Exploring College Students’ Perceptions of Overparenting and Levels of Self-Compassion

Abstract

While parent involvement has been linked to many positive young adult outcomes (e.g., autonomy), recent research has highlighted potential negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety) of excessive levels of parent involvement. Overparenting is the term used to refer to excessive levels of parent involvement, and more specifically, overparenting refers to developmentally inappropriate levels of parent involvement. Many of the studies examining overparenting among college-aged students define overparenting as high levels of parental monitoring, advice, and communication. Self-compassion is a way of responding to one’s personal inadequacies with kindness and gentleness and it does not entail blaming or judging oneself. Self-compassion has been associated with lower levels of anxiety, depression, and fear of failure. We are not aware of any studies examining the link between self-compassion and overparenting. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between self-compassion and overparenting.