Helicopter Parenting and Adjustment Outcomes in Young Adulthood: a Consideration of the Mediating Roles of Mastery and Self-Regulation
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Journal of Child and Family Studies (2019) 28:2145–2158 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01433-5 ORIGINAL PAPER Helicopter Parenting and Adjustment Outcomes in Young Adulthood: A Consideration of the Mediating Roles of Mastery and Self-Regulation 1 1 Kristin L. Moilanen ● Mary Lynn Manuel Published online: 23 May 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Objectives The present study considered whether helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood is linked to adjustment outcomes (i.e., social competence, prosocial behavior, depression, substance use, and lifetime criminality) above and beyond other parenting practices (i.e., acceptance, psychological and firm control), and whether any associations are mediated by personal mastery and/or self-regulation. Methods Young adults ages 18 to 24 years responded to anonymous internet surveys (N = 302; 64.9% female, 79.4% white, 9.1% Hispanic). 1234567890();,: 1234567890();,: Results High helicopter parenting was linked to low mastery, self-regulation, and social competence, and to high depression. Only associations with depression were attenuated when other parenting practices were controlled. Direct effects of heli- copter parenting on depression and social competence were mitigated to non-significance when self-regulation and/or mastery were modeled. Helicopter parenting and parental acceptance had indirect effects on all forms of adjustment via self- regulation, as well as indirect effects via mastery for depression. Conclusions Collectively, the findings suggest that helicopter parenting has comparatively stronger impacts for socio- emotional versus behavioral adjustment, operating indirectly via self-regulation versus mastery. Keywords Emerging adulthood ● Helicopter parenting ● Parenting practices ● Adjustment ● Positive development ● Maladjustment Within the past decade, the new concept of helicopter par- will intervene, for example by calling their adult children’s enting has captured the attention of the media and scholars university professors to negotiate grades (van Ingen et al. of emerging adulthood. Helicopter parents are warm and 2015). Such interference prevents adult children from loving, yet overinvolved, intrusive, and enmeshed; they are establishing healthy boundaries with their parents and from controlling and demanding to the point of infringing upon developing the capacities necessary for independent living. their children’s emotional and psychological autonomy At this time, questions remain about how helicopter par- (Locke et al. 2012; Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012). enting is associated with psychological (i.e., peer social Helicopter parents have strict expectations about their competence and depression) and behavioral adjustment children’s behaviors, expecting them to alter their actions (i.e., prosocial behavior, substance use, and criminality) in according to parents’ needs or desires (Locke et al. 2012). emerging adulthood. There are similar gaps in knowledge of When those expectations are violated, helicopter parents the developmental mechanisms implicated in these asso- ciations (i.e., personal mastery and self-regulation), parti- cularly when other parenting covariates of these mechanisms and outcomes (i.e., parental acceptance, psy- * Kristin L. Moilanen chological and firm control) are controlled. [email protected] Accumulating evidence indicates that helicopter parent- ing has detrimental direct effects for young adults’ adjust- 1 Department of Learning Sciences & Human Development, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6122, Morgantown, WV 26506- ment. Emerging adults who experience elevated helicopter 6122, USA parenting hold negative self-perceptions, feel unsatisfied 2146 Journal of Child and Family Studies (2019) 28:2145–2158 with lives that seem to lack purpose, demonstrate heigh- which involves “judgements of how well one can execute tened personal entitlement and distress, and struggle to meet courses of action required to deal with prospective situa- developmentally-appropriate psychological needs (Cui et al. tions” (Bandura 1982, p. 122). Personal mastery is a cor- 2018; Givertz and Segrin 2014; LeMoyne and Buchanan relate of self-efficacy, and concerns the degree to which 2011; McGinley 2018; Schiffrin et al. 2014; Segrin et al. individuals feel that they have power over their lives versus 2013). Young adults who viewed their parents as hovering being controlled via external forces (Pearlin and Schooler or overly controlling were likely to experience difficulty 1978). High personal mastery predicts positive adjustment connecting with peers and to use withdrawal when in