Parent–Emerging‐Adult‐Child Attachment and Overparenting

Published date01 July 2021
AuthorJian Jiao,Chris Segrin
Date01 July 2021
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12473
J J C SUniversity of Arizona
Emerging Ideas.
Parent–Emerging-Adult-Child Attachment
and Overparenting
Objective: To examine the relationship between
parent–child attachment and overparentingdur-
ing emerging adulthood.
Background: Overparenting, a form of
developmentally inappropriate parenting
that features parental over-involvement and
autonomy-constraining behavior, has been
found to relate to a variety of negative child
outcomes; however, there is currently a great
need for research that attempts to explain why
parents engage in overparenting.
Method: Cross-sectional data were collected
from 213 parent–emerging-adult-child dyads.
Parents completed questionnaires assessing
attachment toward their child and overpar-
enting. Emerging-adult children completed
questionnaires assessing attachment toward
their parent.
Results: Multiple regression results showed
parents’ attachment anxiety with their children
positively predicted overparenting, and parents’
attachment avoidance negatively predictedover-
parenting. Additionally, a positive association
was observed between children’s attachment
avoidance with their parents and overparenting.
Conclusion: Overall, the results show that par-
ents were practicing overparenting largely
as a function of their own attachment
Department of Communication, University of Arizona, P.O.
Box 210025, Tucson, AZ 85721 (jianj@email.arizona.edu).
Key Words: attachment anxiety,attachment avoidance, child
traits effect, overparenting, parent–childrelationship.
needs rather than their child’s attachment
characteristics.
Implications: The results indicate that those
who engage in overparenting may in fact be
regulatingtheir own affect as opposed to consid-
ering their emerging-adult child’s developmen-
tal needs.
As a form of developmentally inappropriate
parenting, overparenting has several distinct
features, such as parental excessive involvement
in children’s lives, autonomy-constraining,
anticipatory problem-solving, and preoccu-
pation with children’s success and happiness
(Segrin et al.,2012). Although overparenting is
often presumed to be practiced with parents’
benevolent intentions to ensure their chil-
dren’s success, happiness, and well-being, the
most consistent discovery across overparenting
research is that overparenting is associated with
negative child outcomes in multiple contexts
(e.g., academic, workplace, relational, and mari-
tal contexts; e.g., Segrin et al., 2015). Moreover,
the limited studies that have examined the
antecedents to overparenting have predomi-
nantly argued that overparenting originates from
parents’ issues, including parental benevolence,
distress, and tangible investment into children’s
lives (e.g., Rousseau & Scharf, 2018). However,
the understanding of children’s contribution to
overparenting is scarce. Thus, this study aimed
to explore the potentially co-constructive nature
of overparenting through a relational perspec-
tive from which both parents’ and children’s
Family Relations 70 (July 2021): 859–865859
DOI:10.1111/fare.12473

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