Since my son is only 4 I only have experience to this age as a parent. I can say as an adolescent and young adult I would have benefitted from more guidance, while my husband had A LOT of attempted giudance that really put more of a wedge between him and his parents. So my initial hunch is (like with a lot of things!) it somewhat depends on the individual child. And part of our responsibility as parents is to know our children well enough (in addition to reading, research etc) to intuit what they need at the different stages in their lives…. and to be creative and adaptable if a more hands on – or hands off – approach is not working.