Is Overparenting Associated with Adolescent/Young Adult Emotional Functioning and Clinical Outcomes Following Concussion?

Overparenting (O-P), or helicopter parenting, has warranted increased attention across the past decade. It is characterized as being overly involved, protective, and low on granting autonomy, and is associated with deleterious psychosocial outcomes outside of the concussion literature. This study examined the association of overparenting and patient emotional distress and clinical outcomes (i.e., symptoms, neurocognitive test scores, recovery time) post-concussion. Adolescents/young adult concussion patients (injury < 30 days) and parents (N = 101 child-parent dyads) participated. Patient participants completed measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and concussion clinical outcomes while parents concurrently completed an overparenting measure. Results of a general linear model found that overparenting was associated with higher anxiety and stress report of the child. Overparenting had a significant positive correlation with concussion recovery, although of a small magnitude. Emotional distress level, but not overparenting, was moderately associated with worse performance on clinical outcomes, including neurocognitive testing, vestibular/ocular motor dysfunction, and concussion symptom severity.

Automated summary

The study found that overparenting was significantly associated with higher anxiety and stress levels in concussion patients, and was positively correlated with concussion recovery. Emotional distress level was moderately associated with worse clinical outcomes, including neurocognitive testing and concussion symptom severity.