Overparenting, Loneliness, and Social Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Emerging adults frequently report feelings of loneliness and social anxiety owing to changes in their social environment, instabilities, and transitions. One of the risk factors that could contribute to emerging adults’ social well-being is overparenting. We examined the association between overparenting, loneliness, and social anxiety among emerging adults and investigated the potential mediating role of emotion regulation as a mechanism that might account for the association. Overparenting was operationalized as a domain-specific construct comprising various aspects of emerging adults’ lives (i.e., academic, health, financial, and relational). College students (N = 287) participated in a short-term longitudinal study and responded to self-reported measures on overparenting, emotion regulation, loneliness, social anxiety, and demographics. Findings from structural equation modeling suggested that relational overparenting was related to higher levels of loneliness and social anxiety among emerging adults and that this association was mediated by emotion regulation. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.