Can a parent do too much for their child? An examination by parenting professionals of the concept of overparenting

Free to read at publisher Is there a point where parental effort can be too much? While the link between parenting effort and the wellbeing of children has been firmly established, contemporary discussion has proposed that extreme levels of parental protection of and responsiveness to children could be counterproductive. Research has not yet addressed this phenomenon to ascertain if overparenting is a genuinely different type of parenting approach. The purpose of the present study was to gain insight into the parenting actions considered by parenting professionals (psychologists and school guidance counsellors) to be overparenting. One hundred and twenty-eight professionals responded to an online survey about their observations of overparenting, with eighty-six respondents providing lists of the types of actions they believed were behavioural examples of the term. The survey data revealed that certain types of actions were considered to be indicative of overparenting, and that particular beliefs and outcomes may be involved in this parenting approach. Implications for parenting advice and education programs, and further research are discussed

What’s the Payoff? Parental Well-being in Relation to Attachment, Interpersonal Goals and Parenting Style

Certain relational frameworks such as attachment, interpersonal goals, and parenting styles either found their roots in or have been studied in terms of the parent-child relationship. What often happens, however, is that researchers focus on how these constructs may affect child outcomes, without studying how they may impact the parents themselves. The current study sought to apply attachment and interpersonal goals in a parenting context, examine how they relate to the helicopter parenting style, and test all three constructs as predictors of parental need satisfaction. Parents of incoming college freshmen (N = 122) completed a survey comprised of the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures scale, Helicopter Parenting scale, Basic Need Satisfaction in Relationships scale, and an adapted version of the Parenting Goals Questionnaire. Results reveal a significant correlational relationship between anxious attachment and self-image goals. Multiple regression analyses reveal insecure attachment and self-image goals to be significant predictors of helicopter parenting. Attachment insecurity, self-image goals, and helicopter parenting are all significant predictors of parental need satisfaction. Implications for future parent-focused research are discussed

Tiger mom 2.0: (over)parenting for a digital future?

In this Digital Age, are we setting up our children to fail? Following the ‘helicopter parenting’ concept of the 1990s Miriam Rahali looks into new pressures on parents (and children). As social media outlets allow parents to ‘overshare’, Miriam suggests that the anxiety of yesterday’s helicopter parents—who held unattainable standards for their children—have extended to the digital sphere at a time when 90% of new mothers are Millennials. Miriam is a PhD student in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Parental involvement in the lives of intercollegiate athletes

Research has been growing on the topic of parental involvement in the lives of their children, and the concept of overinvolved parents. Little research has examined these topics in regards to intercollegiate student-athletes. This study addresses that gap by examining parental involvement in regards to intercollegiate student-athletes and their athletic and academic endeavors. Specifically it examines how involved parents are in the lives of their intercollegiate student-athlete children, and the concept of overinvolvement in regards to this population. A qualitative, case-study method was utilized for this research. Participants included eight intercollegiate student-athletes and the five academic advisors for athletics that worked with them. Participants completed two interviews and one journal, and all of the data was analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. The themes that emerged were types of involvement, increasing involvement, overinvolvement, outcomes of overinvolvement, and the fine line between healthy involvement and overinvolvement. The present study offers insight into how student-athletes and academic advisors perceive parental involvement. This knowledge can be utilized by practitioners to improve how they communicate with parents and student-athletes. Also, researchers can employ this information to improve the overall understanding of parental involvement in regards to athletes.

Overparenting in adolescents’ everyday life:Development and validation of the momentary overparenting scale

