Introduction

Recently, there has been increased concern about “overparenting”, which reflects parenting that is overinvolved or overcontrolled without granting sufficient autonomy (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011; Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012; Segrin et al. 2012). This phenomenon is referred to as helicopter parenting in the popular media (e.g., Time Magazine 2009; Wall Street Journal 2007). The media coverage has emphasized the prevalence of helicopter parenting among parents of college students and the negative impact of this type of parenting on children’s outcomes. Recent empirical research, conducted with university academic and student affair officials, confirms this trend and prevalence by demonstrating that the phenomenon of helicopter parenting for college students may be as high as 40–60 % (Somers and Settle 2010).

According to family systems framework, healthy separation and individuation from one’s parents entails the process of renegotiating the parent–child relationship in a way that balances closeness and distance of the relationships (Bowen 1976; Grotevan and Cooper 1998). The process of individuation and separation is consistent within family systems perspectives in that families should be adaptive to changing developmental needs of family members, particularly in relation to parental involvement. In this sense, parental overinvolvement such as helicopter parenting in the life of a child may be developmentally inappropriate particularly when one reaches emerging adulthood (Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012) because it undermines the child’s sense of self-control and psychological well-being (Spokas and Heimberg 2009) and leaves them unprepared for transitions to adulthood (Ungar 2009). One significant gap in this line of research is that the majority of studies were conducted in Western Society, particularly in the United States. Limited empirical evidence exists on the construct of helicopter parenting and its association with child psychological functioning in a different cultural context.

Although helicopter parenting shares some similarities with other types of parental control (e.g., psychological control, Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012), it has distinct characteristics such as clear benevolent intention for children (Givertz and Segrin 2014). Despite such positive intentions, helicopter parenting, similar to other forms of parental control, may diminish children’s sense of self, independence, and competencies (e.g., locus of control, self-efficacy) but the association with other psychological functioning of children might not be the same due to the unique aspect of helicopter parenting.

Growing attention has been paid to helicopter parenting and most of existing research evidence shows its negative impact on children’s psychological functioning (Bradley-Geist and Olson-Buchanan 2014; Givertz and Segrin 2014; LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011; Odenweller et al. 2014; Schiffrin et al. 2014a, b; Segrin et al. 2012). We first focus on children’s sense of self as exhibited as locus of control because achieving the internal locus of control (e.g., the extent to which one expects a reinforcement or an outcome of behavior to be dependent upon one’s own behavior; Rotter 1990) is one of the most important developmental tasks of emerging adults. Studies with college students demonstrate similar associations between parenting, student locus of control (or self-efficacy) (Ballash et al. 2006; Givertz and Segrin 2014; Spokas and Heimberg 2009). For example, Ballash et al. (2006) found that parental overinvolvement, communication, and behavioral control predicted college students’ sense of lack of control (presumably a lack of internal locus of control). Similarly, Spokas and Heimberg (2009) found that recollections of parental overprotection and low parental warmth were associated with an external locus of control. These studies demonstrate that certain aspects of parenting, such as parental control, low affect, and overprotectiveness, contribute to the development of a cognitive style in which students believe that their behavioral outcomes largely depend on external factors. This parenting style may interfere with children’s development of autonomy and the social skills required when they face challenges and/or social demands (Spokas and Heimberg 2009). As the parenting construct measured in some of these studies (e.g., Spokas and Heimberg 2009) is somewhat distinct from our conceptualization of helicopter parenting (i.e., consisting of high parental affect and overcontrol without much autonomy granting), additional investigations are needed to confirm associations between recollections of helicopter parenting and college-aged children’s sense of self.

