Overparenting and Emerging Adults’ Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Emotional Distress Tolerance

Abstract

Overparenting is a type of parental control that involves high levels of age-inappropriate intrusiveness, which may hinder the development autonomous behavior in emerging adulthood. Overparenting has been linked to poor mental health in emerging adult college students. However, little is known about the mechanisms involved in this relationship. Emotional distress tolerance (i.e., ability to withstand negative emotional states) has been inversely associated with a number of mental health concerns and has not yet been examined in relation to overparenting. We proposed that emotional distress tolerance may be one mechanism by which overparenting is associated with poor mental health among emerging adults. We examined the direct role of overparenting in relation to mental health symptoms and predicted that emotional distress tolerance would mediate this relationship. College student volunteers (N = 360) completed measures of perceived overparenting, emotional distress, and emotional distress tolerance. When controlling for race and living situation, emotional distress tolerance mediated the relationship between overparenting and emotional distress among college students. Findings from this study help to explain the possible impact of overparenting behaviors on mental health and provide an intervention point for students struggling with exercising autonomous behaviors during the transition to college.