Is helicopter parenting related to college students’ mental health? A typological and cross‐cultural approach

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Woosang Hwang,Eunjoo Jung,Xiaoyu Fu,Yue Zhang,Kwangman Ko,Sun‐A Lee,Youn Mi Lee,Soyoung Lee,Hyun‐Kyung You,Youngjin Kang
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12802

RESEARCH

Is helicopter parenting related to college students’

mental health? A typological and cross-cultural

approach

Woosang Hwang

1

|Eunjoo Jung

2

|Xiaoyu Fu

2

|Yue Zhang

3

|

Kwangman Ko

4

|Sun-A Lee

5

|Youn Mi Lee

6

|Soyoung Lee

7

|

Hyun-Kyung You

8

|Youngjin Kang

9

1

Department of Human Development and

Family Sciences, Texas Tech University,

Lubbock, TX

2

Department of Human Development and

Family Science, Syracuse University,

Syracuse, NY

3

Department of Psychology, Santa Clara

University, Santa Clara, CA

4

Department of Counseling and Human

Services, East Tennessee State University,

Johnson City, TN

5

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and

Human Development & Family Science,

University of Louisiana at Lafayette,

Lafayette, LA, USA

6

Department of Psychology and Family

Science, Mississippi University for Women,

Columbus, MS

7

Department of Family Science and Human

Development, Montclair State University,

Montclair, NJ

8

Department of Child Development,

California State Polytechnic University,

Humboldt, CA

9

Department of Human Services, University of

Illinois at Springfield, Springfield, IL

Abstract

Objective: The goal of this study is to uncover latent

classes of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting

among American and Chinese college students, and to

examine whether latent classes of maternal and paternal

helicopter parenting are related to college students’mental

health (depression and self-esteem).

Background: Previous studies have examined the associa-

tion between helicopter parenting and college students’

well-being. However, less is known about how the multi-

dimensional construct of helicopter parenting is related to

college students’mental health across Western and East-

ern cultural contexts.

Method: We conducted three-step latent class analyses

using nine helicopter parenting indicators for 1,386

mother–child and 1,214 father–child groups in the United

States and 520 mother–child and 454 father–child groups

in China. Next, we tested the association between the class

membership of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting

and college students’mental health.

Results: We identified distinct helicopter parenting latent

classes among four American and Chinese parent–child

groups. We also found that American college students in the

strong maternal helicopter parenting latent class reported

poorer mental health than those in other latent classes.

Author note: All of the authors listed in the byline have agreed to the byline order. The authors received no financial support for the

research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,

authorship, and/or publication of this article. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordancewith

the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later

amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants includedin the study.

Received: 31 August 2021Revised: 1 September 2022Accepted: 15 October 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12802

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:2215–2233. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 2215

Correspondence Woosang Hwang, Department

of Human Development and Family Sciences,

1301 Akron Ave., Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.

Email: woosang.hwang@ttu.edu

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the multi-

dimensional construct of helicopter parenting can be inter-

preted differently by parents and college-aged children

according to their social and cultural contexts.

Implications: The findings of this study suggest that it is

necessary to strengthen understanding of the multi-

dimensional construct of helicopter parenting for parents

with college-aged children to enable them to develop more

appropriate parenting practices as well as support their

children’s well-being.

KEYWORDS

China, college students, health, helicopter parenting, latent class analysis,

the United States

Parenting continues to play a crucial role in college students’well-being (Padilla-Walker

et al., 2021). Over the past decade, helicopter parenting, defined as “parenting that is over-

involved or over controlled without granting sufficient autonomy”(Kwon et al., 2016, p. 136),

has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in families with emerging adults (Dumont, 2021). This

developmentally inappropriate form of parenting has been shown to be often detrimental for

college students’well-being due to its intensively controlling nature and restriction of autonomy

(Darlow et al., 2017; Love et al., 2020). Mental health is among the most critical well-being out-

comes for college students across Eastern and Western countries. Even minor symptoms of

depression and well-being issues for young adults in college are frequently associated with other

mental disorders and poor academic performance (Jung et al., 2019; Jung et al., 2020). Recent

and growing research in the United States has suggested that helicopter parenting may be a

multidimensional construct (Howard et al., 2020; Padilla-Walker et al., 2021; Rote et al., 2020)

rather than a unidimensional construct (Kouros et al., 2017; Schiffrin et al., 2019). However, lit-

tle is known about the role of the multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting on college

students’mental health and across different cultures and parent gender. Thus, in the present

study, we seek to contribute to the helicopter parenting literature by identifying different types

(latent classes) of helicopter parenting across mothers and fathers among American and Chi-

nese college students, and by examining the roles of those latent classes in American and Chi-

nese college students’mental health.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Helicopter parenting

One detailed definition of helicopter parenting in a study conducted in the United Statesis

“developmentally inappropriate parenting that involves excessive advice, provision of too many

tangible resources, excessive problem solving, and excessive monitoring of emerging adults’

activities”(Cook, 2020, p. 1899). As such, helicopter parenting stems from parents’well-

intentioned support and concern for their adult children’s successful functioning in college and

their daily lives (Kouros et al., 2017).

Family systems theory suggests that one’s growth and outcomes cannot be separated from

the family because an individual is part of the family. It argues that patterns of family interac-

tions that maintain a good balance between closeness and distance of parent–child relationships

are related with adult children’s well-being (Bowen, 1978; Cox & Paley, 1997). It also

2216 FAMILY RELATIONS