Parental Overreach, Student Entitlement and their Motivation; Investigating the Relationship Between Helicopter Parenting, Psychological Entitlement and Academic Motivation Among University Students

Abstract

Helicopter parenting, defined by an excessive parental involvement and control over children's lives, has been under the spotlight of researchers in recent years for its potential impact on children's personal, psychological, social and academic domains. Excessive involvement, authority and control by parent in child’s life can lead to sense of entitlement in students and can also hinder their motivation to learn and progress in academics. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between helicopter parenting, psychological entitlement and academic motivation among the university students. The study was quantitative utilizing the cross-sectional correlational design. The study sample comprised of 200 university students from Gujrat. The scales used were Helicopter Parenting Scale (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011), Psychological Entitlement Scale (Campbell et al., 2004) and Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al., 1992). We hypothesized that there will likely be a relationship between these variables. Pearson correlation highlighted a significant positive relationship between helicopter parenting and psychological entitlement (r = .46, p < .001), helicopter parenting and extrinsic motivation (r = .32, p < .001) and helicopter parenting and amotivation (r = .36, p < .001). Moreover, there was a significant negative relationship highlighted between helicopter parenting and intrinsic motivation (r = -.25, p < .01). Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between psychological entitlement and extrinsic motivation (r = .16, p < .05). The helicopter parenting practices supported the negative psychological entitlement and maladaptive academic motivations. These findings could be incorporated in different parenting interventions focusing on academic progress and psychosocial factors of positive entitlement.