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Helicopter Parenting and Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Emotional Efficacy

Fri, April 9, 4:30 to 5:30pm EDT (4:30 to 5:30pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Introduction: For many young adults, emerging adulthood marks their transition to college, requiring them to live independently for the first time (Kenny & Donaldson, 1992) and navigate through social life in a novel environment (Langston & Cantor, 1989). Therefore, emerging adulthood often calls for a heightened level of self-reliance and self-exploration (Arnett, 2000). However, helicopter parenting, characterized by limited autonomy granting, could interfere with this development and undermine students’ mental health. Indeed, helicopter parenting is associated with several mental health outcomes in young adults, including social anxiety (Kouros et al., 2017) and depression (Schiffrin et al., 2014). Few studies have examined the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Previous research has highlighted the role of insufficient autonomy (Schiffrin et al., 2014) and emotion regulation strategies (Wenze et al., 2019), but other aspects of emotional efficacy have been neglected and could also explain the association between helicopter parenting and mental health during emerging adulthood. With one third of college students having received diagnosis or treatment for a mental health condition (American College Health Association, 2017), it is critical to further explore the effects of helicopter parenting. The present study aims to examine whether emotional regulation, attentional control, and interpersonal dependency mediate the association between helicopter parenting and mental health conditions, particularly anxiety and depression.

Method: College students between 18-22 years of age are currently participating in the study by completing an online survey. It is expected that a total of 250-300 will participate by the end of October, 2020 (150 students have already participated). Participants’ experience with helicopter parenting will be assessed with the Bifactor Model of Helicopter Parenting and the Helicopter Parenting Scale. The Inventory of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms and College Student Subjective Well-Being Questionnaire will be used to measure college students’ mental health. Participants will also complete questionnaires that measure their emotional processing, including Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Interpersonal Dependency, and Attentional Control Scale.

Analysis Plan: Structural equation modeling will be used to test a parallel mediation model. Helicopter parenting will serve as the independent variable, emotional efficacy variables will serve as the mediators, and mental health will be the dependent variable. Model fit indices (e.g., Chi-square, RMSEA, CFI, SRMR) will be examined to assess overall model fit. Individual paths and the indirect effects will be evaluated using bias-corrected, bootstrapped (10,000 resamples) confidence intervals. The sample size is sufficient for the proposed model.

Implications: By identifying the mediating role of interpersonal dependency, emotion regulation, and attention regulation in the link between helicopter parenting and mental health, the study would inform counselors in selecting appropriate therapeutic strategies, such as Emotion Regulation Therapy (Renna et al., 2017) and Attentional Control Training (Teasdale et al., 1995), when helping college students with helicopter parents. Moreover, these findings could also inform college administrators in their efforts to improve the mental health of their student body, such as constructing programs that communicate to parents the reported repercussions of helicopter parenting and encourage them to provide emerging adults with more autonomy.

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