Validation of the Perceived Chinese Overparenting Scale in Emerging Adults in Hong Kong

Abstract

Overparenting is an emergent parenting style where parents are highly involved in their children's routines and they remove the perceived obstacles that may happen in their children's lives. However, validated measures that objectively assess overparenting are severely lacking in the Chinese communities. Based on a sample of 642 undergraduate students from Hong Kong, psychometric properties of the perceived Chinese Paternal Overparenting Scale (CPOS) and Chinese Maternal Overparenting Scale (CMOS) were examined in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity and factorial validity. Results indicated that both CPOS and CMOS showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. As predicted, the findings gave support for the convergent validity of the scales: CPOS and CMOS were significantly related to measures of paternal and maternal behavioral control, psychological control, and support; they were also negatively associated with self-efficacy but positively related to narcissistic behavior of emerging adults. Moreover, factor analyses showed that eight factors corresponding to the proposed conceptual model were abstracted from the CPOS and CMOS, respectively. The present study suggests that both CPOS and CMOS are reliable and valid assessment tools that can be used to measure parental overparenting in the Chinese context.

Perceived Helicopter Parenting and Korean Emerging Adults’ Psychological Adjustment: The Mediational Role of Parent–Child Affection and Pressure from Parental Career Expectations

“…Based on a cultural emphasis on intergenerational interdependence and parental authority, it is still normative for parents to control and be actively involved in their children’s lives and decisions even after the children reach adulthood in Korea (Jang et al 2016 ; Kwon et al 2016 ). Parenting in Confucian cultures typically involves a simultaneous exercise of high control and intensive support (Leung and Shek 2018 ), two independent domains of parenting that constitute HP if they are combined to an excessive degree (Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012 ; Rousseau and Scharf 2015 ). Thus, the possibility of practicing HP inherently exists in Confucian cultures.…”

“…Pressure from parental career expectations is important in the extended period of emerging adulthood since helicopter parents are particularly involved in their children’s education and careers (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011 ; Leung and Shek 2018 ). Whereas helping their children succeed in education is a focus before and during the children’s college years, a successful career is relevant throughout emerging adulthood.…”

Hierarchical Factor Analysis and Factorial Invariance of the Chinese Overparenting Scale

“…Besides, there is a severe lack of validated tools for assessing overparenting in early adolescents, which contributes to one of the barriers in conducting research in early adolescents. As most assessment tools on overparenting and helicopter parenting were validated in samples of emerging adults or their parents (e.g., LeMoyne and Buchanan, 2011; Segrin et al, 2012; Odenweller et al, 2014; Leung and Shek, 2018), there is a need to validate assessment tools on overparenting in non-Western young adolescents to see whether the features of overparenting are applicable for early adolescents.…”

“…Nevertheless, the study did not invite adolescents and/or parents as the participants. From a previous study of the authors, some features of Chinese overparenting, including “close monitoring,” “intrusion of child’s life and direction,” “over-emphasis of child’s academic performance,” “frequent comparison of child’s achievement with others” and “overscheduling of child’s daily routine,” were strongly related to measures of psychological control but showed a weak link with measures of parental support, whereas other features of Chinese overparenting, including “anticipatory problem-solving,” “excessive affective response” and “excessive care,” were strongly associated with parental support but weakly linked to psychological control (Leung and Shek, 2018). Hence, there is a need to examine the features of overparenting with reference to the concepts of parental over-demandingness and over-responsiveness.…”

“…Chinese parents pay more attention on adolescent academic performance and achievement, which represent family pride and honor (Chao and Sue, 1996). Moreover, “close monitoring,” “intrusion of child’s life and direction,” and “overscheduling of child’s daily routine” correspond to “parental domination of children’s self-direction,” while “excessive affective response” and “excessive care” reflect “parental disproportionate affection” and “abundant assistance to their children.” Based on the eight dimensions, Leung and Shek (2018) developed the Chinese Overparenting Scale which showed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity and factorial validity in a sample of Chinese college adolescents in Hong Kong. As there are few related studies based on early adolescents, we attempted to examine the psychometric properties of the measures for early adolescents.…”