Another line of research documents a negative direct relation between helicopter parenting and college students’ psychological well-being (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011; Schiffrin et al. 2014b). College students who recall maternal overprotection and control appear to be at risk for increased anxiety when beginning college, perhaps due to a decreased sense of control (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011). Similarly, Schiffrin et al. (2014b) found that students’ perceptions of helicopter parenting contributed to decreased life satisfaction and higher levels of depression. However, there are other studies that demonstrate helicopter parenting may lead to neutral, mixed, or even positive outcomes for young adults, such as higher satisfaction and engagement with the college experience (Center for Postsecondary Research School of Education 2007; Fingerman et al. 2012). For example, according to Fingerman et al. (2012), even though parents who provide intensive support (e.g., financial and emotional support) perceived it as too much, their adult children, who received the intensive support, reported better psychological adjustment and life satisfaction than those who did not receive such support. It may be that whether or not intensive parental support is positively or negatively associated with children’s emotional well-being depends on how children perceive it. If they perceive it as appropriate (e.g., viewing it as parental investment, rather than too much involvement) and feel emotionally supported by parents, they appear to report higher levels of well-being (e.g., Umberson 1992).

A few recent studies exploring the potential mechanisms underlying links between helicopter parenting and college students’ psychological outcomes suggest that students’ locus of control or self-efficacy may mediate associations between helicopter parenting and their psychological or emotional well-being (Ballash et al. 2006; Schiffrin et al. 2014b). For example, Schiffrin et al. (2014b) collected data from 297, predominately White, college students and found that helicopter parenting was negatively correlated with students’ life satisfaction and positively correlated with their depression. These negative effects of helicopter parenting on students’ psychological outcomes were mostly mediated by their sense of personal autonomy and competence. In other words, when students perceived that their parents were overly controlling, their needs of autonomy and competence were not met, which had a negative impact on their psychological well-being. Such findings appear in line with Ballash et al. (2006) who found that parental overinvolvement, communication, and behavioral control predicted college students’ sense of lack of control, which was in turn associated with their anxiety. Segrin et al. (2013) also found a similar link between overparenting and adult children’s psychological well-being (e.g., anxiety and stress), mediated by ineffective coping. As most of helicopter parenting studies focused on direct impacts of helicopter parenting on (or associations with) child outcomes, more research that examines both direct association of helicopter parenting and child psychological outcomes and underlying processes among these variables would benefit the field.

Lastly, there has been a belief that there are universal similarities in family functioning and individual developmental processes. However, some researchers have argued that social norms for parental involvement and autonomy granting and its impact on children’s development differ by culture (e.g., McElhaney and Allen 2012). One way that this argument has been brought forth is by contrasting Western and Eastern (e.g., Asian) parenting and its effect on children’s development (e.g., Kim and Choi 1994), which has been referred to as “universalism without the uniformity” (Shweder and Sullivan 1993, p. 514). Many Asian parents (e.g., Korean) who have cultural values promote collectivistic goals for children and underscore relatedness over autonomy compared to European American parents (Chao and Tseng 2002; Tamis-LeMonda et al. 2002). Due to differences in social norms, goals, and values, Asians may rely more on parental support than their Western peers and face greater self-regulatory challenges in the transition to college (Dmitrieva et al. 2008). To date, the majority of studies on helicopter parenting and parental involvement in college years have been conducted in the U.S. and thus the generalization of the results may be limited to different cultural and educational contexts. Among Asian countries, Korea is distinct in some ways including: (a) high parental educational focus and investment, (b) school culture that tends to limit parents’ involvement in school, (c) high college entrance rate (e.g., 71.3 %), and (d) low employment and competitive job markets for recent college graduates (e.g., Park et al. 2011; Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology 2012). Considering Korea’s unique cultural/educational dynamics, it is reasonable to expect that helicopter parenting in Korea may be more prevalent but conceptualized differently, and evidence different associations with children’s psychological adjustment in college years than in Western countries such as the U.S.

Taken together, although there is growing research base on helicopter parenting (Ballash et al. 2006; Bradley-Geist and Olson-Buchanan 2014; Givertz and Segrin 2014; LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011; Odenweller et al. 2014; Segrin et al. 2012, 2013, 2014a), limited empirical evidence exists for groups outside the U.S. Thus, the present study seeks to contribute to helicopter parenting literature by validating the conceptualization of helicopter parenting as perceived by Korean college students. We also examined relations between helicopter parenting and college students’ psychological adjustment outcomes in Korea. We hypothesized that (a) there is a direct association of helicopter parenting with locus of control and emotional well-being and (b) there is also an indirect association of helicopter parenting with emotional well-being through its impact on students’ locus of control. This study is not a cross-cultural comparison between two cultures. However, as we targeted a similar sample of students as, and compared results with, LeMoyne and Buchanan’s (2011) study, findings from this study may provide a preliminary, yet relatively comparable, picture of how helicopter parenting relates to college students’ psychological outcomes across cultural contexts.

