Helicopter parenting: Conceptions, influences and effects

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3) : 612-618.

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PDF(370 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3) : 612-618.

Helicopter parenting: Conceptions, influences and effects

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Abstract

Helicopter Parenting, also known as overparenting,is a type of parenting adopted by parents on emerging adults (usually between 18 and 25). This concept was first presented by Cline and Fay (1990), who described parents who excessively interfered with their children as "helicopter parents". LeMoyne and Buchanan (2011) described helicopter parenting as a parenting style that parents hover over their children and are always ready to make decisions and take responsibility for them. Since then, helicopter parenting has received much attention in academia for its negative effects on emerging adults. The present research systematically analyzed the outline of the helicopter parenting, focusing on the conceptual analysis, influencing factors and post-effects of helicopter parenting. Firstly, this research defined helicopter parenting as a kind of parenting in which parents give their children excessive support and control, without autonomy for their behaviors. Helicopter parenting has its own distinctive characteristics as well as it has a definite correlation with authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, harsh parenting, little emperor parenting and tiger moms parenting. Secondly, the main factors affecting helicopter education are demographic variables, parental factors and social cultural background based on the deliberate analysis of the previous studies. Existing studies have not reached consensuses on whether demographic variables (such as age, grade, gender, and socioeconomic status) significantly affect helicopter parenting. In terms of parental factors, parental attachment and anxiety characteristics, parental projection and expectations, parental regulatory focus and their life pressure would all have an influence on the helicopter parenting. Social culture also has a significant impact on helicopter parenting. Collectivism advocates the interdependence and inter-guidance among generations, while individualism usually attaches more importance to the independence and privacy of children. Helicopter parenting may be more prevalent in cultures that value interdependence more than independence. For the post-effects of the helicopter parenting, Self-Determination Theory provides a potential theoretical explanation for the relationship between helicopter parenting and child development, according to which the healthy adaptation and functioning of an individual involves three inborn human demand, namely autonomy (feeling that one has will control in making one's own decisions), competence (feeling confident in one's abilities and achievements) and relatedness (feeling that one is connected to others in real and caring relationships). And excessive parental involvement threatens the ability of emerging adults to fulfill these needs, especially for autonomy. It is found that helicopter parenting plays an important role in the mental and social adaptions of adolescents. This effect mainly reflects the following aspects: depression and anxiety, motivation and self-efficient, academic adaptation, interpersonal interaction, life satisfaction and risky behavior. Future research needs diversified participants to be extended from college students to adults, and to focus on richer research topics. Secondly, the mechanism of helicopter parenting should be discussed in detail considering more moderators and mediators. Thirdly, social cultural background was proved to be important in helicopter parenting, future research should be carried out under Chinese background, and compare the parenting style with Western cultures. Finally, It will adopt the longitude design or cross-lagged design for future study to further investigate the cause and effect between helicopter parenting and healthy development in emerging adults.

Key words

Helicopter parenting / influencing factors / effect evaluation / causal mechanisms

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Helicopter parenting: Conceptions, influences and effects[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2021, 44(3): 612-618
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