- A new study from Florida State University found that overparenting can negatively impact children — and even result in burnout.
- After surveying more than 400 college students, researchers found that helicopter parenting was more associated with burnout.
- In particular, helicopter parenting had an adverse effect when it came from fathers.
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Here's a lesson for parents — especially those too close to their children.
Those "overparenting" — or helicopter parenting, where parents are overly focused on their children and therefore guilty of excessive parenting — might want to loosen their grip on their kids' lives, as a new study from Florida State University found that overparenting can have a negative effect on children and can contribute to burnout once they enter the workforce.
The study, published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, explored how helicopter parenting can hurt young adults, finding that parents who overparent harm their children by providing fewer opportunities for children to develop and manage emotional and behavioral skills.
Researchers surveyed more than 400 college students ages 18 to 29 to learn more about how they were raised and how they felt about their time in school. Respondents were asked to rank how much they felt statements regarding parenting and their college career were true. With a specific focus on overparenting, researchers found that helicopter parenting, specifically when a father contributes, was more associated with burnout.
What does that lead to? According to one Florida State University professor, it creates a "helpless, hopeless, and resentful" effort toward schooling.
"Burnout is a response to ongoing stress that is important, because it saps the student's energy, reduces their productivity, and leaves them with a diminished sense of accomplishment," said Professor Frank Fincham, an FSU Eminent Scholar and director of the FSU Family Institute, in a statement. "They feel increasingly helpless, hopeless, and resentful, exerting less effort on their studies, which leads to lower grades. In some cases, students end up dropping out of college."
Hayley Love, the study's author, told CNBC Make It that this type of burnout could reach beyond school.
"This research really highlights the salience of parenting even as children move out of the home," Love said.
