World of Psychology

Helicopter Parents

By Will Meek, PhD

One of my favorite terms invented over the past few years has been “helicopter parent”, which is a parent who hovers over their child and is involved in virtually everything they do. According to a survey covered by the AP, about 40% of new college students have parents that have intervened for their children to solve a problem.

Overall, it is great to have parents interested in their children’s education and college life. However, the shadow side of this is that many kids will over-rely on their parents to solve problems and will struggle to ever become autonomous adults. It is left to be seen what other effects this may have culturally.


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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 9 Nov 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Meek, W. (2007). Helicopter Parents. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 26, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/11/09/helicopter-parents/

 

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