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Parent and Child Traits Associated with Overparenting

Article  in  Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · June 2013

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Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 32, No. 6, 2013, pp. 569-595

OVERPARENTING
SEGRIN ET AL.

PARENT AND CHILD TRAITS

ASSOCIATED WITH OVERPARENTING
Chris Segrin
University of Arizona

Alesia Woszidlo
University of Kansas

Michelle Givertz
California State University-Chico

Neil Montgomery
Keene State College

Overparenting involves the application of developmentally inappropriate levels

of parental directiveness, tangible assistance, problem-solving, monitoring, and
involvement into the lives of children. Based on theories of family enmeshment,
effective parenting, and personality development, this parenting behavior was hy-
pothesized to be associated with negative traits in parents (i.e., anxiety and regret)
as well as in young adult children (i.e., narcissism, poor coping styles, anxiety,
and stress). Participants were 653 parent-adult child dyads from 32 of the 50
United States who completed measures of overparenting and maladaptive traits.
A latent variables analysis showed that parental anxiety was positively associated
with overparenting, and that parental regret had an indirect effect on overparent-
ing through greater anxiety. In adult children, overparenting was associated with
higher levels of narcissism and more ineffective coping skills (e.g., internalizing,
distancing). These ineffective coping skills were associated with greater anxiety
and stress in young adult children.

Address correspondence to Chris Segrin, Department of Communication, University

of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; E-mail: segrin@u.arizona.edu.

© 2013 Guilford Publications, Inc.

569
570 SEGRIN ET AL.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing awareness, first in the

popular press and now in the social scientific literature, of a form
of overinvolved parenting that appears to be progressively more
prevalent among parents of late adolescents and young adults. This
parenting style, variously referred to as helicopter parenting (Cline
& Fay, 1990; LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011), parenting out of control
(Nelson, 2010), or overparenting (Segrin, Woszidlo, Givertz, Bauer,
& Murphy, 2012) is marked by the application of developmentally
inappropriate levels of control and tangible assistance to late ado-
lescents and emerging adults. Overparenting also includes compo-
nents of excessive parental involvement, risk aversion, and antici-
patory problem solving by the parent, in an effort to keep the child
out of harm’s way. This is evident for example in the involvement of
parents in the job application, job interview, and even salary nego-
tiation process of recent college graduates (Collegiate Employment
Research Institute, 2007, 2011). The paradox of this form of parent-
ing is that, despite seemingly good intentions, the preliminary evi-
dence indicates that it is not associated with adaptive outcomes for
young adults and may indeed be linked with traits that could hin-
der the child’s success.
In contrast to the limited number of investigations into child out-
comes, there has been virtually no systematic research into traits
and qualities of parents who enact this form of socialization upon
their children. Accordingly, the aims of this investigation are to ex-
amine some of the individual differences in parents that are associ-
ated with overparenting of their young adult children as well as the
traits of young adults who are exposed to overparenting. These two
separate aims address the questions of why some parents might en-
gage in this practice, and what qualities their children might pos-
sess, presumably as a consequent of being reared by such parents.
Pursuant to those aims, two structural models are tested, one mod-
eling associations between parent traits and overparenting and the
other modeling associations between overparenting and adult child
traits.

PARENTAL TRAITS ASSOCIATED WITH OVERPARENTING

Scientific theorizing on the causes and consequences of overpar-

enting is still in the early stages. Individuals who enact this form
of parenting appear hyperinvolved in their children’s lives, risk-
OVERPARENTING 571

averse, and preoccupied with their children’s emotional well-being.

The concept of enmeshment appears in the theorizing on intrusive
parenting (Barber & Harmon, 2002) and in the emerging literature
on overparenting (e.g., Munich & Munich, 2009). It is enmeshment
that perhaps allows such parents to project their own goals onto
their child, exercise excessive control over a range of child out-
comes, and vicariously experience their child’s successes and fail-
ures. Although enmeshment may be part of the motivational basis
for overparenting, overparenting is most commonly defined and
measured by its behavioral manifestations (e.g., providing inten-
sive assistance, advice, and support). It is this pattern of behavior,
reflecting a preoccupation with the child’s success and harm avoid-
ance that marks overparenting as something beyond just enmesh-
ment. In this investigation we seek to further develop the theorizing
surrounding overparenting by testing the association between two
parental traits and this form of hyperinvolved parenting, namely
anxiety and regret.
Related research on parental overprotectiveness suggests that one
potential cause of overparenting is parental anxiety. Parental anxi-
ety has been shown to predict parental overprotectiveness (Rapee,
2009; Thomasgard, 1998). Thomasgard found that parental anxi-
ety was positively associated with seeing the child as vulnerable.
This suggests a potential projection of the parents’ own concerns
onto the child, with the solution being overparenting. Although
overprotectiveness is an element of overparenting, it is reasonable
to assume that harm reduction is a more dominant motivation in
parental overprotectiveness, whereas overparenting comingles this
propensity with a variety of achievement motivations for the child.
In emerging adulthood, parental reports of anxiety over separation
with their emerging adult child are associated with higher percep-
tions of psychological control reported by the child (Kins, Soenens, &
Beyers, 2011). Parental anxiety also figures prominently in Nelson’s
(2010) analysis of parenting out of control, in which professional
middle-class parents are preoccupied with environmental dangers
faced by their children. The antidote to this, according to Nelson’s
research, is intensive supervision, monitoring, and communication
between parent and child, of the form that could be characterized
as overparenting. Accordingly, we hypothesize that (H1a) parental
anxiety will be positively associated with overparenting.
Another factor hypothesized to motivate overparenting is regret.
Roese and Summerville (2005) developed a theory of regret based
572 SEGRIN ET AL.

