The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of helicopter parenting and the motivation behind overinvolved parenting of college-aged children. The literature reviewed in this study includes factors that contribute to helicopter parenting in the higher education environment: Millennial characteristics, parental demographics, and technology. In addition, the privacy act, higher education rankings, and financial aid (i.e., tuition and enrolment management strategy), which contribute to the higher education environment, are discussed. Literature on why parents engage in helicopter parenting is limited. As such, this study helped to address this gap in research. Using a social constructivist approach, data were obtained using a qualitative, multi-instrument case study method. Five parents of female, undergraduate students at a Canadian university participated in the telephone interviews. This study found financial and emotional support were the foremost ways parents supported their children. Parents were motivated by their desire to offer guidance; need for connection and communication; and need to show and receive love. Parents who participated in parent programming offered by the university, regardless of the type of programming, found it to be beneficial. Future research is needed to study father-son dyads as well as explore the reciprocation of support, specifically emotional support, from students to parents.

abstract: With the establishment of the emerging adult developmental period and the rise of helicopter parents, attachment theory provides foundation for conceptualizing the continued involvement of helicopter parents in their emerging adults’ emotion regulation processes. This study utilized dyadic data from 66 emerging adult children and their helicopter parents to examine the association of helicopter parent-emerging adult communication in mitigating the associations between experiences of affect and stress. Specifically, the purpose of the present study was to use dyadic data to examine how communication within the helicopter parent-emerging adult relationship associates with emerging adults’ ability to regulate experiences of negative and positive affect. Both associations within the emerging adult and helicopter parent individually (actor effects) and how helicopter parents impact construct associations for emerging adults’ (partner effects) were considered. Two multilevel mediation models using Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were conducted to assess the relations between affect, stress, and helicopter parent-emerging adult communication quality for negative and positive affect separately. The positive direct effect between negative affect and stress was statistically significant for emerging adults, but not for helicopter parents, suggesting that, for emerging adults, higher perceptions of negative affect were associated with higher levels of stress. The direct and indirect effects for the mediation model examining actor and partner effects between negative affect, communication quality, and stress were non-significant for both emerging adults and helicopter parents. The direct effect between positive affect and stress was statistically significant for helicopter parents but not for emerging adults; however, the directionality of the significant association was positive and not as hypothesized. Finally, the direct and indirect effects for the mediation model examining actor and partner effects between positive affect, communication quality, and stress were non-significant for emerging adults and helicopter parents. Considerations for future studies examining aspects of attachment within emotion regulation for the helicopter parent-emerging adult relationship and the importance of considering relationship characteristics, such the relational characteristics of social support and conflict, are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2017