Method

Participants

Four hundred twelve single college students from 13 private universities in Seoul, Korea participated in this study. We only included single students with at least one parent to measure their perceptions of parents’ helicopter parenting and to avoid samples that may be independent of their parents as a result of marriage. Five hundred and eleven students from those universities were individually contacted, and 492 students among them agreed to participate in the study and turned in their questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 96.3 %. Finally, a sample of 412 students was retained from the 492 participants for the final analysis as they met three criteria: no missing data, participants were single, and each participant reported having at least one living parent. As described in Table 1, the student sample in this study was composed of comparable numbers of male (49.3 %) and female students (50.7 %). The sample consisted of relatively equal number of students across years of study: freshmen (24.3 %), sophomores (24.5 %), juniors (27.7 %), and seniors (23.5 %). Students were enrolled full-time and reported majors across different academic disciplines. The average age of students was 21.28 years (SD = 2.07). Students mostly came from middle class backgrounds, with the average annual family income of students’ families being reported as 52,753,398 won ($48,959.07 as of 2015).

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of student participants (N = 412)
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Procedure

This study used a purposive and convenience sampling method. To get a more representative college student sample, we visited various campus places where many demographically-diverse students gather such as student union halls, college cafeterias, clubrooms, gyms, computer labs and so on in thirteen private universities located in Seoul, Korea from 12 to 5 p.m. on weekdays during April and May, 2012. In those places on the campuses, 511 students were individually contacted and asked to participate in the study. They were briefed about the research purpose and requirements of this study by the second author and five trained graduate research assistants. The research assistants were blind to the research hypotheses. Four hundred and ninety-two students agreed to participate and provided their consent, and a paper–pencil questionnaire was individually administrated in the lecture rooms before or after various large-sized university classes during those months. The questionnaire consisted of questions regarding demographic information, their parents’ parenting, their own locus of control and emotional well-being. Completion of the questionnaire took approximately 15–20 min.

Measures

Helicopter Parenting

Korean college students’ perceptions of their parents’ helicopter parenting was assessed with all ten items from the original the Helicopter Parenting Scale (HPS; LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011). The first and second authors translated the scale into Korean and then back translated in order to ensure translation accuracy. Each item measured the extent to which the individual felt his or her parents were controlling and transactional in their overall treatment of the respondent while growing up. Each item was reported on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Sample items include “My parents often stepped into solve life problems for me” and “Growing up, I sometimes felt like I was my parents’ project”. Mean scores range from 1 to 5, with a higher score representing a higher level of helicopter parenting perceived by the respondent. The Cronbach’s alpha for the eight items was .72.

Locus of Control

The Korean Internal-External Control Scale (Cha et al. 1973), which is the Korean version of Rotter’s (1966) Internal-External Control Scale, was used to assess students’ locus of control expectancies. It contains 21 items in a forced-choice format, as well as six filter items. Each paired item was reported on the alternative of 1 = internal locus of control or 0 = external locus of control. Sample items include, “People’s wealth is a matter of hard work (internal locus of control),” and “To be rich or poor is up to one’s fate (external locus of control).” Total scores range from 0 to 15, with a higher score representing a more internal locus of control. Previous research on the Korean Internal-External Control Scale suggests high test–retest reliability of .91 (Cha et al. 1973). As the items on the scale are dichotomous, we report split-half reliability, and the scale’s split-half reliability coefficient by using Spearman–Brown prophecy formula was .75 in this study.

