Helicopter Parenting in Emerging Adulthood: Support or Barrier for Korean College Students’ Psychological Adjustment?

The purpose of the present study is to revisit and validate the current conceptualization of helicopter parenting with Korean college students by using the Helicopter Parenting Scale. Using an individuation–separation process framework from family systems theory, we also examined associations between college student’s retrospective self-report of their parents’ helicopter parenting and their own psychological adjustment. Four hundred twelve students from 13 private universities in Korea completed a questionnaire about their parent’s parenting and their own psychological adjustment measured in locus of control and emotional well-being. The finding of an one-factor solution does not support our hypothesis that there may be a difference in the conceptualization of helicopter parenting between Korea and the U.S. samples. Findings indicate perceived helicopter parenting was negatively associated with college students’ internal locus of control. Although there was no direct link from helicopter parenting to Korean college students’ emotional well-being, the association of helicopter parenting to emotional well-being was indirect through its link to students’ locus of control.