Not so bad for whom? Family-specific associations between daily helicopter parenting and emerging adults' affective

Yue Wang1, Skyler T Hawk1, Liu Yang2

  • 1Department of Educational Psychology, School of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

PubMed

This preregistered 30-day diary study investigated reciprocal, time-lagged, within-family associations between maternal helicopter parenting and emerging adults' affective well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect). Dynamic Structural Equation Models examining reports from 146 first-year university students (Mage = 18.74, 55.5% female) revealed positive next-day associations between changes in perceived maternal helicopter parenting and negative affect, on average. No average effects existed for positive affect. Examining within-person effect heterogeneity identified four subgroups of emerging adults' affective responses to their perceived maternal helicopter parenting: detrimental (e.g., decreased/unchanged positive affect and increased negative affect; 51.4%), beneficial (21.9%), mixed-effects (increased positive and negative affect; 6.9%), and noneffectual (13.7%). Established subgroups did not differ on participants' endorsement of traditional Chinese family and cultural values. Results indicate largely detrimental effects of helicopter parenting among Chinese emerging adults. These effects were heterogeneous, however, underscoring the need for family-specific investigations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

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