3-232 - Multiple Dimensions of Parental Control: Unique and Conjoint Links to Adolescents’ and Emerging Adults’ Socioemotional Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Control has been established as a multifaceted dimension of parenting. While behavioral control entails appropriate levels of discipline and reasoning (Baumrind, 1966), psychological control is manifested by threats of love withdrawal in order to instill guilt or anxiety (Barber & Harmon, 2002). Helicopter parenting, defined as overparenting or enmeshment with a child (Segrin, 2015), is a more recently identified type of over-control. While evidence supports that under-control and over-control undermine socioemotional functioning, few studies have attempted to contextualize these findings along with additional forms of parenting, and examine their links to self-regulatory, empathic and prosocial outcomes during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

The papers in this symposium aim to better understand these dimensions of parental control on adolescents' and emerging adults' socioemotional functioning. Paper 1 demonstrates that helicopter parenting has a deleterious effect on multidimensional prosocial and empathic outcomes in U.S. college-aged students, and low or high parental attachment exacerbates these negative relations. Using a broader sample of U.S. emerging adults, Paper 2 reveals that elevated helicopter parenting and psychological control are directly and jointly detrimental to self-regulation, peer competence and depression. Implementing a parallel process latent growth modeling framework, Paper 3 highlights that initial intercepts and growth in psychological control and permissive-indulgent parenting are positively correlated and predictive of heightened emotional reactivity and decreased empathy in a sample of U.S. adolescents. These papers collectively add to the sparse literature that parental under-control and over-control are uniquely and conjointly related to poorer socioemotional outcomes during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Meredith McGinley, North Central College

Discussant

• Laura M Padilla-Walker, Brigham Young University

Individual Presentations

• Joint Effects of Helicopter Parenting, Parental Attachment, and Gender on Prosocial Behaviors and Empathy in Emerging Adulthood - Presenting Author: Meredith McGinley, North Central College; Gustavo Carlo, University of Missouri

• Helicopter Parenting and Adjustment Outcomes in Young Adulthood: An Exploration of Moderated Effects - Presenting Author: Kristin L Moilanen, West Virginia University; Mary Lynn Manuel, West Virginia University

• Too Much or too Little: Linear Growth of two Forms of Parental Control in Adolescence - Presenting Author: Katie Elizabeth Rasmussen, West Virginia University; Kristin L Moilanen, West Virginia University