The Effect of Paternal and Maternal Helicopter Parenting on the Career Preparation Behavior of High-School Students: Sequential Mediation Effects of Academic Achievement Attribution and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This study examined the sequential mediation effects of academic achievement attribution and career decision-making self-efficacy on the effect of paternal and maternal helicopter parenting on high-school students' career preparation behavior. A total of 285 (119 male and 166 female) Korean high-school students in the second grade participated in the study. Research variables were measured using the Career Preparation Behavior Scale (Kim, 1997), Helicopter Parenting Scale (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011), Attribution Questionnaire (Weiner, 1979), and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (Betz et al., 1996). To examine the sequential mediating effect, data analysis was performed using SPSS 29.0 and PROCESS MACRO (v4.2) Model 6. The results revealed no correlations between helicopter parenting and academic failure attribution. However, higher paternal and maternal helicopter parenting were found to indirectly reduce high-school students' career preparation behavior through lower internal academic success attribution (effort and ability) and higher external academic success attribution (task difficulty and luck), which reduced career decision-making self-efficacy. These findings can be employed to develop more effective intervention programs comprising career guidance for adolescents, which emphasizes the negative effect of helicopter parenting. This study expands the research field, as previous findings on helicopter parenting mostly focus on college students.