adolescence and emerging adulthood, specifically low attempting to solve social conflicts or problems (Darlow distress and delinquency, high self-esteem and personal et al. 2017; Segrin et al. 2015). Similarly, high helicopter adjustment, and reduced likelihood of school dropout and parenting predicts high levels of depression and poor psy- adolescent pregnancy (Conger et al. 1999; Lewis et al. chological well-being during emerging adulthood (Darlow 1999; Lipschitz-Elhawi and Itzhaky 2005; Shaw and Scott et al. 2017; Kouros et al. 2017; LeMoyne and Buchanan 1991). The case for mastery as a mediator is bolstered by a 2011; Schiffrin et al. 2014). In comparison to psychological previous study with emerging adults, revealing that the adjustment, evidence for behavioral dimensions is less effects of overprotective parenting on social anxiety were consistent. Concerning prosocial behaviors, one study mediated by young adults’ external locus of control (Spokas demonstrated that high levels of helicopter parenting were and Heimberg 2009). also directly linked to high involvement in public actions In addition to harming personal mastery, helicopter and to low endorsement of altruistic prosocial behaviors parenting may undermine young adults’ self-regulatory (McGinley 2018); helicopter parenting likely interferes with capacities. Self-regulation includes individuals’ abilities to the internalization of prosocial values that motivate these activate, monitor, inhibit, persevere and/or adapt their behaviors (e.g., empathy). When substance use has been behavior, attention, emotions and cognitive strategies in considered in relation to helicopter parenting, few direct response to internal or environmental feedback and in effects have emerged. Earle and LaBrie (2016) allude to pursuit of personally-relevant goals (Moilanen 2007). The- unpublished results demonstrating statistically significant oretically, youth acquire regulatory capacities through associations between helicopter parenting and heavy epi- interactions in the family context (e.g., through parenting sodic drinking. In the Cui et al.’s(2018) study of college practices and parent–child relational qualities), and in turn, women, however, there were no bivariate correlations self-regulation links such familial experiences to between either maternal or paternal helicopter parenting and adjustment-related outcomes (Morris et al. 2007). Such alcohol use. Nelson et al. (2015) revealed no associations parental intrusions communicate that adult children are between maternal or paternal helicopter parenting and “risk incapable of managing their own lives without parental behaviors” (i.e., a composite of substance use and delin- involvement, which erodes their self-confidence (Baker and quent/criminal behaviors). Although no known studies to Hoerger 2012; van Ingen et al. 2015). Young adults are date have considered the outcome of criminality by itself, it likely to experience elevated negative affect when parents is possible that the heightened entitlement and reduced constrain their autonomy, and having to modulate distress empathy entrenched through helicopter parenting may lead will distract them from acquiring adaptive regulatory stra- to elevations in externalizing problems (Fix and Fix 2015). tegies (Morris et al. 2007). This may lead to the adoption of For some forms of adjustment, helicopter parenting may destructive coping techniques, such as self-medicating with operate indirectly via proximal mediators (i.e., personal alcohol in order to manage negative affect (Cui et al. 2018; mastery and self-regulation). Per self-determination theory, Odenweller et al. 2014; Segrin et al. 2013). Further, there is humans have basic needs for relatedness, competence, and abundant evidence that high self-regulation is associated autonomy (Deci and Ryan 2000). Adjustment difficulties with high social competence and prosocial behaviors, as result when parents intercede in their adult children’s daily well as low depression, substance use, and conduct pro- decisions and relationships, because they undermine their blems in adolescence and emerging adulthood (Carlo et al. children’s agency, personal mastery, and self-perceptions of 2012; Finkenauer et al. 2005; Li et al. 2015; Loukas and self-efficacy (Bradley-Geist and Olson-Buchanan 2014; Roalson 2006; Moilanen 2007). In emerging adulthood, Reed et al. 2016). In other words, helicopter parenting leads self-regulation mediated associations between parental youth to believe that they are incapable of living indepen- overcontrol and adjustment (Baker and Hoerger 2012), and dently, and that their lives’ outcomes are primarily shaped between helicopter parenting and alcohol use (Cui et al. by external forces (i.e., hovering parents) instead of their 2018). own decisions and capabilities (Givertz and Segrin 2014; Though helicopter parenting is distinct from other