Helicopter Parenting Research

Many parents have the best intentions when raising a child. More often than not, parental involvement is seen as beneficial for child outcomes. However, research suggests that intense and intrusive styles of parenting are detrimental to said outcomes. There is a reason for the mental health predicament that psychologists are seeing on college campuses - where successful students are miserable because they cannot cope with normal life challenges. There is a reason why psychologists are seeing a record number of students who are depressed and don’t know why, because they claim they had ideal childhoods, their parents were their “biggest fans”, and they never experienced anything more than superficial disappointment. Blogger Kari Kubiszyn Kampakis …show more content…
Helicopter parents are described as “hovering” over the child and having an excessive amount of involvement and concern in their life. Negative developmental outcomes associated with this style of parenting include a reduced maturation and decreased self confidence, higher levels of child anxiety and depression, damaged autonomy coupled with underdeveloped coping skills, and decreased social competence (Schiffrin et al., 2014; Segrin et al., 2013a; Segrin, Woszidlo, Givertz & Montgomery, 2013b). This directed parental regard can restrict the experiences of children as the outcomes undermine self-efficacy and the ability for one to survive on their own (Schiffrin, Liss, Miles­McLean, Geary, Erchull & Tasher, 2013; Segrin et al., 2013a). Coupled with the inability to experience failure, these missed opportunities make children less able to solve their own problems, be autonomous, develop in-depth relationships, and cope independently (Schiffrin et al., …show more content…
Parents concentrate too much on creating “magical memories” and removing obstacles to keep their kids happy. As a result, they often fail to cultivate qualities like character, perseverance, patience, and the determination to be successful adults (Marano, 2009). Maladaptive behaviors displayed by the parent, such as completing tasks for the child, can lead to a diminished sense of competence combined with shame and guilt. This can happen when a child fails at mastering certain tasks, or is unable to do them at all. The result is a lack of academic and personal coping skills, and when combined with frustration the child can foster resentment towards the parent. Subsequently, the child produces a psychological decrease in life satisfaction, self esteem, and an increase in anxiety (Shiffrin et al., 2013; Segrin et al., 2013b). Parents who fail to modulate their behavior in context with the development of the child will find that they become over involved, reject the notion of failure in their child, and can damage the healthy parent­-child relationship that they are attempting to nurture (Schiffrin et al., 2014; Segrin et al.,