The Helicopter Parent Phenomenon: Examining the Effects of Strong Parental Attachment on the Transition of Millennial Emerging Adults from College to the Workplace
The Helicopter Parent Phenomenon: Examining the Effects of Strong Parental Attachment on the Transition of Millennial Emerging Adults from College to the Workplace By Lyn Riggsby-Gonzalez A dissertation submitted by the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 10, 2016 Keywords: parental attachment, parental involvement, transferable skills, soft skills, career readiness, job preparation, emerging adulthood Approved by David DiRamio, Chair, Associate Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership, and Technology Daniel Henry, Director, Auburn Center for Evaluation Kathryn Jarvis, Director of Academic Support (Retired) Abstract Helicopter parents are recognized for meddling in all aspects of the academic, social, and professional lives of their children. As a result, these children may be hindered in the development of essential applied skills, i.e. transferable/soft skills for educational and career success. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of helicopter parenting on the development of transferable/soft skills necessary for career readiness and job preparation. A mixed methods approach was utilized for this study including a quantitative survey adapted from the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) by Reifman, Arnett, and Coleman (2007) and parental involvement by Mitchell (2012), as well as transferable/soft skills identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2015). The quantitative analysis for this study utilized both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The qualitative portion of this study included sequential follow-up interviews with purposefully selected participants. A grounded theoretical approach using in-depth, semi-structured interviews for descriptive data collection and open, axial, and selective coding techniques for data analysis guided the qualitative methodology for this study.
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