"Helicopter Parents": Children with Behavior Disorders, but Smarter?
studies in comparison
Created: 06/26/2022, 3:00 p.m
By: Jasmin Pospiech
Many scoff at overprotective parents who remove all obstacles from their children's path.
Studies show that the concept is successful.
Princeton - They are the terror of every educator, educator or teacher: helicopter parents.
As the name suggests, they circle around their offspring 24 hours a day and try to meet all of their needs.
With the aim of relieving him of the difficulties in life and removing possible obstacles from his path.
However, many educators have few warm words left for this educational concept.
Most even criticize it publicly.
The message behind it: If you take everything off your hands, you don't give them a chance to develop and take responsibility for their own lives.
"Helicopter Parents": Children with Behavior Disorders, but Smarter?
studies in comparison
Don't lose your nerve now: a toddler's tantrum usually lasts around four to five minutes.
(Iconic image) © Mascha Bruchta
One expert even goes so far as to say that overprotection is tantamount to child neglect.
The researchers, dr.
Matthias Doepke, Professor of Economics and Dr.
Fabrizio Zilibotti from Yale University investigated the phenomenon of "helicopter parents" and came to an amazing result.
Her study shows that not everything about helicopter training is bad.
Because of the strict control, the children of such parents would have better chances of education and success in life.
The latter applies above all to their career path and later standard of living.
At the same time, however, the educational concept reinforces the "parenting gap" and thus the growing inequality in society.
According to this, the researchers in particular compared their own childhood experiences with the current upbringing of their offspring for the study.
"My parents expected us to show up for dinner, go to school and be home before dark, but otherwise we had a lot of freedom," says Doepke.
“The reality of today is that my role as a parent is much more intense.
I spend a lot of time parenting, just like most other American parents today.”
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"Helicopter Parents": Children with Behavior Disorders, but Smarter?
studies in comparison
Her years of research eventually resulted in the book Love, Money and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids raise our children.”) and their core thesis: Unlike in the past, children are put under enormous pressure to perform.
In addition, the offspring are indirectly understood as a commodity and a status symbol in market competition, and helicopter parents increasingly lead and “manage” the upbringing of their children.
But contrary to the assumption that the parenting style produces defiant, spoiled children, the scientists believe that the offspring will obediently achieve all career and success goals.
They come to this conclusion after evaluating the performance tests of 15-year-olds worldwide.
The results were then compared to reports from the young people and their parents and how they relate to each other.
It turned out that a "paternalist" way of bringing up children leads to better performance values when the parents belong to the same social group.
However, this further widens the gap between rich and poor.
"Helicopter Parents": Children with Behavior Disorders, but Smarter?
studies in comparison
But are these children happy?
For Prof. Dr.
Stephan Bender, Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy of Children and Adolescents at the University Hospital of Cologne, dealing with children and their helicopter parents is part of the practice.
He doubts that, so he recognizes certain characteristics of children who are raised by helicopter parents: "Children of helicopter parents often lack social skills and initiative, they have problems expressing their needs and cannot fully develop their talents," explains he to the AOK health insurance company.
In the end, it is probably the famous happy medium that also applies to raising children: leading and directing the offspring and setting limits, but not completely depriving them of their freedom.
This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication. In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor. Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.
