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About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
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| Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships |
| Paper #1 | |
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| From Neuroticism to Overprotection: How Transitions to Higher Education and Perceived Threat Activate Parental Neuroticism | |
| Author information | Role |
| Nele Flamant, Department of developmental, personality and social psychology, Ghent University, Belgium | Presenting author |
| Peter Prinzie, Department of developmental, personality and social psychology, Ghent University, Belgium | Non-presenting author |
| Bart Soenens, Department of developmental, personality and social psychology, Ghent University, Belgium | Non-presenting author |
| Stijn Van Petegem, Research Center on Development, Family, and Human Systems (DEFASY), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Research has identified parental neuroticism as a key factor contributing to overprotective parenting. According to trait activation theory, this effect may be particularly present or amplified when triggered by certain environmental cues. In the current research, we aimed to explore whether and when parental neuroticism leads to overprotective parenting, focusing on the role of two stressful environmental cues, that is perceived environmental threat and the transition to higher education. We addressed two key research questions across two longitudinal studies. First, in a two-wave study (T1: 2007; T2: 2009) involving 589 Flemish adolescents (mean age at T1 = 13.8 years) and their parents, we examined whether parental neuroticism predicts overprotective parenting. Parents reported on neuroticism at T1, and both parents and adolescents reported on parental overprotection at T1 and T2. Latent change models showed that parental neuroticism was positively related to initial levels of parent-reported overprotection for both mothers and fathers. Maternal neuroticism also positively correlated with initial levels of adolescent-perceived maternal overprotection. We did not find any associations between parental neuroticism and changes in overprotective parenting over time. Second, a four-wave study with 6-month intervals involved 278 mothers and 189 fathers of Flemish adolescents (mean age at T1 = 16.8 years). Between the 2nd and the 3rd wave, adolescents made the transition from secondary to higher education. In this study, we examined whether perceived threat and this educational transition triggered the effects of parental neuroticism on overprotective behaviors. Results indicated that the relationship between parental neuroticism and overprotection was more pronounced during the transition period. Moreover, a significant interaction revealed that the effect of neuroticism on the change in overprotection from secondary education to higher education was more pronounced for fathers reporting higher levels of perceived threat. Overall, these findings support trait activation theory by demonstrating that parental neuroticism is more strongly linked to overprotective parenting in the context of stressful environmental cues, such as the transition to higher education. |
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| Paper #2 | |
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| From Daily Maternal Worry to Adolescents’ Emotion Regulation: The Mediating Role of Maternal Privacy Invasion | |
| Author information | Role |
| Yueqi Wang, Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China | Presenting author |
| Monia H. Donker, Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, The Netherlands | Non-presenting author |
| Skyler Hawk, Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China | Non-presenting author |
| Shisang Peng, Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China | Non-presenting author |
| Susan Branje, Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, The Netherlands | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Cross-sectional research has found that parents’ greater worries about adolescent problem behaviors and parent-adolescent relationships predict more privacy-invasive acts (Hawk et al., 2016). Studies have also shown that parents use more psychological control or over-parenting on some days than others (e.g., Luijk et al., 2024; Mabbe et al., 2018), indicating intraindividual variation in intrusive parenting practices. However, whether maternal worry drives daily privacy-invasive parenting is unclear. The systems model of privacy (Newell, 1994, 1998) argues that privacy serves intrapersonal regulatory functions, such as helping individuals find refuge from overstimulation, achieve relaxation, and recover from negative experiences (Pedersen, 1997, 1999). Failure to achieve privacy might cause adolescent emotional distress and dysregulation. This daily diary study examined whether and how daily maternal worry predicted daily maternal privacy invasion (adolescent-reported and mother-reported), and whether privacy invasion subsequently predicted adolescent daily emotion dysregulation (RQ1). The role that emotions play in parenting depends on how parents regulate them (Hajal & Paley, 2020). When parents are dysregulated, they might cope with their emotions in ways that disrespect adolescents (Dix, 1991). This study also investigated whether and how a particular mother's daily emotion dysregulation moderated the association between her daily