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Isabelle Creste, Psy.D., is a 2020 graduate of the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee:

  • Roger Peterson, PhD, Committee Chair
  • Freda Ginsberg, PhD, Committee Member
  • Michael Morales, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

college students, stress, mental health, overparenting, differentiation of self

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

There has been an increase in the level of anxiety, perceived stress, and mental health problems among college students. An examination of the contributions of parenting to these increases may help in improving college student mental health; however, research is limited in this area. This study examined the associations between overparenting, and other types of parenting including, authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting, and differentiation of self, cognitive emotion regulation, perceived stress, and state and trait anxiety. The participants were 163 undergraduate college students (74.8% identified as cisgender women, 25.2% identified as cisgender men). The participants completed questionnaires that described their mother’s and father’s parenting behavior. The participants also completed questionnaires assessing their differentiation of self, cognitive emotion regulation strategy use, perceived stress, and state and trait anxiety. The results concerning parenting and differentiation of self indicated high levels of overparenting, and authoritarian parenting by mothers and by fathers were associated with lower levels of differentiation of self. Also, high levels of authoritative and permissive parenting by mothers and by fathers were associated with higher levels of differentiation of self. The results concerning parenting and cognitive emotion regulation indicated high levels of overparenting and authoritarian parenting by mothers and by fathers were associated with higher levels of using maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. A contrasting pattern emerged with high levels of authoritative parenting and permissive parenting being associated with higher levels of using adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The results concerning parenting, perceived stress, and anxiety indicated overparenting by mothers and by fathers was related to perceived stress and trait anxiety, and overparenting by mothers was positively related to state anxiety. Authoritarian parenting by mothers and by fathers was positively related to perceived stress, while authoritative parenting by mothers was negatively associated with perceived stress, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. These findings have important clinical and developmental implications for how overparenting and other types of parenting may contribute to increased perceived stress and anxiety in college students.

Comments

Isabelle Creste

ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0003-2714-8964

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