Emotional Well-Being

We measured college students’ emotional well-being with the Concise Measure of Subjective Well-Being scale (COMOSWB; Suh and Koo 2011). This is a nine-item subjective well-being scale, which includes three positive emotion, three negative emotion, and three life satisfaction items. For each dimension, a 7-point Likert scale is used with differing response anchors. For example, the positive and negative emotion items ask students to indicate low to high levels of arousal in response to items. Life satisfaction items, on the other hand, ask respondents to rate their life satisfaction on a 7-point Likert scale (from 1 = never satisfied to 7 = always satisfied) in three separate domains: personal, relational, and collective life. The students’ total emotional well-being score is obtained by subtracting the total score of negative emotion items from the total sum of positive emotion and life satisfaction items. The emotional well-being scores range from −15 to 39, with a higher score indicating higher levels of emotional well-being. The Cronbach’s alpha for items of positive emotion, negative emotion, and life satisfaction for this sample are .87, .77, and .85, respectively.

Data Analysis

Each study variable was checked for normality before analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with the Maximum Likelihood estimation method, implemented by the program AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006), was used to check the validity of the measurement model of helicopter parenting construct and test hypothesized relations among study variables. To evaluate the goodness of model fit, multiple indices were reported, using the Chi squared, the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI), and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Based on Kline (2005), a CFI or TLI value greater than .95 indicates a good model fit, and a value of SRMR less than .08 is considered a good fit (Hu and Bentler 1999).

Results

LeMoyne and Buchanan (2011) initially constructed ten items for the HPS and retained seven items (item #1 to item #7) in their final model (see Table 2). To investigate the scale reliability and factor structure of the original HPS with a sample of Korean college students in this study, a reliability analysis was initially run for the ten-item HPS. Among the ten items that were inspected, two items [item #9: ‘I trust my parents’ judgment over my own’ and item #10: ‘I rarely talk to my parents before I make decision’ (reverse coded)] were identified as problematic and were removed, while the remaining eight items were adequate for an internal reliability estimate of more than .70. Table 2 shows the means and standard deviations of each of the eight items. We tested the measurement model of these items for the helicopter parenting construct by conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The final model presented in Fig. 1 validates the one-factor solution of the eight items for the helicopter parenting construct. All of the estimated factor loadings were significant, ranging between .41 and .74. This measurement model of helicopter parenting showed a good fit to the data: χ 2 (20) = 97.73 (p < .001), CFI = .99, TLI = .98, and SRMR = .06.

Table 2 Means and standard deviations of HPS items (N = 412)
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Fig. 1
figure 1

Measurement model of helicopter parenting (N = 412)

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Descriptive statistics for the study variables are shown in Table 3. Overall, the means of variables fall at moderate levels for each measure. The mean of perceived helicopter parenting by student respondents was 2.87, the mean locus of control for the participants was 8.25, and the mean for emotional well-being in emerging adulthood was 17.35. Bivariate correlations were also conducted to examine associations among perceived helicopter parenting and students’ locus of control and emotional well-being. In Table 3, the correlation coefficients among variables indicated that there was no multicollinearity issue. Perceived helicopter parenting was negatively related to a child’s locus of control (r = −.11, p < .05), while there was no significant correlation between helicopter parenting and a child’s emotional well-being. In regard to the relationship between a child’s psychological adjustment outcomes, a child’s locus of control was positively correlated with emotional well-being (r = .20, p < .001).

Table 3 Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations of variables used in analyses (N = 412)
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Structural equation modeling was conducted to test our hypothesized model including the indirect pathways from perceived helicopter parenting to a child’s emotional well-being mediated by a child’s locus of control, as well as direct pathways. As shown in Fig. 2, perceived helicopter parenting was significantly related to a child’s locus of control (β = −.13, p < .05), which was in turn related to a child’s emotional well-being (β = .20, p < .001). The relation between helicopter parenting and a child’s emotional well-being was not significant (β = .05, p > .05), showing that there is an indirect effect of helicopter parenting on a child’s emotional well-being as mediated by a child’s locus of control. The students who perceived higher levels of helicopter parenting were more likely to have low levels of internal locus of control, and this in turn lowered their levels of emotional well-being. This model showed a good fit to the data: χ 2 (35) = 121.89 (p < .001), CFI = .99, TLI = .99, and SRMR = .06. To test the significance of mediation effect, the bootstrap analysis was performed by using AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle 2006). The indirect effect of helicopter parenting on a child’s emotional well-being via their locus of control was −.026, and the 95 % CI for the standardized indirect effect ranged from −.064 to −.009. Thus, a child’ internal locus of control exerted a relatively small mediating influence on the relationship between helicopter parenting and a child’s emotional well-being.

