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What is colloquially referred to as "helicopter parenting" is a form of overparenting in which parents apply overly involved and developmentally inappropriate tactics to their children who are otherwise able to assume adult responsibilities and autonomy. Overparenting is hypothesized to be associated with dysfunctional family processes and negative child outcomes. Predictions were tested on 538 parent-young adult child dyads from locations throughout most of the United States. Parents completed a newly developed measure of overparenting as well as family enmenshment, parenting styles, and parent-child communication scales. Youngadult children completed measures of parent-child communication, family satisfaction, entitlement, and several adaptive traits. Results showed that overparenting is associated with lower quality parent-child communication and has an indirect effect on lower family satisfaction. Overparenting was also a significant predictor of young adult child entitlement, although it was not related to any of the adaptive traits measured in young adult children.
Key Words: family interaction, family interactions and communications, interpersonal and family communication, parent-child relations in later life, parenting.
"Helicopter parenting" is a colloquial term used to describe overly involved parents who hover over their children, ready to swoop down and resolve any problems that the child might encounter (Cline & Fay, 1990). Even though this parenting practice could theoretically occur at any stage of childhood, it is most often used in reference to parents of late adolescent or young adult children. In recent years, the popular press has featured numerous accounts and anecdotes of helicopter parents intervening on behalf of their children to resolve grade disputes with college professors and even salary negotiations with employers after the adult child graduates from college (e.g., Gibbs, 2009). These hyperinvolved and risk-averse parents try to shield their children from any perceived obstacle and appear to take a high level of personal responsibility for their children's success and happiness-outcomes that they perhaps also experience vicariously.
What is colloquially referred to as ''helicopter parenting'' is a version of overparenting in which parents demonstrate excessive involvement in their children's lives and apply developmentally inappropriate parenting tactics by failing to allow for levels of autonomy suitable to their child's age. Despite extensive anecdotal evidence of the existence and speculation about the causes and consequences of this parenting practice, there is virtually no scientific...