WITHDRAWN: Exploring the Influence of Overparenting on Socio-Emotional Skill Development within out-of-School-Time Programs

Over the past decade a distinct parenting approach has appeared emphasizing excessive parental control, involvement and monitoring. Labelled overparenting this parenting style has been defined as the application of developmentally inappropriate levels of parental directiveness, tangible assistance, problem-solving, monitoring, and involvement in the lives of children. The central idea behind overparenting is that parents display these behaviors in a misguided attempt to improve their child’s current and future success or to protect them from real or perceived harm. This non-normative parenting style may result in limits on children’s out-of-school-time (OST) experiences and later self-determinate behavior.

Due in part to the lack of a guiding theory regarding overparenting, several gaps exist relating to our knowledge of overparenting and its relationship to OST experiences orientated towards socio-emotional skill development (SESD). Additionally, there are methodological shortcomings (e.g., reliable and valid measures) relating to the limited overparenting research. To address these gaps, the purpose of this study was to develop, test, and validate a measure of overparenting and examine the potential influence of overparenting with common developmental outcomes of an OST programs for youth ages 9 to 13.

Method & Results

In cooperation with a state-level youth serving organization operating multiple OST programs, 388 parents were solicited via email to complete a 116-item online questionnaire one week after their child’s OST program experience. Data were analyzed in EQS 6.3 software for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to ensure measurement validity and reliability structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore potential relationships overparenting and SESD. The final overall goodness-of-fit indices suggested that the proposed nine-factor measurement model fit the data well: χ²(570) = 1076.061, p ≤ .001, RMSEA = .054 (90% CI, .067-.078), CFI = .938. Corresponding preliminary structural modeling indicated overparenting score had a significant negative direct effect on autonomy granting behavior (-.038, p ≤ .001) and the four SESD’s: communication (-.046, p ≤ .001), self-regulation (-.063, p ≤ .001), attitude (-.012, p ≤ .001), and exploration (-.061, p ≤ .001).

Discussion

The study findings suggested overparenting may influence parental perceptions of their child’s SESD growth. As much of overparenting research is confined to higher-education settings, this study was one of the first to examine overparenting in a sample of parents of upper-elementary and middle-school aged youth. Furthermore, this study provided an overparenting measure tested and validated for use in OST settings, a setting in which overparenting appears to be prevalent.