on the opportunity principle, and this theory was recently refined

by Beike, Markman, and Karadogan (2009). According to the op-
portunity principle, regret is greatest when the opportunity for cor-
rective action is clear to the actor. Beike et al. revised this reasoning
to argue that regret becomes increasingly intense as the window of
future opportunity closes. They characterize this as the lost oppor-
tunity principle of regret. Parenting is clearly a salient domain in
which people sometimes experience regrets. A meta-analytic review
revealed that parenting ranked fourth out of the 12 most commonly
felt regrets (Roese & Summerville, 2005). For older adults, the inten-
sity of regrets tends to be highest in the domains of finance/money,
family conflict, children’s problems, losses, and health (Choi & Jun,
2009).
The lost opportunity principle of regret is useful for understand-
ing overparenting from two different vantage points. The first and
perhaps most obvious is that the parenting of young adults occurs
in the context of an imminent closure on a window of opportunity.
Although parents can and often do influence the course of their
children’s lives well into adulthood, the opportunities to exercise
that influence clearly drop off as children begin orienting them-
selves toward peers and separating psychologically and then phys-
ically from the family of origin. While emerging adults may still
have some financial dependence on their parents and still reside
part of the year with them, parents may realize that this is the end
of their opportunity to parent their child and help him or her reach
a maximum potential. One plausible response to this realization is
a zealous attempt to get hyperinvolved in the child’s life, assume a
high degree of responsibility for his or her welfare, and to rid the
child’s life of as many problems and barriers as possible. Research
evidence shows that during the young adulthood of their children,
parents often express regrets over time lost with the child and a per-
ceived failure to foster the child’s development (DeVries, Kerrick, &
Oetinger, 2007). A second way in which regrets may motivate over-
parenting is when lost opportunities for self-actualization become
apparent in middle age, and are then projected onto the child, in
pursuit of vicarious fulfillment through the child’s outcomes and
accomplishments. Although this process may conjure up images of
the beauty pageant mom, it may often be enacted with far more or-
dinary and benevolent intentions (e.g., wanting the child to acquire
a job with more pay and autonomy than what the parent had). This
mechanism also explains why regrets in other domains of life aside
OVERPARENTING 573

from parenting (e.g., career) could potentially motivate overparent-

ing (e.g., I regret not going to medical school so I will push my child
to go to medical school). For these reasons, we hypothesize that
(H1b) parental regret will be positively associated with overparent-
ing.
It is possible that anxiety and regret work together to promote
overparenting. According to the lost opportunity principle of re-
gret, people experience regret when they sense a foreclosure on op-
portunities to pursue important goals in life. One of distal factors
that promotes overparenting is projection of one’s own goals onto
the adult child. To the extent that some parents regret not ceasing
upon what are now perceived to be lost opportunities, they may
develop anxiety about the same opportunities passing by their child
and similarly going unfulfilled. This suggests that regret may con-
tribute to certain parental anxieties that in turn could prompt over-
parenting. Consequently, it is hypothesized that (H1c) there will be
an indirect effect of regret on overparenting through anxiety.

ADULT CHILD TRAITS ASSOCIATED WITH OVERPARENTING

It is reasonable to assume that many instances of overparenting are

enacted with intentions to ensure and enhance the child’s success
in life. However, the available research on this parenting practice
points to more negative than positive outcomes for the child. For
instance, in young children overparenting has been linked to anx-
ious, withdrawn, depressive, and insecure tendencies (Bayer, San-
son, & Hemphill, 2006; Gar & Hudson, 2008). Further, the parenting
style characterized as helicopter parenting is positively correlated
with dependent personality traits and neuroticism in young adults
(Montgomery, 2010) and lower levels of a variety of indicators of
psychological well-being (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011). Overin-
volved parenting has also been shown to be associated with lower
self-efficacy (Givertz & Segrin, 2013) and higher entitlement (Segrin
et al., 2012) in young adults.
Previous research showing a positive association between over-
parenting and entitlement leads us to believe that overparenting
will also be associated with greater narcissism in young adults.
When parental responsiveness reaches developmentally inappro-
priate levels, children are more inclined to develop pathologically
narcissistic traits (Cramer, 2011). Parental psychological control,
574 SEGRIN ET AL.