Fig. 2
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The effect of helicopter parenting on child’s emotional well-being mediated by child’s locus of control (N = 412)

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Discussion

The present study examined helicopter parenting and attempted to validate the Helicopter Parenting Scale (HPS) (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011) in a Korean sample of college students. As part of this validation, we examined associations between perceived helicopter parenting and Korean college students’ psychological adjustment (i.e., locus of control, emotional well-being). There have been increased interests in helicopter parenting in media and research but there is limited information available for cultures other than Western cultures. Because social norms for parental involvement and autonomy and their relative contribution to children’s outcomes may vary between different cultures (McElhaney and Allen 2012), the importance of examining helicopter parenting in a sample of college students outside the U.S. is timely and relevant.

Results demonstrate that LeMoyne and Buchanan (2011)’s HPS is a reliable measure to use for Korean college students with eight items loading on one factor, which is relatively similar to outcomes of LeMoyne and Buchanan’s study. The eight items represent parental involvement and control taken to a dysfunctional level. Similar to LeMoyne and Buchanan (2011)’s study, the last two items that did not load on the construct of helicopter parenting, and were not included in the final analysis of the present study, do not appear to adequately represent the construct. The loading of specific items together into one factor appear to coincide with current conceptualizations of helicopter parenting in the media that often expresses a negative connotation toward the construct, such as excessive parental control, overinvolvement, and developmentally inappropriate parenting practices for their emerging adult children (e.g., Segrin et al. 2012). Although we might have perceived that millennial college students (i.e., born after 1982) have parents who are more highly involved in their child’s life and supervise more closely than previous generations (Park 2006; Sohn 2009), particularly among a Korean sample, results suggest moderate levels of perceived helicopter parenting (mean = 2.87; range 1–5) and only a small percentage of students perceiving parental involvement as too excessive. This finding suggests that the prevalence of helicopter parenting in media and some studies (e.g., Somers and Settle 2010) may be somewhat overestimated. Overall, the one factor solution and moderate levels of items scores similar to LeMoyne and Buchanan’s (2011) findings may reflect a global trend of parental involvement in college students’ lives and demonstrate some consistency between Western and non-Western parenting experiences. Hence, findings do not support our hypothesis of differences in the conceptualization of helicopter between two cultural contexts.

Although there are remarkable similarities in patterns between LeMoyne and Buchanan’s study and the present study, there were a few slight differences. For example, with regard to item loadings, LeMoyne and Buchanan dropped item #8 (“My parents are very involved in my activities”) while this item was loaded on the one factor solution in our study. Another difference was found on item #7 (“Growing up, I sometimes felt like I was my parents’ project”) with Korean students having significantly higher scores than U.S. students. Korean students may perceive their parents involvement in their activities as more controlling or more negative than U.S. students, particularly if they felt like they were their parents’ “project.” Differences in findings may reflect cultural and contextual factors. For example, given a cultural emphasis on strong family ties and interdependence between parents and children (Choi 2002; Tang 1992), which is well implied in individuation–separation process within the family systems framework (Segrin et al. 2012), Korean parents may be emotionally involved in their child’s life in a way that the young adult perceives as excessive. Socio-demographic variables such as (a) very low birth rates (1.24 per woman as of 2011), (b) high rates of college entrance (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology 2012), and (c) a competitive job market likely also contribute to perceived levels of overinvolvement. However, as the present study is not a cross-cultural study, it is premature to assume such findings reflective of general cultural differences. Further investigation that involves direct comparison across two cultures would be needed to confirm any actual difference in the students’ perception of helicopter parenting in two cultures.

