Parents, take note!
Researchers have found that the so-called 'helicopter parenting' or over-involvement in the lives of children is detrimental to kids, regardless of how loving and supportive the parents might be.
Researchers at Brigham Young University found that parental warmth cannot neutralise the consequences of helicopter parenting.
They also found that a lack of warmth makes the negative effects of helicopter parenting worse. Such negative effects include lower self-worth and higher risk behaviour, such as binge drinking.
Researchers defined helicopter parenting as parents' over-involvement in the lives of their children. This includes making important decisions for them, solving their problems and intervening in their children's conflicts.
"From our past work, we thought there might be something positive about helicopter parenting under certain conditions, but we're just not finding it," study author Larry Nelson said.
The study, published in the journal Emerging Adulthood, is a follow-up to 2012 research on helicopter parenting that found the children of helicopter parents are less engaged in school.
Now the team has found that helicopter parenting combined with an absence of parental warmth is especially detrimental to young adults' well-being.
Warmth was measured by parental availability to talk and spend time together.
Nelson and colleagues examined data from 438 undergraduate students in four universities in the US.
The students self-reported on their parents' controlling behaviour and warmth, then on their own self-esteem, risk behaviours and academics.
Results showed that the lack of warmth intensifies both the decrease in self-worth and increase in risk behaviours in the young-adult children of helicopter parents.
High levels of parental warmth reduced the negative effects, but did not eliminate them completely.
The findings suggest that loving parents can't justify their helicoptering tendencies; too much control is too much, no matter the parents' affection and support.
"Overall, stepping in and doing for a child what the child developmentally should be doing for him or herself, is negative," Nelson said.
"Regardless of the form of control, it's harmful at this time period," Nelson said.
The researchers noted that helicopter parenting is relatively uncommon and not as damaging as forms of control that are harsh, punitive or manipulative.