which has some components in common with overparenting, has

also been found to be positively associated with narcissism in young
adults (Horton, Bleau, & Drwecki, 2006). In theory, the extreme lev-
els of parental responsiveness, tangible assistance, and intervention
that are part of overparenting could teach offspring that they are
exceptionally important and worthy of intensive care and attention
from others. It is therefore hypothesized that (H2a) overparenting
will be associated with greater narcissism in young adults.
One of the primary elements of overparenting is the vigorous
attempt to exercise control over the outcomes experienced by the
child through such mechanisms as anticipatory problem solving,
provision of advice, and tangible assistance (Segrin et al., 2012). Ex-
cessive parental control has repeatedly been linked to high levels
of anxiety in children (e.g., de Wilde & Rapee, 2008; Klein & Peirce,
2009; Niditch & Varela, 2012; Reitman & Asseff, 2010). Investiga-
tions into the factors that mediate the association between parental
overcontrol and child anxiety point to a number of compromised
child competencies (e.g., Affrunti & Ginsberg, 2012; Creveling, Va-
rela, Weems, & Corey, 2010). In one such instance, maternal control
was associated with child anxiety through maladaptive cognitive
schemas that emphasized impaired autonomy/performance, as
indicated by endorsing statements such as “I don’t feel confident
about my ability to solve everyday problems” (Creveling et al.,
2010). In a related investigation, parental control was associated
with diminished self-perceived competence in the child that was in
turn associated with higher anxiety in the child (Affrunti & Gins-
berg, 2012). A longitudinal investigation showed that recollections
of parental overprotectiveness predicted increases in young adults’
social anxiety during the first semester at a university, and that this
relationship was mediated by an external locus of control (Spokas
& Heimberg, 2009).
The findings on overparenting and one of its constituent ele-
ments, parental control, suggest that one plausible mediating factor
in negative psychological outcomes is compromised coping skills in
the offspring of parents who engage in this behavior. Abundant evi-
dence shows that parenting styles are influential in the development
of children’s coping styles (e.g., Power, 2004; Smith et al., 2006; Wol-
fradt, Hempel, & Miles, 2003). Specifically, overprotective parenting
has been shown to be significantly associated with a greater propen-
sity to enact dysfunctional emotion-focused coping strategies (e.g.,
self-preoccupation and fantasizing reactions) well into adulthood
OVERPARENTING 575

(Uehara, Sakado, Sato, & Someya, 1999). Although not identical to

overparenting, there is clearly a component of overprotectiveness
inherent in overparenting. Again, overparenting includes the harm
reduction motivation of overprotectiveness but adds to it achieve-
ment motivations along with high levels of support and direction.
It stands to reason that young adults with a history of parenting
marked by anticipatory problem solving, high levels of advice and
directive support, risk aversion, and excessive intervention on the
child’s behalf would not cultivate the same level of coping skill as
a child whose parents were supportive, but who allowed the child
to experience and resolve developmentally appropriate challenges
on his or her own. This is because effective coping skills and self-
efficacy are acquired through experiences of mastery in which the
child confronts a problem and enacts an effective solution to that
problem. When others intervene to resolve problems on the child’s
behalf, coping and problem solving skills are likely to remain un-
derdeveloped. This is consistent with theoretical models of parent-
ing (e.g., Kohut, 1977; Winnicott, 1953) in which effective parents
allow the child to experience some challenges and frustrations in
the service of building better coping and problem solving skills.
Overparenting severely limits the child’s opportunity to cultivate
effective problem-focused coping skills, because a parent or parents
frequently step in to solve the child’s problems for him or her, and
in some cases, act to prevent certain problems from emerging in the
first place. Therefore, we predict that that (H2b) overparenting will
be associated with dysfunctional coping skills in young adults, and
that (H2c) one reason overparenting will be associated with greater
anxiety is because of poor coping skills that function as a mediating
factor.
Just as anxiety is expected to be associated with poor coping
skills, ostensibly stemming for exposure to overparenting, we ex-
pect that the overparenting of young adults will also be associated
with greater stress, again through less effective coping. Overprotec-
tive parenting is associated with greater perceived stress in young
adults (Sideridis & Kafetsios, 2008). As with anxiety, one would ex-
pect that this heightened stress is likely explainable by the fact that
parental overprotectiveness is maladaptive to the development of
effective coping strategies by the child. It is therefore predicted that
(H2d) poor coping skills will mediate the association between over-
parenting and heightened stress in young adults.
576 SEGRIN ET AL.

In the present investigation we sought to test associations between

certain parental traits (i.e., regret and anxiety) and certain child traits
(i.e., narcissism, coping, stress, and anxiety) and overparenting. We
pursued these aims through tests of two separate structural mod-
els because they address different questions (i.e., Who engages in
overparenting? What adult child traits are associated with exposure
to overparenting?). In the parent model, overparenting was treated
as a dependent or endogenous variable, predicted by anxiety and
regret. In the adult child model, overparenting was the independent
or exogenous variable that was specified as a predictor of narcis-
sism and coping. Coping was, in turn, specified as a predictor of
the adult child’s stress and anxiety. To counteract problems such as
recall bias and common method variance, we measured overparent-
ing from the perspective of both the parent and young adult child.
In addition, to avoid any biases associated with regional parenting
practices or traits of students from a particular university setting,
we collected data from parent-child dyads situated throughout a
majority of the United States.

METHOD
PARTICIPANTS

Participants in this investigation were 653 parent-adult child dyads.

The parents who participated in this investigation resided in 32 of
the 50 United States and just under 1% of the parents resided in
other countries. To assess current levels of parent-child contact par-
ticipants were asked “On average, how frequently do you commu-
nicate with (the child/your parent) who is participating with you
in this study (via phone, text messaging, face-to-face, and so on)?”
Responses to this question, in addition to demographic descriptions
of parent and adult child participants, appear in Table 1.

PROCEDURE

Parent-adult child dyads were recruited through students attend-

ing a university or college located in the West, Southwest, Midwest,
or North Eastern United States. Students who completed an on-
line survey and referred a parent to also complete an on-line sur-
OVERPARENTING 577

vey were given extra credit toward their course grade. Interested
students were given a link to a secure website where they could
complete the survey and at the end of the survey, participants were
asked for a name and email address of a parent who would be will-
ing to complete a survey. Parents were then sent a link to a different
survey. All of the measures used in the surveys can be found in the
Measures section. The parent-adult child dyads were linked with a
code number so that parents did not have to provide any identify-
ing information (i.e., their or their child’s name) as part of their sur-
vey response. The parental response rate was 94% based on those
student responses who furnished a working email address for a
parent (5 students did not provide a working email address for their
parent). The software used to collect the survey responses recorded
the IP address from which they originated as well as the start and
finish time of the survey responses. The data from 21 dyads were
deleted because both the student and parent survey responses orig-
inated from the same IP address (and the parent reported that his/
her child did not live at home) and 19 dyads were dropped because
at least one member completed the survey in less than 10 minutes.
After these deletions, there were 653 parent-adult child dyads re-
tained for analysis.

