14 DAY TRIAL // Most parents love their children. This is an undeniable fact, right alongside the idea that adults want only the best for their children, But while these intentions may be commendable in theory, some parents, aptly called “helicopter parents,” tend to exaggerate in taking care of their kids, constantly keeping them under control, and hovering when they shouldn't. In a series of new investigations, it was determined that children with such parents develop sleuth of undesirable personality traits, including neuroticism, a tendency for isolation, and constantly being dependent on the parents.
“I think what the helicopter parents did is they decided, 'OK we know what good parenting looks like, we're just going to ratchet it up to a new level, and our kids are going to be even better. The problem is, when they ratcheted it up, they went too far, and in fact, caused an expansion of childhood or adolescence,” explains Keene State College psychologist Neil Montgomery, who was a researcher on the new study. Kids' personalities are, therefore, affected in the long term by their parents' overly protective attitudes.
The research was conducted on college freshmen, for a very simple reason. This is the time in the children's lives when they finally move away from their parents' homes, and escape around-the-clock control, surveillance, intrusions and so on. This is their first chance to actually be free and do what they want for a change, and the scientists knew that conflicts were bound to arise during this critical stage. They developed a series of questionnaires that were designed specifically to look at the influence helicopter parents may or may have not had on the respondents.
Among the things they had to do, participants were asked to rate their level of agreement to statements such as “My parents have contacted a school official on my behalf to solve problems for me,” or “On my college move-in day, my parents stayed the night in town to make sure I was adjusted,” or “If two days go by without contact my parents would contact me.” The research revealed that about 10 percent of the respondents had helicopter parents at home. However, a discrepancy was discovered between boys and girls, in the sense that only 5 percent of male test subjects had helicopter parents. On the other hand, about 13 percent of girls had this problem.
“We have a person who is dependent, who is vulnerable, who is self-conscious, who is anxious, who is impulsive, not open to new actions or ideas; is that going to make a successful college student? No not exactly, it's really a horrible story at the end of the day,” Montgomery concludes, quoted by LiveScience.