By Stephen Beech
Helicopter parents may hold their children back professionally, suggests a new study.
Young people whose moms and dads were still very closely involved in their lives tended to have occupations with less “prestige” than young adults whose parents were less involved, according to the findings.
More than 2,600 Americans, aged 18 to 28, were asked a series of questions every other year for up to 10 years.
Study co-author Professor Anna Manzoni, of North Carolina State University, said: “It is well-established that parental investment during their children’s childhood and adolescence has positive outcomes.
“However, our study points to a shift in parental role as young people mature into early adulthood, ages 18 to 28.
“Specifically, our findings suggest that parents who are heavily involved with their children – spending lots of time advising them, sharing many activities, et cetera – actually hinder the child’s ability to launch.”
Manzoni explained that two key concepts in the study were “family social capital” and “occupational prestige.”
She said fFamily social capital refers to the norms, information and support parents provide through everyday interactions with their children.
Occupational prestige is measured by assessing the average education and income for a given occupation.
Co-author Dr. Tom Leppard, of North Carolina State’s Data Science and AI Academy, said: “We know that parents play an important role in shaping their children’s occupational outcomes, but we wanted to study specifically the effects of family social capital on early occupational attainment of young adults.
“The key finding was that low levels of family social capital positively influence adolescent occupational prestige while strongly tied family social capital negatively influences it.
“In other words, too much parental involvement was associated with a negative impact on the occupational attainment of emerging adults.
Manzoni said: “This absolutely took us by surprise.
“We checked our measures time and time again to make sure the results were correct.
“There is so much scholarship demonstrating how family social capital positively impacts everything from school performance to healthy behaviors, our findings at first seemed contradictory.
“But what the findings suggest is that, during the transition to adulthood, there can be too much of a good thing.
“This is an age in which young people need to make the transition to independence.
“And failure to do so is associated with professional constraints early in their careers.”
She added: “As young people move into early adulthood, the parental role may need to shift away from intensive guidance and toward a more hands-off, supportive posture that allows children to develop autonomy, make mistakes, and navigate the labor market on their own.”
The researchers say their findings, published in the Journal of Youth Studies, raised several new questions.
Dr. Leppard said: “For example, why do some parents remain highly involved during early adulthood while others step back?
“Are these patterns shaped by class, race, gender or family expectations about independence?
“Additionally, do the negative effects of strong family social capital persist over time, or do they fade as careers mature?
“It is also possible that strong family ties may pay off later in adulthood, even if they slow early occupational attainment.”