The findings of the present study also reveal that perceived helicopter parenting is negatively associated with college students’ internal locus of control. Congruent with previous studies on parental control or overinvolvement, students who perceived their parents as more controlling without granting autonomy were more likely to have lower levels of internal control (Ballash et al. 2006; Givertz and Segrin 2014; Spokas and Heimberg 2009; Wang, Pomerantz, and Chen 2007). Even though helicopter parents may have benevolent intentions to control and protect their child from any harm he/she might encounter in his/her life (LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011), they appear too controlling to allow the child healthy levels of individuation–separation from the family (Rice et al. 1990). Helicopter parenting may reflect parents’ failure to make necessary adjustments that allow for a child’s developmentally appropriate individuation and may contribute to the children’s sense that their behaviors heavily rely on external forces such as parental influences (Gavazzi and Sabatelli 1990). It also interferes with children’s development of independence and appropriate social skills to deal with challenges and social demands they face in college (Mattanah et al. 2004; Spokas and Heimberg 2009).

We found no direct association between perceived helicopter parenting and college students’ emotional well-being, suggesting that helicopter parenting does not have a direct impact on Korean college students’ emotional well-being. Although this result is different from some previous research demonstrating significant negative or positive associations between helicopter parenting and children’s emotional well-being (Fingerman et al. 2012; LeMoyne and Buchanan 2011; Padilla-Walker and Nelson 2012), the findings are somewhat consistent with recent research by Schiffrin et al. (2014b) who found that helicopter parenting is related indirectly to student depression through its association with decreased autonomy and competence. Because relatively little research has examined Korea students’ helicopter parenting experiences, variation in how helicopter parenting is associated with children’s psychological outcomes may be related participants’ cultural norms (Choi 2002; Tang 1992) or reflect mixed patterns of associations between perceived helicopter parenting and students’ emotional well-being. Because some students might perceive high levels of helicopter parenting as normative (i.e., a high level of parent involvement is a cultural norm in Korea), they may not perceive that it harms their emotional well-being while others may feel it has a negative impact (Umberson 1992). In addition to cultural norms, inconsistencies in results between studies may be a function of the fact that some previous studies only considered direct (and not indirect) associations among helicopter parenting and student outcomes or differences in the way in which parenting and emotional well-being were measured.

Alternatively, results may reflect differing underlying processes between helicopter parenting and college students’ emotional well-being. Our data support that although there is no direct link from helicopter parenting to Korean college students’ emotional well-being, the association of helicopter parenting to emotional well-being was indirect through its link to students’ locus of control. Similar to previous studies regarding this indirect link (Ballash et al. 2006; Schiffrin et al. 2014b; Segrin et al. 2013), results suggest that the impact of helicopter parenting on children’s emotional well-being may work through other psychological or emotional constructs. Korean college students who feel that they have experienced helicopter parenting may perceive that their basic psychological needs of independence and autonomy are not being met. The diminished sense of internal control over their decisions may in turn contribute to lower levels of emotional well-being (Schiffrin et al. 2014b).

In conclusion, the results of this study appear consistent with the notion of a “universalism without the uniformity” (Shweder and Sullivan 1993, p. 514) because it is evident that there are similarities and differences in fundamental developmental processes of children’s psychological adjustment across cultures. Specifically, the general tendency of helicopter parenting and the pattern of adverse effects of perceived parental overcontrol on college students’ psychological adjustment in Korea is largely similar to that found in U.S. studies. At the same time, this study also reveals slight cultural variations in the conceptualization of helicopter parenting and its association with college students’ emotional well-being in Korea.

Limitations and Implications for Future Research

There are several limitations of the study. First, this study used college students’ retrospective self-reports which are subject to inaccuracy because of memory bias and distortion or social desirability (Spokas and Heimberg 2009). In addition, because this study is not a cross-cultural comparative study, any interpretation of findings from a cultural lens should be done with caution. Third, although we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), because this study is cross-sectional and correlational in nature, our assumption of causal inferences is limited. It is feasible that the patterns of associations between helicopter parenting and college students’ psychological outcomes may be bidirectional. Longitudinal studies that involve both parents and college age students across time could increase our understanding of the direction of, and the mechanism underlying, these associations.