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Understanding the Associations between Helicopter Parenting and Emerging Adults’ Adjustment

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Abstract

Emerging adulthood is an important developmental period where youth continue to grow and develop. Parents may affect a smooth transition into adult roles by utilizing parenting practices that are developmentally inappropriate, such as helicopter parenting. Despite the recent attention on helicopter parenting, we know little about why helicopter parenting may be disadvantageous to adjustment and for whom helicopter parenting may be most disadvantageous. In the current study, the associations among helicopter parenting and college students’ relationship competence (friendship and romantic), substance use problems, and depressive symptoms was examined, as were potential mediators of these associations. To examine these associations a sample of 637 college students in the Northeastern United States (Mage = 20.03; 70% female; 63% White) completed surveys. Structural equation models indicated that helicopter parenting was associated with increased depressive symptoms, substance use problems, and decreased relationship competence and that these relationships were similar across males and females and youth of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Perceived stress and youth’s perception that their basic psychological needs were undermined mediated the relationship between helicopter parenting and depressive symptoms. Undermining of psychological needs was the only significant mediator for the association between helicopter parenting and relationship competence. These findings are critical for informing the understanding of the mechanisms that link parenting during emerging adulthood to maladjustment.

Highlights

  • Helicopter parenting was associated with important emerging adult outcomes.

  • Psychological needs explained associations between parenting and outcomes.

  • Findings have implications for understanding why helicopter parenting is harmful.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to teaching assistant Caitlin Souza and students in developmental psychology research methods courses in fall 2016 and 2017 who were responsible for data collection, as well as to all the participants. 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. This study was approved by Rhode Island College IRB and informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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    Emily C. Cook

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Cook, E.C. Understanding the Associations between Helicopter Parenting and Emerging Adults’ Adjustment. J Child Fam Stud 29, 1899–1913 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01716-2

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