Helpful or Hindrance?: The Relationship Between Helicopter Parenting and Emerging Adults’ Guilt- and Shame-proneness
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Wendy M. Rote PhD
Description
Helicopter Parenting (HP) is characterized by developmentally/contextually inappropriate levels of control, protection, or involvement toward a child (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011). It is often associated with negative outcomes for emerging adults, including greater depression levels (Schiffrin et al., 2014), in part due to poorer emotion regulation (Wenze et al., 2019). Lower regulation is also associated with greater shame-proneness and less guilt-proneness (Szentágotai-Tătar & Miu, 2017); however, the relationship between HP and guilt- and shame-proneness remains unknown. We investigated whether multiple forms of HP were associated with differences in types of guilt- and shame-proneness and whether the relationship differed between maternal and paternal HP. Approximately 388 college-aged participants (Mage =19.6, 75.5% female) reported on their mother's and father’s HP (Luebbe et al., 2018) and their own guilt- and shame-proneness (GASP; Cohen et al., 2011) in SONA. Bootstrapped hierarchical regressions were run separately for mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, predicting guilt- and shame-proneness from gender and four forms of HP. Controlling for gender, only mother’s HP behaviors were predictive of guilt- and shame-proneness. Maternal Information Seeking was uniquely associated with more guilt- and shame-proneness, Academic and Personal Management was uniquely associated with less guilt- and shame-proneness, and Autonomy Limiting was associated with less shame-proneness. Direct Intervention showed no significant associations. As guilt and shame are relatively adaptive or maladaptive respectively, our findings provide evidence that HP may have benefits and downsides for the development of emerging adult’s moral emotions and adjustment. Future studies should establish a longitudinal relationship in a gender-balanced sample.
Helpful or Hindrance?: The Relationship Between Helicopter Parenting and Emerging Adults’ Guilt- and Shame-proneness
Helicopter Parenting (HP) is characterized by developmentally/contextually inappropriate levels of control, protection, or involvement toward a child (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011). It is often associated with negative outcomes for emerging adults, including greater depression levels (Schiffrin et al., 2014), in part due to poorer emotion regulation (Wenze et al., 2019). Lower regulation is also associated with greater shame-proneness and less guilt-proneness (Szentágotai-Tătar & Miu, 2017); however, the relationship between HP and guilt- and shame-proneness remains unknown. We investigated whether multiple forms of HP were associated with differences in types of guilt- and shame-proneness and whether the relationship differed between maternal and paternal HP. Approximately 388 college-aged participants (Mage =19.6, 75.5% female) reported on their mother's and father’s HP (Luebbe et al., 2018) and their own guilt- and shame-proneness (GASP; Cohen et al., 2011) in SONA. Bootstrapped hierarchical regressions were run separately for mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, predicting guilt- and shame-proneness from gender and four forms of HP. Controlling for gender, only mother’s HP behaviors were predictive of guilt- and shame-proneness. Maternal Information Seeking was uniquely associated with more guilt- and shame-proneness, Academic and Personal Management was uniquely associated with less guilt- and shame-proneness, and Autonomy Limiting was associated with less shame-proneness. Direct Intervention showed no significant associations. As guilt and shame are relatively adaptive or maladaptive respectively, our findings provide evidence that HP may have benefits and downsides for the development of emerging adult’s moral emotions and adjustment. Future studies should establish a longitudinal relationship in a gender-balanced sample.
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Poster Presentation