worry and maternal privacy invasion (RQ2). Participants were 208 adolescent-mother dyads (Adolescents: 56.7% female, Mage = 15.00, SDage = 1.03; Mothers: Mage = 48.63, SDage = 4.41) from Mainland China. Adolescents self-reported daily maternal invasion perceptions and emotion regulation difficulties each evening for 21 days. Mothers self-reported their daily worry about adolescent problem behaviors and mother-adolescent relationships, privacy invasion toward adolescents, and emotion regulation difficulties. A Multilevel Structural Equation Model (MSEM) examined the indirect relations between maternal worry, adolescent-reported and mother-reported maternal privacy invasion, and adolescent emotion regulation at the within-person level. Another MSEM tested whether mothers' emotion dysregulation moderated the relations between maternal worry and privacy invasion. Time-varying covariates included the previous day's maternal invasion and adolescent emotion regulation, weekday vs. weekend reports, and whether participants interacted with their dyad partner on that day. Between-person covariates included adolescents' gender and age, mothers' age, and family income. Significant indirect effects existed from maternal worry to adolescent emotion dysregulation, via adolescent’ perceptions of maternal invasion. On days when a mother felt more worried, both she and her adolescent reported greater invasions of the adolescents’ privacy (see Figure P2.1). Greater adolescent-reported invasion subsequently predicted more adolescent emotion regulation difficulties. Mother-reported invasion did not mediate the relationship between maternal worry and adolescent emotion dysregulation. Maternal emotion dysregulation did not moderate these associations (see Figure P2.2), but did directly predict greater adolescent emotion dysregulation and mother-reported invasions. This study reveals how daily worries drive mothers to engage in privacy-invasive parenting. Results support the notion that higher maternal invasions, especially those perceived by adolescents, could disrupt the daily intrapersonal regulatory functions of privacy. Results underscore the need for practitioners to help parents understand how their own negative emotions might adversely affect their daily parenting, and how privacy-intrusive behaviors could be counterproductive to fostering adolescents’ autonomous self-regulation. |
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| Paper #3 | |
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| Adolescent-parent perception congruence and discrepancy of overparenting and its relation to well-being: A diary study | |
| Author information | Role |
| Yue Wang, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Canada | Presenting author |
| Peipei Hong, Department of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Song Lin, Zhejiang University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Nuannuan Zhou, Zhejiang University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Jie He, Zhejiang University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Introduction Overparenting is a typical parenting construct that embodies discrepant views between adolescents and their parents (Van Petegem et al., 2020; Wang & Hawk, 2023). Conceptually, parents who engage in overparenting are likely those who do not consider their parenting inappropriate and over, whereas their children might. According to the modified Operations Triad Model (OTM; De Los Reyes & Ohannessian, 2016), the perception discrepancies on parenting is not measurement error but rather systematic variations that offer valuable insights into family and individual functioning. An intensive investigation of perception congruence and discrepancies in overparenting on a daily/weekly basis from the perspectives of both parents and adolescents can advance our understanding of the dynamics and well-being implications of overparenting. Aims and Hypotheses This preregistered 12-week weekly diary study examines (1) how parent-adolescent perception congruences and discrepancies in overparenting unfold in their weekly lives, and (2) how these congruences and discrepancies relate to their well-being. Regarding perception congruence, we hypothesize that, in weeks when parents and adolescents are congruent in higher (lower) levels of overparenting than usual, both parties would experience lower (higher) well-being and higher (lower) ill-being than usual (H1). When it comes to perception discrepancy, in weeks when adolescents (parents) perceive higher levels of overparenting than their parents (adolescents), adolescents (parents) would experience lower well-being and higher ill-being than usual (H2 & H3). Study population Participants included 106 adolescents (59.4% girls, Mage = 15.35years, SD = 0.56) and their primary caregivers (84.0% mothers, 16.0% fathers) recruited from a high school in Hangzhou, China. Most students came from intact families (90.6%). Mirroring typical living arrangements of Chinese high schoolers, 45.3% of students resided on campus during the weekdays and with their parents on weekends. Method We designed the 12-week weekly diary to capture sufficient parent-adolescent interactions throughout an entire semester. Each weekend, adolescents reported on their parents’ overparenting behaviors over the past week, while parents self-reported their own overparenting behaviors toward the child with similar items, modified for the parents’ perspective. Both parties also reported their own well-being (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and stress) for the past week, up to 12 weeks. Results First, we tested the cross-informant measurement invariance of overparenting to ensure comparability between adolescent and parent reports. To test our main hypotheses, we used Multilevel Response Surface Analysis (MRSA; Nestler et al., 2019) to comprehensively examine whether (dis)agreements about overparenting in adolescent-parent dyads are associated with adolescents’ and parents’ well-being at the within-family levels (see Table P3.1 for detailed results). Results generally supported our hypotheses: on average, in weeks when youth and parents agreed that levels of overparenting were higher than usual, they both reported lower-than-usual levels of positive affect (Figure P3.1-A&C) and higher-than-usual levels of negative affect (Figure P3.1-B&D), and only parent reported higher-than-usual levels of stress (Figure P3.1-F). For youth-parent discrepancies, adolescent reported more negative affect and stress in weeks when they reported more overparenting than their parents did. Moreover, parents reported more negative affect in weeks when they reported more overparenting than adolescents. |
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| Paper #4 | |
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| The Perception Puzzle: Factors Influencing Views on Overparenting Among Adolescents and Mothers | |
| Author information | Role |
| Wendy M. Rote, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, United States | Presenting author |
| Sophia Jensen, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Mary Lewis, Oakland University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Meredith McGinley, University of Wisconsin, Parkside, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Overparenting (OP), more colloquially known as “helicopter parenting,” involves developmentally inappropriate and excessive levels of parental involvement in a child’s life (Cui et al., 2022). This often includes high levels of parental monitoring or control (e.g., tracking behavior or insisting on certain choices) and assistance with daily tasks or problems (e.g., doing work or talking to others on the child’s behalf) (Segrin et al., 2015; Schiffrin et al., 2019). By definition, the (in)appropriateness of potential overparenting practices therefore depends on a child’s age and capabilities, however the role of these factors on adolescents’ and parents’ evaluations of such practices has not been examined. Such perceptions are critical as the negative correlates of OP depend somewhat on how youth perceive the practice, such as whether it feels overcontrolling (Rote et al., 2020). Likewise, parents may engage more in OP if they view such practices as appropriate, and OP may have worse associations if parents and youth disagree on perceptions of the parenting practice (Wang & Hawk, 2023). The current study thus examined how adolescent age, context, and type of parenting (assistance vs monitoring) alter youth and maternal perceptions of potential overparenting practices. Analyses were run on 127 adolescents (52% female, 44% male; 4% other/prefer not to say; 76% White, 17% Latinx, 13% Black, 9% Asian) and their mothers (100% biological) collected to date across three states in the U.S. as part of ongoing project with an expected total sample of 250 dyads by December 2024. Adolescents were divided into 58 middle-school students (ages 10-14, Mage = 12.05), 48 high-school students (ages 14-18, Mage = 15.71), and 21 college students (ages 17-25, Mage = 19.52) . Adolescents and mothers read and responded to eight newly developed hypothetical vignettes that varied in domain (academic versus interpersonal), OP practice (assistance versus monitoring), and failure of the child in similar situations (no failure vs prior failure). These factors, plus youth school level (middle school, high school, college), were examined in a set of mixed-methods ANOVAs run separately on youth and mother ratings of the appropriateness of each parenting practice as well as whether they consider the parenting practice to be “helicopter parenting” (see Table P4.1). All factors showed some significant effects and across reporters and outcomes, and a consistent Domain x Failure x OP practice interaction emerged. Youth were most accepting of interpersonal monitoring in situations of prior failure and least accepting of academic monitoring in situations of no prior failure (see Figure P4.1). Mothers were most accepting of academic monitoring in situations of prior youth failure and least accepting of interpersonal assistance in cases of no prior youth failure. Interactions with school level also indicated that high school and college-age youth and their mothers made greater distinctions between evaluations of monitoring and assistance than did middle school students or their mothers. Results may help researchers better understand differences between objective parenting practices and family members’ subjective perceptions of “overparenting” and tailor advice to practitioners and parents about when specific practices may become inappropriate. |
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Perceptions, Determinants, and Functions of Overparenting Across Timescales and Reporters: Insights from Global Perspectives
Submission Type
Paper Symposium
Description
| Session Title | Perceptions, Determinants, and Functions of Overparenting Across Timescales and Reporters: Insights from Global Perspectives |