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Parenting Styles in Emerging Adulthood

Authors :
Michaeline Jensen
Jessica L. Navarro
Gregory E. Chase
Kacey Wyman
Melissa A. Lippold
Source :
Youth, Vol 4, Iss 2, Pp 509-524 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2024.

Abstract

Parents/caregivers remain important in the lives of emerging adults in the modern era and understanding the ways in which parents of emerging adults balance responsiveness, demandingness, and autonomy support can help inform evidence-based recommendations around developmentally appropriate protective parenting. The present study identified four “parenting styles” in emerging adulthood in a sample of 680 4-year university and community college students (M = 19.0, ranging from 18 to 25; 70.7% female, 22.6% male) who reported on their primary parent/caregiver’s parenting behaviors. These parenting styles largely overlapped with traditional conceptualizations of parenting styles (two authoritarian profiles, a potentially indulgent profile, and a profile characterized by the average levels of all parenting behaviors measured, which may reflect the modern authoritative parenting style of emerging adults). No hypothesized overparenting profile emerged. The potentially indulgent profile saw the lowest levels of depression, mood, and anxiety symptoms, whereas the potentially indulgent and authoritative profiles saw the most positive wellbeing outcomes. The findings underscore the way in which responsiveness and autonomy support in emerging adulthood appear developmentally appropriate and adaptive, and how helicopter parenting does not appear to be as important as other aspects of parent–emerging adult relationships.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2673995X
Volume :
4
Issue :
2
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Youth
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.42eb813a93c4a9f98a828becc27fa90
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/youth4020035