Parents’ involvement and university students’ independence

Abstract

Living away from home at university has long been seen as a first step on the road to fully independent living, but considerable concern has been expressed by some commentators that involved parenting – sometimes termed ‘helicopter parenting’ – threatens the transition to independence. We approached students and parents at two pre-1992 universities and interviewed 29 parent-student dyads. The paper focuses on non-financial support and the analysis takes the parents’ standpoint. Four categories of parental involvement are identified and described. The article finds no evidence to suggest that involved parenting routinely becomes ‘helicopter parenting’. Most parents wanted to balance support on the one hand, and the encouragement of their children to become more independent on the other, but a majority expressed anxieties about doing so. Students were more optimistic than their parents about becoming independent.