Abstract
Overparenting, or “helicopter parenting,” can be generally characterized as parenting that is well-intentioned, but over-involved and intrusive. This style of parenting has been especially highlighted in the lives of young adults, who may be inhibited by this form of parenting in the appropriate development of autonomy and independence. Overparenting shares conceptual similarities with parents’ psychological control practices, which involve emotional and psychological manipulation of children (e.g., inducing guilt, withholding love as a form of control). Although these constructs contain key differences, both have been linked to narcissism in young adults, by way of parental over-involvement in children’s lives. Thus, we sought to explore parental psychological control as a mediator between overparenting and narcissism, including in regard to both grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic phenotypes. Participants included 380 young adult college students (age range: 18–26 years) who completed the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, as well as reports of their parents’ behaviors related to overparenting and psychological control. Mediation analyses through Process in SPSS supported the hypothesized role of parental psychological control as a mediator between overparenting and narcissistic traits, including traits related to both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Effect sizes for each analysis were modest. This study further clarifies the nature of overparenting, and speaks to the need for further research in establishing the mechanisms by which overparenting may lead to narcissistic traits among young adults.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler, N. E., Boyce, T., Chesney, M. A., Cohen, S., Folkman, S., & Kahn, R. L. (1994). Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient. American Psychologist, 49, 15–24.
Arnett, J. J. (2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York: Oxford University Press.
Asghar, R. (2014, February 20). All work and no play makes your child…a narcissist. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/02/20/all-work-and-no-play-makes-your-child-a-narcissist/#802db315db87. Accessed 13 February 2018.
Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.ep9706244861.
Barry, C. T., Frick, P. J., & Grafeman, S. J. (2008). Child versus parent reports of parenting practices: implications for the conceptualization of child behavioral and emotional problems. Assessment, 15(3), 294–303.
Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of authoritative control on child behavior. Child Development, 37(4), 887–907.
Baumrind, D. (1967). Child care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 75(1), 43–88.
Bayer, J. K., Sanson, A. V., & Hemphill, S. A. (2006). Parent influences on early childhood internalizing difficulties. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27(6), 542–559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2006.08.002.
Begley, S. (2013, September 20). ‘Helicopter Parents’ Crash Kids’ Job Interviews: What’s an Employer to Do? Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/theemploymentbeat/2013/09/20/helicopter-parents-crash-kids-job-interviews-whats-an-employer-to-do/#5372d5996963. Accessed 12 April 2017.
Bradley-Geist, J. C., & Olson-Buchanan, J. B. (2014). Helicopter parents: an examination of the correlates of over-parenting of college students. Education & Training, 56(4), 314–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-10-2012-0096.
Brummelman, E., Thomaes, S., Nelemans, S. A., de Castro, B. O., Overbeek, G., & Bushman, B. J. (2015). Origins of narcissism in children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America, 112(12), 3659–3662.
Cain, N. M., Pincus, A. L., & Ansell, E. B. (2008). Narcissism at the crossroads: phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social/personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis. Clinical Psychology Review, 28(4), 638–656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2007.09.006.
Capron, E. W. (2004). Types of pampering and the narcissistic personality trait. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 60(1), 77–93.
Cramer, P. (2015). Adolescent parenting, identification, and maladaptive narcissism. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 32(4), 559–579. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038966.
Dickinson, K. A., & Pincus, A. L. (2003). Interpersonal analysis of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Journal of Personality Disorders, 17(3), 188–207. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.17.3.188.22146.
Gabbard, G. O. (1989). Two subtypes of narcissistic personality disorder. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 53, 527–532.
Gar, N. S., & Hudson, J. L. (2008). An examination of the interactions between mothers and children with anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(12), 1266–1274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.08.006.
Givertz, M., & Segrin, C. (2014). The association between overinvolved parenting and young adults’ self-efficacy, psychological entitlement, and family communication. Communication Research, 4(8), 1111–1136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650212456392.
Grolnick, W. C., Kurowski, C. O., Dunlap, K. G., & Hevey, C. (2000). Parental resources and the transition to Junior High. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 10(4), 465–488.
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: a versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modelling. http://www.afhayes.com/ Accessed 2 September 2016.
Horton, R. S., Bleau, G., & Drwecki, B. (2006). Parenting Narcissus: What are the links between parenting and narcissism? Journal of Personality, 74(2), 345–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00378.x.
Horton, R. S., & Tritch, T. (2014). Clarifying the links between grandiose narcissism and parenting. Journal of Psychology, 148(2), 133–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.752337.
Huang, J. L., Curran, P. G., Keeney, J., Poposki, E. M., & DeShon, R. P. (2012). Detecting and deterring insufficient effort responding to surveys. Journal of Business and Psychology, 27(1), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9231-8.
Hyman, J. S., & Jacobs, L. F. (2010, May 12). 10 reasons parents should never contact college professors. US News & World Report. Web. https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/05/12/10-reasons-parents-shouldnever-contact-college-professors Accessed 10 April 2017.
Imbesi, L. (1999). The making of a narcissist. Clinical Social Work Journal, 27(1), 41–54.
Joyce, A. (2014, September 2). How helicopter parents are ruining college students. The Washington Post. Web. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/09/02/how-helicopter-parents-are-ruiningcollege-students/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bc673131aa3b Accessed10 April 2017.
Kins, E., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2012). Parental psychological control and dysfunctional separation–individuation: a tale of two different dynamics. Journal of Adolescence, 35(5), 1099–1109.
