Helicopter Parenting and Drinking Outcomes Among College Students: The Moderating Role of Family Income

Abstract

Helicopter parenting, a form of overcontrol defined by intense levels of monitoring and supervision, has been linked to an increase in risky behaviors in emerging adults. However, the context may modify how helicopter parenting operates on adjustment in this population. The current study sought to better understand the contextualizing role of family income on the relations between helicopter parenting and drinking behaviors during college. Undergraduates (N = 171; 49% female; M age = 18.82; 68% White; M family income = $60,001-$75,000) completed measures of helicopter parenting, income, and multiple indices of alcohol consumption and problematic drinking. To accommodate the zero-inflated data for the outcome variable, two-part regression modeling was used to examine whether the interaction among (maternal or paternal) helicopter parenting and income was significant. Although the interaction was not significant for the binary models, the interaction generally predicted the magnitude of drinking. For low-income college students, increased helicopter parenting from mothers and fathers deterred most drinking behaviors. For high-income college students, increased maternal and paternal helicopter parenting was associated with a greater degree of average number of drinks consumed per day and drinking to intoxication. Overall, the results suggest that considering the economic conditions of families is important when examining the influence of parenting behaviors on young adult drinking patterns. While helicopter parenting might not be adaptive for high-income families, this form of parenting might serve a different function in low-income families by reducing risky behaviors of undergraduates.

Overparenting and Emerging Adult Development: A Systematic Review

“…Except for one study (Xu & Cao, 2019), the rest of the above-mentioned studies all examined the mediating mechanisms in their associations. McGinley and Davis (2020) explored family income and parent gender as moderators in the association between overparenting and drinking behaviors. They reported that overparenting was a risk factor for emerging adults from high-income families but a protective factor for those from low-income families, and that maternal overparenting was more harmful than paternal overparenting.…”

“…Because the focus of this review is on the key findings, many nuanced findings were not able to be included and further discussed. This review highlights the findings on gender (e.g., Kouros et al, 2016; Lindell et al, 2017; Rousseau & Scharf, 2015), race and ethnicity (e.g., Cook, 2020; Rote et al, 2020), family socioeconomic status (McGinley & Davis, 2020) and family structure (Buchanan & LeMoyne, 2020b). For example, Love, Cui, Allen et al (2020) reported that the associations between overparenting and female college students’ competence and self-efficacy were much stronger for fathers than for mothers.…”

“…Using a more gender-balanced sample would allow a closer look into the potential main and interactive gender effects. Some studies also suggested the importance of looking closer into the moderating role of socioeconomic status (overparenting was a protective factor for emerging adults from low-income families, McGinley & Davis, 2020). Some other demographic variables could also be key to explain the variations in the association between overparenting and emerging adult outcomes.…”

The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between helicopter parenting and several indicators of mental health among emerging adults

“…These parenting strategies have an impact on the present and future physical, psychological, social, and emotional development of children (Srivastav & Mathur, 2020). An emerging parenting style is called over‐parenting or helicopter parenting (HP), in which parents over‐intervene in their children's lives and provide them with a great deal of assistance in efforts to prevent them from challenges and obstacles (Kömürcü‐Akik & Alsancak‐Akbulut, 2021; LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011; Leung, Leung, 2021; McGinley & Davis, 2021). Helicopter parents are well‐intentioned and attempt to solve their children's educational‐, social‐, and work‐related difficulties (McGinley, 2018) to make critical decisions for their children to pursue a more fulfilled life (Segrin et al, 2015) and to prevent their children from making mistakes (Carr et al, 2021).…”

Moderating the Association Between Overparenting and Mental Health: Open Family Communication and Emerging Adult Children’s Trait Autonomy

“…In particular, the positive association was stronger among those co-residing with their parents than those living away from home. McGinley and Davis ( 2021 ) examined the associations between overparenting and college students’ drinking behaviors, and found that, in high-income families, overparenting was positively associated with alcohol consumption and drinking to intoxication, whereas in low-income families, overparenting was negatively associated with most of the negative drinking behaviors examined. In other words, the effects of overparenting on college students’ drinking behaviors varied as a function of the economic status of the family.…”