Background. While there is ample theoretical and empirical interest in overparenting, little is known about how overparenting of adolescents operates in everyday family life. This study describes the development and validation of a novel instrument to assess overparenting with Experience Sampling Methods – The Momentary Overparenting (MOP) scale. Methods. Following 143 (Belgian and Dutch) adolescents for 7 subsequent days, we measured overparenting (i.e., worry, interference, and unnecessary help), autonomy support and psychological control 5 to 6 times per day. Using multilevel structural equation modeling on 1865 parent-adolescent interactions, we investigated the scale’s psychometric properties: within-family and between-family reliability, convergent and divergent validity. Results. Overparenting was characterized by both stable differences between families (46%), as well as dynamic fluctuations within families over time (54% of the variance). The MOP could reliably assess such real-time dynamics in overparenting. Momentary assessments correlated meaningfully with established instruments for overparenting at the between-family level. Within families, adolescents experienced interactions with more overparenting as more psychologically controlling and less autonomy supportive. Between families, overparenting correlated negatively with mothers’ autonomy support and positively with mothers’ psychological control. Conclusion. Worry, interference, and unnecessary help may be important expressions of overparenting in everyday family life – which can now be reliably measured from moment-to-moment as a distinct parenting construct.</p

Overparenting in adolescents’ everyday life:Development and validation of the momentary overparenting scale

Background. While there is ample theoretical and empirical interest in overparenting, little is known about how overparenting of adolescents operates in everyday family life. This study describes the development and validation of a novel instrument to assess overparenting with Experience Sampling Methods – The Momentary Overparenting (MOP) scale. Methods. Following 143 (Belgian and Dutch) adolescents for 7 subsequent days, we measured overparenting (i.e., worry, interference, and unnecessary help), autonomy support and psychological control 5 to 6 times per day. Using multilevel structural equation modeling on 1865 parent-adolescent interactions, we investigated the scale’s psychometric properties: within-family and between-family reliability, convergent and divergent validity. Results. Overparenting was characterized by both stable differences between families (46%), as well as dynamic fluctuations within families over time (54% of the variance). The MOP could reliably assess such real-time dynamics in overparenting. Momentary assessments correlated meaningfully with established instruments for overparenting at the between-family level. Within families, adolescents experienced interactions with more overparenting as more psychologically controlling and less autonomy supportive. Between families, overparenting correlated negatively with mothers’ autonomy support and positively with mothers’ psychological control. Conclusion. Worry, interference, and unnecessary help may be important expressions of overparenting in everyday family life – which can now be reliably measured from moment-to-moment as a distinct parenting construct.</p

Overparenting hurts me: how does it affect offspring psychological outcomes?

This review focuses on a peculiar typology of parenting characterized by overprotection, overinvolvement, overcontrol and an excess of entanglement; academic literature refers to this parenting style with the term overparenting or helicopter parenting. An in-depth description of overparenting constitutes the first part of this review. The second part of this review reports empirical evidence regarding the effects of overparenting on offspring psychological outcomes with particular regard to internalizing and externalizing disorders, coping strategies and dysfunctional personality traits. Depression and anxiety symptoms are frequently exhibited in offspring exposed to overparenting, as well as negative affectivity and maladaptive coping. Furthermore, adolescents and adults with overparenting parents seem to have an increased likelihood of exhibiting narcissistic pathological traits

Psychological Intrusion – An Overlooked Aspect of Dental Fear

Dental fear/anxiety is a widely recognised problem affecting a large proportion of the population. It can result in avoidance and/or difficulty accepting dental care. We believe that psychological intrusion may play a role in the aetiology and maintenance of dental fear for at least some individuals. In this narrative review we will take a developmental perspective in order to understand its impact across the lifespan. We will consider the nature of ‘self,’ parenting styles, the details of intrusive parenting or parental psychological control, and briefly touch upon child temperament and parental anxiety. Finally, we draw together the supporting (largely unrecognised) evidence available in the dental literature. We illustrate the paper with clinical examples and discuss possibly effective ways of addressing the problem. We conclude that psychological intrusion appears to play an important role in dental fear, for at least some individuals, and we call for detailed research into the extent and exact nature of the problem. A simple means of identifying individuals who are vulnerable to psychological intrusion would be useful for dentists

«Іноземна мова (англійська мова)» для студентів спеціальності 053 Психологія освітньої програми 053.00.03 Психологія бізнесу та управління

Метою навчальної дисципліни «Іноземна мова» є вдосконалення умінь усного і писемного спілкування студентів англійською мовою в межах визначеної тематики, у тому числі професійної, відповідно до потреб міжкультурного спілкування та професійної підготовки за фахом