Overparenting and romantic relationships in emerging adulthood: Roles of relationship efficacy and parent–child relationship quality

Objective

Guided by the theory of emerging adulthood and social cognitive theory, we investigated whether overparenting was associated with romantic relationship quality among emerging adults through relationship efficacy and dependent on parent–child relationship quality.

Background

Establishing healthy and lasting intimate relationships is one of the primary developmental tasks during emerging adulthood. Although it is well established that overparenting has negative implications for emerging adults' psychological adjustment, researchers know little about the relationship between overparenting and romantic relationship outcomes during emerging adulthood.

Method

This study used data from a sample of college students (N = 378, M_age = 19.91, SD = 1.23) collected at two time points over a 12-week interval from a large university in a southeast region of the United States. The majority of the participants were female and White.

Results

Results from structural equation modeling showed that overparenting was negatively associated with later romantic relationship quality through lower relationship efficacy. The negative association between overparenting and relationship efficacy was stronger for those who reported experiencing better parent–child relationship quality.

Conclusion

Our study further highlights the importance of exploring linkages between overparenting and relational functioning among emerging adults and extends the literature by considering the conceptual context of overparenting through the lens of parent–child relationship quality.

Implications

Practitioners, therapists, and educators in higher education institutions should promote college students' relational well-being by highlighting the necessity of considering the role of overparenting behavior in treating or counseling college students' romantic relationship difficulties.