MEASURES

Regret. Parents completed the domains of regret scale (Beike et al.,

2009; Roese & Summerville, 2005), which is a measure based on the
opportunity principle model of regret (Roese & Summerville, 2005).
For this measure, respondents were presented with eight domains
of common regret (i.e., career, education, parenting, family, finance,
leisure, romance, and self). Within each domain they were asked to
rate both past and future opportunity for change on a 1 to 7 scale
anchored at no opportunity and unlimited opportunity. They were
also asked to rate their satisfaction in each domain on a 7-point scale
(1 = not at all, 7 = intense satisfaction) as well as their regret in each
domain on a 7-point scale (1 = no regret, 7 = intense regret). In ac-
cord with the opportunity principle or regret, past opportunity for
change was subtracted from future opportunity for change. This
difference represents the extent of foregone opportunities that are
theoretically most likely to produce regret. Over the eight domains
of regret the internal consistency reliability was α = .72 for the fu-
578 SEGRIN ET AL.

TABLE 1. Demographic Characteristics of

Parents and their Children
Variable Parents Children
Age (M, SD) 50.93 (5.39) 20.03 (2.32)
Sex (%)
Male 126 (19 ) 199 (31)
Female 527 (81) 454 (69)
Race/Ethnicity (%)
White 561 (86) 550 (84)
African American 20 (3) 24 (4)
Hispanic 39 (6) 40 (6)
Asian 20 (3) 18 (3)
Native American 2 (.3) 1 (.2)
Pacific Islander 2 (.3) 3 (.5)
Other 9 (1) 17 (3)
Marital Status (%)
Single (never married) 7 (1)
Married 544 (83)
Separated 16 (3)
Divorced 75 (12)
Widowed 11 (2)
Parent-Child Relationship (%)
Biological child 629 (96)
Stepchild 8 (1)
Adoptive child 12 (2)
Other 4 (1)
Frequency of Parent-Child
Communication (%)
Several times a day 135 (21) 168 (26)
Approximately once a day 146 (22) 144 (22)
Several times a week 256 (39) 245 (38)
Approximately once a week 94 (14) 80 (12)
Several times a montht 17 (3) 12 (2)
Approximately once a month 3 (1) 3 (1)
Less than once a month 2 (.3) 1 (.2)

(continued)

ture-past difference scores, α = .81 for the satisfaction scores, and α

= .76 for the regret ratings, indicating some consistency in parents’
regrets over the various domains.
Overparenting. Parents and their adult children completed differ-
ent measures of overparenting. Parents completed the overparent-
ing scale (Segrin et al., 2012), which assesses such phenomena as
offering advice, problem solving for the child, providing tangible
assistance to the child, protecting the child from risk, monitoring
and attention to the child, removing obstacles for the child, and
OVERPARENTING 579

TABLE 1.
(continued)
Variable Parents Children
Children in the Family (%)
1 40 (6)
2 286 (44)
3 213 (33)
4 69 (11)
5+ 44 (7)
Parent-Child Current Living
Arrangement (%)
Living together 162 (25)
Living apart 491 (75)
Highest Level of Education
Completed (%)
Middle school 12 (2)
High school 57 (9)
Some college 110 (17)
Vocational/technical school 76 (12)
Bachelor’s degree 277 (42)
Postgraduate degree 121 (19)
Employment Status (%)
Employed 407 (62)
Unemployed, but seeking 15 (2)
Retired 29 (4)
Other 202 (31)
Home Ownership When Living
With Child (%)
Rent 50 (7)
Own 603 (93)

management of the child’s emotions/moods. This 45-item measure

asks parents to rate their agreement with items such as “I make sug-
gestions to my child to help him/her get things accomplished,” “I
do what I can to keep my child out of difficult situations,” and “I
let my child take personal responsibility for his/her own happiness
in life” (reverse scored) on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5
= strongly agree). Higher scores are reflective of engaging in more
overparenting behaviors. The internal consistency reliability for this
scale was α = .89. Adult children completed Montgomery’s (2010)
helicopter parenting scale, which assesses children’s perceptions
of parental involvement and support. The scale was comprised of
14 items such as, “When making major decisions it has been done
in agreement with my parents’ input,” “I must live up to my par-
580 SEGRIN ET AL.

