Emerging adults' perceptions of parental assistance during the college years

Recent researchers have proposed a stage of emerging adulthood to define the period of adolescent to adulthood development. This study explores the emerging adult's perspectives regarding the helpfulness or unhelpfulness of parental assistance during the college years. In particular, this study focuses on differences in student perspective based on student and parent gender and the academic year of the student (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior). An invitation to participate in an online survey was emailed to students enrolled in a private liberal arts college, of which 559 students responded. This study provides a qualitative analysis of two open-ended questions in which the students were asked to describe situations in which they found their parents' assistance during college to be helpful or unhelpful. Results were analyzed using a constant comparative method. Three domains emerged: valence, level of parental involvement, and area of life in which the parent(s) became involved. In general, students' perspectives indicated a positive response to parental assistance given in the form of support or advice; students' perspectives indicated a negative response to parental assistance given against the student's wishes or behind the student's back. Analysis also indicated that students' perspectives about other levels of involvement and areas of involvement differed depending upon the parent's gender, the student's gender, and the student's academic year. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.;Keywords: adolescent, emerging adult, helicopter parents, college students...