Overparenting hurts me: how does it affect offspring psychological outcomes?

Abstract

This review focuses on a peculiar typology of parenting characterized by overprotection, overinvolvement, overcontrol and an excess of entanglement; academic literature refers to this parenting style with the term overparenting or helicopter parenting. An in-depth description of overparenting constitutes the first part of this review. The second part of this review reports empirical evidence regarding the effects of overparenting on offspring psychological outcomes with particular regard to internalizing and externalizing disorders, coping strategies and dysfunctional personality traits. Depression and anxiety symptoms are frequently exhibited in offspring exposed to overparenting, as well as negative affectivity and maladaptive coping. Furthermore, adolescents and adults with overparenting parents seem to have an increased likelihood of exhibiting narcissistic pathological traits.

Keywords

• overparenting
• helicopter parenting
• externalizing symptoms
• internalizing symptoms
• narcissism.