Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Informed by the goodness-of-fit model, goal theories, and literature on support gaps, this study examines the associations between congruence/discrepancies in parent-adolescent expectations of the adolescent’s educational and career goals and adolescents’ perceived overparenting. Data were collected through a survey of 122 parent-adolescent dyads from four high schools in the U.S. Results from second-order polynomial regression with response surface analysis indicated that parental high educational or career goal expectation alone was not necessarily related to adolescents’ perception of overparenting. Rather, adolescents’ perception of overparenting depended on the congruence/discrepancies in parents’ and adolescents’ expectations. Compared to parent-adolescent congruence in high or low expectations, either direction of expectation discrepancies—either parents’ expectation exceeds adolescents’ expectation, or adolescents’ expectation exceeds their parents—was more likely to be associated with adolescents’ perception of overparenting. Parenting intervention and educational programs should acknowledge that discrepancies in parents’ and adolescents’ educational and career goals could potentially contribute to parental overparenting. Fostering communication and negotiation of goal expectations between parents and adolescents may help reduce the practice of overparenting.
Authors: Peipei Hong, Ming Cui
Institutions: Zhejiang University, Florida State University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4377943575