The Negative Impact of Helicopter Parenting

1000 Words2 Pages

A recent study was conducted to observe the parental and behavioral connection of helicopter parenting and establish measure of helicopter parenting that was noticeable from other types of parental control. The participants of this study included 438 undergraduate students from four universities in the United States. Three hundred twenty of which were women and 118 were men, and at least one of their parents. The results shown revealed that helicopter parenting carried a separate aspect from both behavioral and psychological control, and that it was positively associated with behavioral and psychological control. The evidence also showed that helicopter parenting was positively linked with parental involvement and with other positive factors of the parent-child relationship, but negatively associated with parental autonomy (Padilla-Walker). “Helicopter parenting” or “cosseting parenting” is the term often used in the media to describe a form of hyper-parenting where parents discourage a child's or children's independence by being too involved and paying extremely close attention to their experiences and problems and intervene if and when they see fit (Bergin). These intrusive and managing types of parental behaviors appear to be done out of strong parental concern for the well-being and success of the child (Padilla-Walker). Even though all parents want to see their children succeed, 86 percent of parents who are known to be overprotective are the ones that felt being involved in their child’s school would help them become successful (“The Problem”). Although some believe that closely watching over their children is protecting them, evidence shows that over parenting and monitoring children negatively affects their emotional d...

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...ild, they stay close by just in case of any real emergencies and dangers, but stay out of sight so the child gets out the habit of running to their parents for every problem (Skolnik). Other ways to avoid this is for the parent to keep in mind what kind of adults they are trying to raise. This involves suffering for the child as well as the parent. Letting the child struggle and be disappointed when failure occurs and the parent guiding them through this process teaches kids how to deal with stress in the future (Bayless). A recent New York magazine includes stories of parents who keep their kids monitored by reviewing homework, tests, and projects. The key solution to helping their kids is to figure out how to get kids to tune into their own motivation to get their work done, and get parents to tune out of their motivation to protect kids from failure (Griffin).

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