Abstract
Objectives
This study examined associations between child disability and parent-reported overparenting, autonomy granting, and affect management among a purposeful sample of parents whose children attended a camp serving early adolescents with disabilities or a camp serving early adolescents without disabilities.
Methods
868 parents completed a post-camp online questionnaire designed to measure overparenting, autonomy granting, and affect management. The measure’s factor structure and model fit were examined through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the relations between variables were tested using a Structural Equation Model (SEM).
Results
Parents of children attending the camp serving early adolescents with disabilities reported higher levels of overparenting as compared to parents of early adolescents without a disability. Further, overparenting had a positive effect on affect management, but not on autonomy granting. Finally, disability status did not have a statistically significant negative effect on affect management or autonomy granting.
Conclusions
Overparenting appears at higher rates among parents of early adolescents with disabilities, which may reflect overparenting as normative for parents with children with disabilities. Such overparenting behaviors may support children with disabilities to perform more consistently when compared to their peers.
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Author Contributions
R.J.G.: designed and executed the study, conducted the data analyses, and wrote the paper. B.A.G.: collaborated with the design and writing of the study. C.D.K., H.S., and M.C.: collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript.
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This research was supported in part by Texas Lions Camp. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of Texas Lions Camp. Texas Lions Camp had no involvement in the study design, analysis of data, or the development of this manuscript.
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This research was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Clemson University where it was conducted, which has Federal-wide Assurance from the Office of Human Research Protection (OHRP). Thus, all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Gagnon, R.J., Garst, B.A., Kouros, C.D. et al. When Overparenting is Normal Parenting: Examining Child Disability and Overparenting in Early Adolescence. J Child Fam Stud 29, 413–425 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01623-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01623-1