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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Hovering or invalidating? Examining nuances in the associations between controlling parents and problematic outcomes
Katie Welch1, Katherine Hyde Brott1, Jennifer C Veilleux1
1Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.
None:
Objective: The purpose of these studies was to examine whether college students' beliefs about themselves (i.e., self-compassion and beliefs about emotions) could be mechanisms explaining the relationship between problematic parenting behaviors (helicopter parenting and parental invalidation) and outcomes including perfectionism, affective distress, locus of control, and distress tolerance. Participants: Respondents included 255 (Study 1) and 277 (Study 2) college undergraduates. Methods: Simultaneous regressions and separate path analyses with helicopter parenting and parental invalidation as predictors, with self-compassion and emotion beliefs as mediators. Results: Across both studies, parental invalidation predicted perfectionism, affective distress, distress tolerance, and locus of control, and these links were often mediated by self-compassion. Self-compassion emerged as the most consistent and strongest link between parental invalidation and negative outcomes. Conclusion: People who internalize their parents' criticism and invalidation such that they hold negative beliefs about themselves (i.e., low self-compassion) may be vulnerable to negative psychosocial outcomes.
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