Kevin Lewis has a weekly space in the "Ideas" section of the Boston Sunday Globe in which he provides a compendium of recent "surprising insights" from research in the social sciences. In today's selection, he includes the following:
The phenomenon of helicopter parenting — being over-protective and over-involved in the lives of one’s children — has gotten plenty of attention from talk shows. Nevertheless, there hasn’t been much research on its consequences. Now, we have a study. Several hundred college students were asked how much they agreed with statements like “My parents supervised my every move growing up” and “It was very important to my parents that I never fail in life.” Students who reported more agreement with these kinds of statements also reported significantly less psychological well-being, and reported using significantly more medication for psychological reasons.
LeMoyne, T. & Buchanan, T., “Does ‘Hovering’ Matter? Helicopter Parenting and Its Effect on Well-Being,” Sociological Spectrum (July/August 2011).
Note to parents: back off. Here's more on that subject.
Sense and Nonsense 