Helicopter parents – Definition, development and validation of a scale

Helicopter parents are parents who monitor their children in all circumstances during their academic careers. Although helicopter parenting has drawn increasing attention in practice and the media in recent years, very few scientific studies exist, and there is currently no valid measuring instrument. To fill this gap, the present article summarizes the identifiable traits of helicopter parenting and develops and validates a German-language questionnaire for collecting data about this phenomenon. Factor analyses show a g-factor and the four subscales of overprotection, over-involvement, autonomy restriction, and external guilt sharing.

14.02.2014 | Daniel Wilhelm, Wiebke Esdar & Elke Wild (Bielefeld)