional warmth (P < 0.001). Compared to the adolescents with parents married, the adolescents with the parents divorced reported more rejection from their parents (B_father = 0.20 and B_mother = 0.23) and less emotional warmth from their father (B = – 0.19). The girl students perceived more emotional warmth from both father (B = 0.13) and mother (B = 0.16) and more overprotection from mother (B = 0.12) than the boy students. The adolescents with the monthly family income of less than 1 000 RMB Yuan and those with higher monthly family income perceived more parental emotional warmth and overprotection from mother (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  For the adolescents in Lhasa city, the parenting style correlates with their age, gender, family income and their parents′ marital status.