ents’ expectations,” and “My parents are heavily invested in my

success.” Each item was scored on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly dis-
agree, 5 = strongly agree) with higher scores reflecting perceptions
of greater parental involvement. The internal consistency reliability
for this scale was α = .74.
Anxiety. Both parents and their adult children completed the anxi-
ety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS;
Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). This 7-item scale assessed symptoms of
anxiety and asked respondents to reflect on how they felt in the past
week. Items such as, “I feel tense or ‘wound up’,” and “I feel restless
as if I have to be on the move” were scored on a 4-point scale were 1
= not at all, 4 = very often. Higher scores on this scale are indicative
of more symptoms of anxiety. The internal consistency reliability
for this scale was α = .83 for parents and α = .81 for adult children.
Perceived Stress. Adult children completed the perceived stress
scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermeistein, 1983), which assesses the
degree to which participants perceived situations in their lives as
stressful. This 14-item instrument asked respondents to report, on a
0 to 4 scale (0 = never, 4 = very often), how often they felt or thought
a certain way in the last month. Sample items include, “In the last
month, how often have you been upset because of something that
happened unexpectedly,” and “In the last month, how often have
you been able to control the way you spend your time.” Higher
scores reflect higher perceptions of stress. The internal consistency
reliability was α = .88.
Narcissism. Adult children completed the 52-item pathological
narcissism inventory (Pincus et al., 2009). This self-report measure
assessed 2 broad themes of dysfunction, including narcissistic gran-
diosity (i.e., entitlement rage, exploitativeness, grandiose fantasy,
self-sacrificing self-enhancement) and narcissistic vulnerability (i.e.,
contingent self-esteem, hiding the self, devaluing). Respondents
were asked to report, on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all like me, 7
= just like me), how much each statement reflected qualities that
they possess. Sample items include, “I need others to acknowledge
me,” “I can make anyone believe anything I want them to,” and “It
irritates me when people don’t notice how good a person I am.” A
composite narcissism score was calculated with higher scores re-
flecting an inflated self image (grandiosity) and helplessness (vul-
nerability). The internal consistency reliability was α = .94.
OVERPARENTING 581

Coping. Adult children completed a shortened version of the self-

report coping scale (Causey & Dubow, 1992). Two types of avoid-
ance strategies, internalizing and distancing, were assessed with
eight items each. Respondents were asked to think about how they
respond to stressful situations and whether they engage in behav-
iors such as “Getting mad at myself” and “Refusing to think about
it.” Each item was scored on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5
= strongly agree) with higher scores reflecting a higher use of each
coping strategy. The internal consistency reliability was α = .81 for
internalizing and α = .79 for distancing.
Correlations, means, and standard deviations of all of the afore-
mentioned measures appear in Table 2.

RESULTS

The first aim of this investigation was to determine whether and

how parental anxiety and regret are associated with overparent-
ing (H1a–H1c). This aim was addressed with a structural equation
model that specified associations between these three classes of
variables. Prior to testing this model, a measurement model was
tested for its adequacy in representing these variables. In this mea-
surement model, the overparenting latent construct was represent-
ed with four parcels of items. Two parcels were created from the
overparenting measure completed by parents and two parcels from
the helicopter parenting measure completed by their children. The
identification of latent variables through parceling has a number of
psychometric benefits over individual items (e.g., decreased likeli-
hood of distributional violations, higher communality, a larger ratio
of common-to-unique factor variance, and higher reliability) that
contribute to parsimony and aid in overall model fit (Little, Cun-
ningham, Shahar, & Widaman, 2002; MacCallum, Widaman, Zhang,
& Hong, 1999). For this and all other variables, parcels were created
by combining scale items to create manifest indicators for the latent
constructs (Little et al., 2002). Using confirmatory factor analysis,
we obtained the factor loadings for each item from parents’ and
adult children’s scales. The items were then ranked according to
their factor loadings and parcels were created using a balancing
technique that ensured an even distribution of relatively high- and
low-loading items in each parcel. Following the recommendation
of Little et al. (2002), all of the items for each parcel were then aver-
 582

TABLE 2. Zero Order Correlations, Means, Standard Deviations of All Test Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
1. Future/Past Opportunities (P) —
2. Satisfaction (P) .04 —
3. Regret (P) –.05 –.68*** —
4. Overparenting (P) .00 –.01 .01 —
5. Anxiety (P) –.05 –.32*** .35*** .14*** —
6. Helicopter Parenting (C) –.05 .14*** –.11** .24*** -.01 —
7. Anxiety (C) –.01 –.12** .10* .05 .20*** .06 —
8. Perceived Stress (C) .02 –.15*** .12** .04 .19*** .08* .61*** —
9. Narcissism (C) –.01 –.14*** .12** .10* .12** .07 .44*** .47*** —
10. Internalizing (C) .01 –.15*** .10** .07 .19*** .09* .49*** .62*** .50*** —
11. Distancing (C) .02 –.01 .02 .17*** .07 .08* .05 .18*** .30*** .30*** —
M (SD) .03 (1.04) 4.86 (.90) 2.98 (.99) 3.04 (.35) 1.91 (.52) 3.38 (.57) 2.07 (.54) 2.82 (.64) 3.45 (.62) 2.89 (.77) 2.69 (.64)
Note. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. P = Parent completed the measure, C = Adult child completed the measure.
SEGRIN ET AL.
OVERPARENTING 583

