Exploring Associations Among College Students’ Reports of Parent Involvement, Self-Efficacy, and Resilience : Preliminary Findings

Abstract

While parent involvement is important for children's and adolescents' well-being, academic success, and adaptive behaviors, overparenting has been associated with decreased levels of social adjustment and well-being in adolescents and college students. Overparenting is characterized by excessive and developmentally inappropriate parental involvement and is commonly referred to as ‘intensive parenting’ or ‘helicopter parenting’. Excessive parental involvement may decrease children’s and adolescents’ opportunities to independently master challenging tasks since parents may be quick to intervene. Likewise, excessive parental involvement may decrease children’s and adolescents’ opportunities to learn how to cope with frustration since parents may remove stressors before their children even encounter them. Consequently, it is likely that overparenting may be associated with self-efficacy (one’s perceived confidence in the ability to achieve goals) and resilience (one’s ability to bounce back after setbacks). The purpose of this study was to explore UWEC students' self-reports of parental involvement, self-efficacy, and resilience. We anticipated that parental involvement would be negatively associated with both self-efficacy and resilience since excessive parent involvement may hinder opportunities for students to develop confidence and coping mechanisms for dealing with challenging tasks and setbacks.