Hovering Parents: Is Helicopter Parenting a Unique Form of Parental Control?

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Gregory Nichols and Dr. Laura Walker, School of Family Life

Introduction

Emerging adulthood is a stage of development encompassing the years between 18 and 25 during which individuals strive for self-reliance despite the instability in their education, employment, and housing status (Arnett, 2007). Identity exploration, though historically associated with adolescence (e.g., Erikson, 1959), is so common in emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2007) that many do not even consider themselves adults (Nelson & Barry, 2005), which may explain why some the lay media have suggested extrapolating constructs from adolescence and applying them to emerging adulthood. Lay media often use the term “helicopter parenting” to describe parents who maintain high levels of involvement in their emerging adult children’s lives and describe its supposed effects (Ludden, 2012; Pope, 2012, Stewart, 2007), but scholarly media has yet to distinguish helicopter parenting and its effects from other forms of parenting practices typical in emerging adulthood. Helicopter parenting is easily categorized with parental psychological control and behavioral control because they all have a degree of parental control (Barber, 1996; Barber, Stoltz, Olsen, 2005), but in contrast, helicopter parenting seems to have the warmth (NPR) and involvement that psychological and behavioral control lack (e.g., Barber, 1996). Helicopter parenting has been used to describe parents who attend class with their child in the first week of college, bargain for benefits at their first job, and resolve conflicts with professors, roommates, and employers. Because helicopter parents seem to be more caring than controlling, there is reason to believe that it is distinct from other types of parental control in emerging adulthood. We expect that helicopter parenting will emerge as an independent type of parental control from psychological control and behavioral control. We also hypothesize that it will be differentially correlated to a range of parenting and behavioral outcomes for emerging adults.

Methods

The sample for this study consists of 438 undergraduate students with at least one of their parents. Data was collected in 2010 again in 2011 via questionnaires administered via the Internet. Students were incentivized with a $50 gift card. Emerging adults and their parents completed measures of helicopter parenting, psychological, and behavioral control.

Results

Helicopter parenting was determined to be associated with other forms of parental control (behavioral and psychological control), albeit distinct. Regarding the parent-child relationship, helicopter parenting was positively correlated to how much emerging adult children seek guidance and disclose information to their parents, but slightly less positively correlated to how much they receive emotional support. Regarding child outcomes, helicopter parenting was negatively correlated to emerging adult children’s school engagement and their sense of adult status. Unlike behavioral control, helicopter parenting is not significantly related to emerging adult children’s sense of identity achievement.

Discussion

Our research supported our hypothesis that helicopter parenting is a distinct form of parental control. For a few years now, pop culture has used “helicopter parenting” to refer to the high level of interaction some parents have in the lives of their emerging adult children and has done so without any empirical evidence establishing it as a unique form of parental control. This research is the first to establish that helicopter parenting is unique, and as a function of being unique, also has unique outcomes. Our research also supported our hypothesis that helicopter parenting would be correlated to a variety of behavioral and parenting outcomes for emerging adults. How much emerging adult children feel like adults is correlated negatively with helicopter parenting but positively with behavioral control, and although all forms of parental control analyzed are negatively correlated with school engagement, only helicopter parenting is significantly correlated. However, helicopter parenting is not entirely negative. It is the only form of parental control analyzed that is positively correlated to the guidance/advice, disclosure, and emotional support factors in the parent-child relationship. This suggests that despite good intentions, it may be better for parents of emerging adults to allow suitable amounts of autonomy so that their children may have the experiences necessary to achieve an adult identity. Indeed, it appears that helicopter parenting is not as damaging as other forms of parental control in emerging adulthood, but that it can still hinder emerging adults’ growth.

References

  1. Arnett, J. (2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York, NY US: Oxford University Press.
  2. Arnett, J. (2007) Emerging adulthood: What is it, and what is it good for? Child Development Perspectives, 1, 68–73.
  3. Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319.
  4. Barber, B. K., Stoltz, H. E., & Olsen, J. A. (2005). Parental support, psychological control, and behavioral control: Assessing relevance across time, culture, and method: VIII. Discussion. Monographs Of The Society For Research In Child Development, 70 (4), 105–124.
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  6. Ludden, J. (Host) (2012). Helicopter parents hover in the workplace [Radio series episode]. In Turpin, C. (Executive Producer), All things considered. Washington DC: National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146464665/helicopter-parents- hover-in-the-workplace
  7. Nelson, L. J., & Barry, C. (2005). Distinguishing features of emerging adulthood: The role of self-classification as an adult. Journal Of Adolescent Research, 20(2), 242–262.
  8. Pope, J. (2012, March 03). At some colleges, parental recommendations welcome. The Associated Press, Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=147873447
  9. Stewart, A. (Host) (2007). ‘Helicopter parents’ can’t stop hovering [Radio series episode]. In Hoffman, S. (Executive Producer), The Bryant Park Project. Chicago, IL: National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=16034303&m=16034241