aged, not summed. The anxiety variable was represented with three
parcels of items from the anxiety subscale of the HADS. Next, three
latent constructs were created for each component of regret: regret,
satisfaction, and future-past opportunity for change. Each of these
three latent constructs was represented with three parcels of items.
Finally, these three latent constructs (satisfaction, regret, future-past
opportunity) were specified as loading on a higher order regret la-
tent construct. Correlations were specified between each of the three
latent constructs in the measurement model as depicted in Figure
1. The measure of regret used in this investigation included three
components of regret (i.e., satisfaction, regret, future-past opportu-
nity) over eight life domains (e.g., career, parenting). A preliminary
inspect of correlations revealed fairly high correlations across the
life domains within any given component (e.g., satisfaction). How-
ever, within any given life domain, correlations between the three
components were not as uniformly strong. This is why parcels were
created to represent each component and the prior specifications of
these three components, each indicated by scores on a collection of
life domains, naturally implies a higher-order regret latent variable.
All parcels for the latent constructs in this model, with the excep-
tion of the overparenting latent construct, were comprised of par-
ent data. The fit of this measurement model was tested in AMOS
18 with maximum likelihood estimation. According to West, Taylor,
and Wu (2012) models are assumed to have good fit when they have
a NFI and CFI > .95, an RMSEA < .06 and a χ2/df ratio < 5. With the
added specification of correlated error terms between the two heli-
copter parenting parcels, results of this analysis indicated that the
model provided a good fit to the sample data, χ2 = 204.05, p < .001,
χ2/df ratio = 2.13, NFI = .95, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .04.
Next, we tested a structural model of the associations between
anxiety, regret, and overparenting for parents. Direct effects were
specified between anxiety and overparenting (H1a) and between
regret and overparenting (H1b). An estimation procedure based on
2000 bootstrap samples was employed to estimate standard errors
associated with the indirect effects (H1c) and to test their statisti-
cal significance (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004). Path
coefficients were estimated in AMOS 18 using maximum likelihood
estimation. Results of this structural model appear in Figure 2. Af-
ter trimming a nonsignificant path from the model, results of these
analyses indicated that the structural model specified in Figure 2
provided a good fit to the sample data, χ2 = 285.25, p < .001, χ2/
584 SEGRIN ET AL.

figure 1. Measurement model for parental traits and overparenting.

For ease of presentation error terms are omitted.

df ratio = 2.91, NFI = .93, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .05. As evident from
Figure 2 there was a significant path from anxiety to overparent-
ing. Parental anxiety and overparenting were positively associated.
There was no significant association between parental regret and
overparenting. However, there was a significant indirect effect of
parental regret on overparenting through heightened anxiety (β =
.06, p = .02). Collectively, these results are consistent with H1a and
H1c, but not with H1b.
The second aim of this investigation was to examine the associa-
tion between overparenting and child traits, specifically narcissism,
coping, stress, and anxiety. Prior to analyzing these relationships,
a measurement model was tested with overparenting represented
exactly as it was in the analysis of parent data. In addition, adult
child narcissism was represented as a latent variable, based on
three parcels, the coping latent variable was composed of six par-
cels (three each for distancing and internalizing), and stress and
anxiety were each represented with three parcels. The coping latent
variable is best understood as dysfunctional coping (i.e., higher dis-
tancing, higher internalizing). All parcels for the latent constructs
OVERPARENTING 585

figure 2. Structural model of parent traits and overparenting.

For ease of presentation error terms are omitted. Path coefficients
are standardized regression coefficients. Indirect effect of regret on
overparenting through anxiety is β = .06, p = .02. Dashed line represents
nonsignificant path. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

in this model, with the exception of the overparenting latent con-

struct, were comprised of adult child data. Similar to the parent
model, parcels were created with procedures described by Little
et al. (2002). All possible correlations between the latent constructs
were specified. Results of the test of this initial measurement model
indicated that it could be improved substantially by specifying cor-
relations between the error terms of the distancing parcels. Because
these pairs of error terms are associated with the same measure, this
specification was justifiable. The resultant measurement model that
appears in Figure 3 had a good fit to the sample data, χ2 = 331.07, p
< .001, χ2/df ratio = 2.40, NFI = .95, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .05.
The structural model for the adult children was tested next by
specifying paths from overparenting to both narcissism (H2a) and
coping (H2b). Because overparenting was expected to be associ-
ated with stress and anxiety through diminished coping (H2c and
H2d), paths were specified from coping to both stress and anxiety,
but not directly from overparenting to stress or anxiety. Analysis of
the initial structural model and its associated modification indices
suggested that the fit of the model could be improved by specifying
a correlation between the error terms of the coping and narcissism
variables. Because these are related variables by virtue of being the-
oretical consequents of the same third variable, the specification of
this correlation appeared justifiable. Analysis of the resultant struc-
tural equation model indicated a reasonable fit to the sample data,
586 SEGRIN ET AL.

figure 3. Measurement model for overparenting and child traits. For

ease of presentation error terms are omitted.

χ2 = 442.43, p < .001, χ2/df ratio = 3.09, NFI = .94, CFI = .96, RMSEA
= .06. Results appearing in Figure 4 indicate a significant association
between overparenting and adult child reports of narcissism and
dysfunctional coping. Adult children reported higher narcissism
and less functional coping to the extent that they and their parents
reported greater overparenting, as predicted by H2a and H2b. There
were also strong associations between young adults’ dysfunctional
coping and their greater stress and anxiety. Additionally, there was
evidence of indirect effects of overparenting on young adults’ anxi-
ety (β = .06, p = .044) and stress (β = .08, p = .045) through young
adults’ dysfunctional coping, confirming H2c and H2d.
OVERPARENTING 587

figure 4. Structural model of overparenting and child traits. For

ease of presentation error terms are omitted. Path coefficients are
standardized regression coefficients. Indirect effect of overparenting
on stress through coping is ββ = .08, p = .05, and indirect effect of
overparenting on anxiety through coping is ββ = .06, p = .05. *p < .05.
**p < .01. ***p < .001.