Kins, E., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2011). ‘Why do they have to grow up so fast?’ Parental separation anxiety and emerging adults’ pathology of separation-individuation. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(7), 647–664. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20786.
Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of self. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
LeMoyne, T., & Buchanan, T. (2011). Does “hovering” matter? Helicopter parenting and its effect on well-being. Sociological Spectrum, 31, 399–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2011.574038.
Locke, J. Y., Campbell, M. A., & Kavanagh, D. (2012). Can a parent do too much for their child? An examination by parenting professionals of the concept of overparenting. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 22(2), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2012.29.
McDonough, P. M. (1997). Choosing colleges: How social class and schools structure opportunity. New York: SUNY Press.
McShane, K. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2009). The new friends vignettes: Measuring parental psychological control that confers risk for anxious adjustment in preschoolers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33(6), 481–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025409103874.
Mechanic, K. L., & Barry, C. T. (2015). Adolescent grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: Associations with perceived parenting practices. Journal of Child and family Studies, 24(5), 1510–1518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-014-9956-x.
Miller, J. D., Hoffman, B. J., Gaughan, E. T., Gentile, B., Maples, J., & Campbell, W. K. (2011). Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: A nomological network analysis. Journal of Personality, 79(5), 1013–1042. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00711.x.
Millon, T., & Everly, G. (1985). Personality and its disorders: a biosocial learning approach. New York: Wiley.
Morrison, P. (2015, October 28). How ‘helicopter parenting’ is ruining America’s children. LA Times. Web. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-morrison-lythcott-haims-20151028-column.html Accessed 10 April 2017.
Nelson, M. K. (2010). Parenting out of control: Anxious parents in uncertain times. New York: New York University Press.
Nelson, L. J., & Barry, C. M. (2005). Distinguishing features of emerging adulthood: the role of self-classification as an adult. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20, 242–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558404273074.
Odenweller, K. G., Booth-Butterfield, M., & Weber, K. (2014). Investigating helicopter parenting, family environments, and relational outcomes for millennials. Communication Studies, 65(4), 407–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2013.811434.
Otway, L. J., & Vignoles, V. L. (2006). Narcissism and childhood recollections: a quantitative test of psychoanalytic predictions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(1), 104–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167205279907.
Padilla-Walker, L. M., & Nelson, L. J. (2012). Black hawk down? Establishing helicopter parenting as a distinct construct from other forms of parental control during emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 35(5), 1177–1190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.03.007.
Pincus, A. L. (2013). The Pathological Narcissism Inventory. In: J. S. Ogrodniczuk (Ed.) Understanding and treating pathological narcissism. (pp. 93–110). Washington, DC, US: AmericanPsychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14041-006.
Pincus, A. L., Ansell, E. B., Pimentel, C. A., Cain, N. M., Wright, A. G. C., & Levy, K. N. (2009). Initial construction and validation of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 21(3), 365–379. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016530.
Ramsey, A., Watson, P. J., Biderman, M. D., & Reeves, A. L. (1996). Self-reported narcissism and perceived parental permissiveness and authoritarianism. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 157(2), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1996.9914860.
Ronningstam, E. (2009). Narcissistic personality disorder: facing DSM-V. Psychiatric Annals, 39(3), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20090301-09.
Rothstein, A. (1979). The theory of narcissism: an object-relations perspective. Psychoanalytic Review, 66, 35–47.
Rubin, K. H., Hastings, P. D., Stewart, S. L., Henderson, H. A., & Chen, X. (1997). The consistency and concomitants of inhibition: some of the children, all of the time. Child Development, 68, 467–483.
Schaefer, E. S. (1965). A configurational analysis of children’s reports of parent behavior. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29, 552–557. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022702.
Schiffrin, H. H., Liss, M., Miles-McLean, H., Geary, K. A., Erchull, M. J., & Tashner, T. (2014). Helping or hovering? The effects of helicopter parenting on college students’ well-being. Journal of Child and family Studies, 23(1), 548–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9716-3.
Segrin, C., Givertz, M., Swaitkowski, P., & Montgomery, N. (2015). Overparenting is associated with child problems and a critical family environment. Journal of Child and family Studies, 24(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9858-3.
Segrin, C., Woszidlo, A., Givertz, M., & Montgomery, N. (2013). Parent and child traits associated with overparenting. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 32(6), 569–595. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2013.32.6.569.
Segrin, C., Woszidlo, A., Givertz, M., Bauer, A., & Murphy, M. T. (2012). The association between overparenting, parent-child communication, and entitlement and adaptive traits in adult children. Family Relations, 61(2), 237–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2011.00689.x.
van Ingen, D. J., Freiheit, S. R., Steinfeldt, J. A., Moore, L. L., Wimer, D. J., Knutt, A. D., Scapinello, S., & Roberts, A. (2015). Helicopter parenting: the effect of an overbearing caregiving style on peer attachment and self‐efficacy. Journal of College Counseling, 18(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2015.00065.x.
Walpole, M. (2003). Socioeconomic status and college: how SES affects college experiences and outcomes. Review of Higher Education, 27(1), 45–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2003.0044.
Watson, P. J., Little, T., & Biderman, M. D. (1992). Narcissism and parenting styles. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 9(2), 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079344.
Author Contributions
N.A.W. designed and executed the study, ran the data analyses, and wrote the paper. B.C.N. collaborated with the design of the study and editing of the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of The University of Southern Mississippi’s Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Winner, N.A., Nicholson, B.C. Overparenting and Narcissism in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Psychological Control. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3650–3657 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1176-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1176-3