Overparenting, or Helicopter Parenting, Teenage Children throughout their Latter High School Years, Interferes with Erikson's Identity vs. Role Confusion Stage of Development. Here's How:
In this Stage of Development, Adolescents Search Within Themselves to Gain an Understanding of WHO they are, and WHERE they Belong.
Padilla-Walker and Nelson(2012) note that emerging adults should be "personally invested in their own growth and development by solving their own problems with friends. . . and seeking their own help from teachers."
"Indeed, emerging adults report that in order to become an adult one needs to accept responsibility for the consequences of one's own actions, [and] begin to make decisions, independent of parents" (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012).
Students in the Identity vs. Role Confusion Stage are Curious; they Have a NEED to Explore Their Own Sense of Safety and Risk.
When parents "monitor much of what their child does, endlessly advocate for the child in the academic setting, orchestrate the child's extracurricular life, and are in constant communication with their child via the electronic umbilical cord," they "curtail their child's ability to pursue curiosity, explore and asses their own sense of risk and safety and thus establish their own borders and boundaries with the world" (Munich & Munich, 2009).
The age of the cellular phone seems to have greatly increased parental control. This 'electronic umbilical cord,' has many advantages - but has definitely contributed to children's inability to explore their environment 'unencumbered.'
"Young people are not quite children, but neither are they yet adults" (Gould & Howson, 2015).
Their sense of self is shaky, and according to Erickson, they must resolve this issue during adolescence in order to develop healthy attitudes before entering adulthood.
"If part of the purpose of adolescence is identity formation, and the purpose of parenting is to gradually foster independence, then delayed identity formation and dependence on one's parents leave students unprepared for real-life experiences" (Kantrowitz & Tyre, 2006).
Over-parenting "deprive[s] kids of [the] opportunity to be creative, problem solve, develop coping skills, build resilience, figure out what makes them happy, [and] figure out WHO they are" (Levine, 2009).
Students in this Stage of Development are often Characterized as being in an Identity Crisis. . .
Identify Crisis can be defined as "a critical period in emotional maturation and personality development that often occurs in adolescence and involves the reworking and/or abandonment of childhood identifications and the integration of new personal and social identifications" (Gould & Howson, 2015).
So if these students are in an Identity Crisis. . . shouldn't they develop that identity on their own?
According to Dictionary.com, (2015) identity can be defined as "the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another" Over-parenting (helicopter parenting) does not allow that to occur. In fact, "the parent, rather than struggling with the subtleties of creating the conditions for the child's mind to develop, is instead creating and shaping the child's mental landscape"(Munich & Munich, 2009).
Munich and Munich (2009) argue that when discussing identity vs role confusion, that late adolescents face "tangible adult tasks ahead of them [and that they are] primarily concerned with what they appear in the eyes of others as compared to what they feel they are, and with the question of how to connect the roles and skills cultivated earlier with the occupational prototypes of the day." To help with this identify crisis. . . helicopter parents often: 'help' write outstanding papers; hold fancy social parties so their children get the 'best' friends; hire the 'most talented tutors,' (to ensure the most thorough education) - all in the name of 'helping' their child navigate this developmental stage. HOWEVER - these students are "nevertheless facing the world with a precarious sense of self and identity" oftentimes with a "fragile / insecure attachment system and uncertain future" (Munich & Munich, 2009).
Emerging adults (aka adolescents) are enmeshed in a period of self-exploration, self-focus, and learning how to become self-reliant; therefore it does not seem that helicopter parenting is appropriate for these developmental demands (Arnett, 2000).