DISCUSSION

The specific aims of this study were to test associations between

parental and adult child traits and overparenting. The emerging lit-
erature on overparenting (e.g., LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011; Segrin
et al., 2012) has been focused largely on child outcomes. At the same
time, there has been virtually no research on the traits and quali-
ties of those parents who enact this form of socialization (but see
Nelson, 2010). The results of this investigation reveal that parental
anxiety is positively associated with overparenting, and that paren-
tal regret has an indirect effect on overparenting, through greater
anxiety. In adult children, overparenting is associated with higher
levels of narcissism and more ineffective coping skills such as inter-
nalizing and distancing. These ineffective coping skills are, in turn,
associated with greater anxiety and stress in adult children.
In the discussion that follows, we present an interpretation of the
associations between parent and adult child traits and overparent-
ing in addition to theoretical processes and mechanisms that may
explain these associations. However, it is imperative to understand
588 SEGRIN ET AL.

these interpretations in the context of a significant limitation of the

data on which they are based. Even with structural equation model-
ing, cross-sectional data cannot establish temporal ordering of vari-
ables. For example, it is entirely plausible to assume that overpar-
enting leads to certain traits in the child such as narcissism, as Ko-
hut (1977) theorized. However, the possibility that a child trait such
as narcissism, pulls for overparenting cannot and should not be
ruled out. It would require a longitudinal study design to yield the
type of data that would be necessary for definitively testing each of
these possibilities. Such an investigation would likely require many
years of data collection. It is generally accepted that significant co-
variation between cause and effect is important (and wise) to estab-
lish prior to conducting more elaborate longitudinal investigations.
The results of the present study contribute to the body of evidence
showing significant covariation between overparenting and certain
maladaptive parent and child traits.
The results of this study showed that there is a significant associa-
tion between parents’ anxiety and overparenting. Because overpar-
enting was measured from the perspective of both parent and child,
it is unlikely that this association is extensively inflated by common
method variance. This finding is consistent with others in the litera-
ture indicating that overinvolved and overcontrolling parents are
often anxious parents (e.g., Kins et al., 2011; Nelson, 2010). It stands
to reason that parents who feel that their child is vulnerable or who
are apprehensive about the direction in which their child is headed
might engage in the type of highly directive and overcontrolling
behaviors that constitute overparenting. Given that the measure of
anxiety was general (e.g., I feel tense) it is not clear if this parental
anxiety is indeed anxiety about the child. However, that nonspeci-
ficity makes the significant association all the more remarkable.
In contrast to parental anxiety, there was no direct effect of pa-
rental regret on overparenting. However, there was a significant in-
direct effect through anxiety. Parents with greater regrets reported
higher anxiety, and as mentioned previously, parental anxiety was
positively associated with overparenting. Beike et al.’s (2009) lost
opportunity principle of regret explains that regrets occur as op-
portunities to pursue the desired goal disappear. It is possible that
as middle-aged adults realize the lost opportunities associated with
personal goals (e.g., I will probably never become a doctor) as well
as parenting goals (e.g., I will no longer have the opportunity to go
on family vacations with my child and show him/her new places)
OVERPARENTING 589

their anxiety increases. This anxiety could be rooted in the supposed

ill effects of no longer being able pursue, if not meet, these goals.
However, it should be noted that it was actually the regret and satis-
faction, not the future-past difference in opportunities, components
of regret that were correlated with parental anxiety. This pattern of
findings, along with those in the structural model of parental traits
and overparenting, suggests that regret has an indirect effect on
overparenting, but the basis of this regret does not appear to be a
discrepancy between future and past opportunities for change. The
precise origins and driving mechanisms of these regrets would ben-
efit from further investigation.
The indirect effect of regret on overparenting, through anxiety,
is also consistent with theories of overparenting whereby parents’
concerns for the self and their child become conflated (Munich &
Munich, 2009). The excessive involvement in the child’s life and
preoccupation with his or her well-being could be a parent’s way
of indirectly addressing that parent’s own regrets while simulta-
neously assuaging the attendant anxiety that comes with them. In
other words, the parental regret that “I will probably never become
a doctor” might motivate the parent to begin steering his or her
child toward a comparable high prestige occupational goal. For
some parents, the child’s success becomes the parent’s success, and
perhaps something of an antidote to the regret. The parent’s anxiety
over not achieving the goal could be modestly relieved by believing
that the child might achieve such a lofty goal, that the family’s fi-
nancial well-being would be secure, and so forth. Clearly, the results
of this study cannot provide definitive support for such a chain of
cognitions, emotions, and behaviors, but they are at least consistent
with such a parental process.
Results of this investigation add to a growing body of literature
suggesting that overparenting has mostly deleterious effects on
young adult children’s psychological well-being and that it does not
contribute to the successful and adaptive child traits that many par-
ents would hope for (e.g., Montgomery, 2010; LeMoyne & Buchan-
an, 2011; Segrin et al., 2012). However, recent evidence suggests that
some aspects of overparenting or helicopter parenting are associ-
ated with positive processes such as child perceptions of emotional
support from the parent (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012) and adult
child reports of life satisfaction (Fingerman et al., 2012). In the pre-
set investigation, overparenting was associated with greater narcis-
sism in adult children, which is consistent with a recent finding that
590 SEGRIN ET AL.

