'Helicopter Parents' Can Greatly Hinder Their Child's Social Life

First Posted: Oct 23, 2014 11:45 PM EDT
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It's only natural for parents to want to provide the best love and support for their children. Yet some may take this farther than others.

Recent findings published in the journal Child Development show that "helicopter parents," otherwise known as those who try to excessively insert themselves into their child's life, could significantly hinder outside connections made by their son or daughter.

"These tactics might pressure teens to make decisions in line with their parents' needs and motivations rather than their own," said researcher Barbara A. Oudekerk, a statistician with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, who led the study while a research associate at the University of Virginia, in a news release. "Without opportunities to practice self-directed, independent decision making, teens might give in to their friends' and partners' decisions."

For the study, researchers examined participants aged 13 to 18. They asked them to report the degree to which their parents used psychological control on their lives.

They also assessed the participants' autonomy and relatedness in friendships with others their age, including romantic pairings, as well.

Findings revealed that those who became increasingly worse at establishing autonomy and closeness in outside relationship typically experienced more psychological control from their parents.

"Parents often fear the harmful consequences of peer pressure in adolescence," concluded Oudekerk. "Our study suggests that parents can promote or undermine teens' ability to assert their own views and needs to close friends and romantic partners. In addition, teens who learn-or fail to learn-how to express independence and closeness with friends and partners during adolescence carry these skills forward into adult relationships."

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