overparenting is also associated with higher entitlement in young

adults (Segrin et al., 2012). Kohut’s (1977) theoretical perspective on
parenting and child narcissism stipulates that parental enmeshment
represents a parent’s narcissistic use of the child to satisfy selfish
motivations (see also Rothstein, 1979). By solving problems for the
child and not allowing him or her to experience failures, the overin-
volved parent corrupts the child’s opportunity to develop an inde-
pendent self, and the ensuing narcissism reflects the child’s ongoing
search for approval from idealized others. Once again, however, it is
important to consider that child narcissism could pull for overpar-
enting. A child who has a grandiose sense of self and a blatant sense
of entitlement might influence at least some types of parents to de-
liver this hyperinvolved and protective form of parenting. It could
also be the case, and is perhaps quite likely that, overparenting and
child narcissism have a reciprocal relationship and continuously in-
fluence each other. Family systems theorists who ordinarily eschew
linear cause and effect suppositions would likely conceptualize this
as a circular process.
A novel addition to the literature on overparenting and child
traits is the finding that overparenting is associated with poor cop-
ing skills in young adult children. In this investigation overparent-
ing was associated with greater internalizing and distancing (mal-
adaptive coping styles). These results compliment recent discover-
ies that helicopter parenting is associated with greater neuroticism
and lower openness (Montgomery, 2010) greater recreational use of
pain pills (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011), and lower academic en-
gagement (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012) in young adults. Some
of the key components of overparenting assessed in this study are
anticipatory problem solving, tangible assistance, and information-
al support. Although these are all potentially beneficial to recipi-
ents, when provided at exceptionally high levels in the context of
overzealous parenting, they may corrupt the natural process of chil-
dren’s acquisitions of effective coping skills. Coping skills are cul-
tivated through experience with challenges. When a parent acts to
remove those challenges from a child’s life, s/he may be less likely
to develop such skills and rather internalize, disengage, etc., when
confronted with obstacles. Another possibility, however, is that chil-
dren with poor coping skills elicit overparenting from certain types
of parents. Some parents and their children might also engage in
a reciprocal process of displaying poor coping skills and overpar-
OVERPARENTING 591

enting. Identification of the precise ordering of these effects awaits

future longitudinal research.
The ineffective coping skills in young adults that were associat-
ed with overparenting, have unfortunate correlates of their own.
Specifically, young adults’ ineffective coping was negatively and
strongly associated with their anxiety and stress. The results fur-
ther revealed a modest indirect effect of overparenting on stress and
anxiety through compromised coping. These findings provide some
suggestion for how and why overparenting is negatively associated
with child psychological well-being. For example, LeMoyne and
Buchanan (2011) found that helicopter parenting was positively as-
sociated with young adults’ use of prescription medications for de-
pression or anxiety, and negatively associated with a multidimen-
sional psychological well-being scale that assessed such constructs
as autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in
life, and self-acceptance. The present study suggests that a linch-
pin connecting overparenting to child psychological distress is poor
coping skills. The ability to effectively confront and resolve prob-
lems is a vital prerequisite to psychological well-being. Any parent-
ing practice that interferes with the development of these skills is
likely to then indirectly contribute to lower psychological well-be-
ing in the child. It bears repeating that this is the potential paradox
of overparenting.
Collectively, the results of this investigation indicate that overpar-
enting of young adults exists in a nomological network of individual
difference variables that are generally maladaptive to psychological
and social well-being. On the parent side, overparenting is associat-
ed with anxiety. As Nelson (2010) argued, overcontrolling parenting
is often the byproduct of a parent who is anxious about perceived
threats to his or her child’s well-being and who is equally anxious to
see the child realize extraordinary accomplishments. Overparent-
ing is also associated with high levels of parental regret, through
heightened anxiety. Regrets may make unfulfilled goals and ambi-
tions salient to some parents who then pursue vicarious satisfaction
through the outcomes toward which they push their children. On
the child side, overparenting was associated with greater narcissism
and less effective coping skills. These findings are consistent with
theories of personality development rooted in parenting practices
(e.g., Kohut, 1977; Rothstein, 1979). Unfortunately, young adults
with less effective coping skills reported greater anxiety and stress.
592 SEGRIN ET AL.

LIMITATIONS

There are several limitation of the present investigation that are

important to understand when interpreting its findings. First, for
ethical reasons, all young adult and parent participants were volun-
teers. Consequently, if a parent did not want to participate in the in-
vestigation, the parent-child dyad would not appear in this sample.
This limits the generalizability of these findings. Second, as noted
earlier, the cross-section nature of the data cannot definitively sup-
port or refute any particular causal ordering of variables. Also, the
models tested from these data cannot rule out the effects of unob-
served third variables that could also provide a plausible account of
some of the results from this study. For example, a model was tested
in which overparenting was hypothesized to predict poor coping
skills and consequently stress and anxiety. However, a more general
internalizing problem in the young adult could plausibly predict
stress and poor coping, and perhaps even elicit overparenting.

CONCLUSION

Overparenting may be one way in which maladaptive traits of par-

ents are passed on to their children, through pathogenic child rear-
ing practices and environmental structuring. This may explain, for
example, the association between overparenting and both parent
and adult child anxiety (at least indirectly, through compromised
coping skills). These findings, along with others in the literature on
helicopter parenting, overparenting, and parenting out of control
highlight some fundamental questions about this parenting prac-
tice. For example, who, if anyone, actually benefits from this type
of parenting? In addition, are parents enacting these behaviors for
their child’s benefit, or for their own benefit? The findings on pa-
rental regret and anxiety raise a number of questions about how
certain forms of parental distress are comingled with this parenting
practice. Until this parenting practice can be investigated in large
samples of parents and their children over an extended period of
time, the precise ordering of overparenting and parent and child
traits will be open to multiple interpretations. In the meantime, the
findings from this investigation add to a growing body of evidence
pointing to negative traits, in both parent and child, associated with
the overparenting of young adults.
OVERPARENTING 593

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