The Effects of Socio-Economics on Hyper-Parenting and Physical Activity

By Saanika Joshi

People everywhere are questioning whether they are good parents. “Are we doing it right?” they may ask. With social media now a staple in our society, the characteristics that define a parent vary based on who believes what. On top of that, our society is becoming more and more competitive; one has to be at the very top to succeed, and that can be a daunting quota to fill as a parent. With so many factors to success in the future, parents are doing anything they can to ensure their child succeeds and is on top.

Metaphor of helicopter parenting – (Laviolette, 2016)

The varying degree to the characteristic of being a parent is mainly defined in psychology through four main parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved. Authoritarian parenting demands obedience and usually does not support autonomy. Authoritative parenting involves reasoning and support of autonomy, but there are clear expectations set by the parents. Permissive parenting is considered the “best friend” type of parent; there is less use of rules and expectations and full support of autonomy with very little of a demanding nature. With the nature of our changing society, there has been a rise of a new sect of parenting styles known as hyper-parenting, and it is becoming increasingly popular (Janssen, 2015). There is the “helicopter parent” that will try and protect their child from everything and solve all of their problems; the “little emperor” will try and fulfill all of their child’s material needs; the “tiger moms” will expect nothing less than perfect achievement in everything they enroll their child in; and the “concerted cultivation” parents will put their child in as many extracurricular activities in an effort that benefits the child’s role in societal competition.

Ian Janssen, in his study “Hyper-parenting is negatively associated with physical activity among 7–12 year olds,” uses these newly defined hyper-parenting styles in an effort to present a correlation between more modern parenting techniques and physical activity (PA) levels. He hypothesized that higher levels of hyper-parenting would result in less PA as “children exposed to excessive hyper-parenting may have limited time for PA due to their homework and extracurricular activity commitments, and that excessive child protection associated with hyper-parenting may involve limiting a child's outdoor time and independent mobility, both of which are related to PA” (Janssen, 2015). He used a series of 20 questions to evaluate which type of hyper-parenting characteristics fits the survey volunteers. To measure the amount of PA, he asked the survey participants to answer questions pertaining to their eldest child, if they have more than one, designating the approximate amount of time per day and per week their child is active outdoors, either through playing in the yard or neighborhood, transporting themselves (i.e. biking or walking places), and organized sports. His results showed that higher levels of tiger mom, little emperor, and concerted cultivation parenting had a negative correlation to PA. He writes, “The differences in physical activity between children in the low versus the average to high hyper-parenting groups equated to a PA frequency of ~10 times/week for little emperor and tiger mom parenting, ~ 15 times/week for concerted cultivation parenting, and ~ 20 times/ week for the additive hyper-parenting score. Even if these 10–20 PA sessions were short (i.e., 10 minutes long), it would add up to a meaningful amount of PA over the course of a week” (Janssen, 2015).

Hyper-active parenting, though usually seen as a less effective mode of parenting, has been linked to higher levels of people seeking to get a college education. Yale economics professor Fabrizio Zilibotti stated in an article by The Atlantic, “We can see that parents’ involvement – in the form of an “intensive” parenting style (hyper-parenting) – tends to be associated with better educational attainment. This is especially strong when you look at post-college education, but it is also true for college attainment” (Pinsker, 2019). Despite the good intention behind hyper-active parenting, it may not be as effective or beneficial to success. In fact, there is a limiting quality of hyper-parenting in the sense that these parents are so worried about their child’s safety that their child may never get the opportunity to learn from failures or mistakes. An article in the Miami Herald discusses the drawbacks of such restrictive parenting. The hyper-active parenting styles, usually characterized by hovering parents, don’t allow children to experience real failure or success as their failures are mitigated to being almost nonexistent or their success is achieved through the parent (Laviolette, 2016).

The big issue with hyper-parenting the author Julie Laviolette stresses is trust: parents must trust themselves and their choices, the schools that their child attends, and, most importantly, their child. This one aspect of parenting can be monumental in cultures surrounding parenting around the world. It is typical for parents to ask their child after their first day at a camp or their new school, “Was it fun?”. Some parents will, just based on the answer to this preliminary question, will either continue with a program or remove their child from the program completely. This is a common pattern in the United States. However, this is much less common in Scandinavia. In Scandinavia, most parents are more committed and have more faith in the programs that exist and that their children are enrolled in (Sobel et al., 2015). This aspect of trust and faith in education and educators is what allows the expansion and proliferation of forest schools and nature schools. In Scandinavian culture, trust along with equality are the driving force behind attitudes towards schools, education, and educators. Maria Curling, in her article in Psychology Today, discusses how this sense of equality, in the workplace, in the home, and in society, work together to create unique opportunities: “In Scandinavia we value equality between children and adults as well as between men and women, managers and employees. Governmental support does make it easier for us to take long maternity or paternity leaves and to keep a rather good work-family life balance” (Curling, 2011).

An aspect of this quote, however, may help explain this cultural difference: “governmental support”. Professor Fabrizio Zilibott discusses the concept that countries with a lesser socioeconomic gap are likely to have more relaxed and open-minded parenting techniques as the government system is set up to provide more support for success. Take Sweden: there is a steadier range of wealth that is more evenly distributed, allowing Swedes to take advantage of socialized healthcare, an extensive paid maternity/paternity leave, and workplace equality. He reasons, “Parents want their children to do well in life, to be successful. And in a society that is very unequal—where there are lots of opportunities if one does well and very negative outcomes if one is less successful—parents will be more worried that their children won’t become high achievers in school. But if you go to a country where there is less inequality, parents may be less worried about that, not because they care less about their children, but because the negative outcomes aren’t as bad” (Pinsker, 2019). In the US, the extremely wide gap that separates the economically lower class and the higher class is continuing to expand. This expansion results in a very high bar of success, one that is so incredibly difficult to reach. On top of that, governmental support for lower class Americans is far and few, and less of the national budget is devoted to creating government systems to support Americans financially, physically, medically, and academically. This widespread inequality and lack of support significantly influences the growth of hyper-parenting and unhealthy habits among the youth of America.

Example of a relaxed parenting style with incorporation of nature (Pinsker, 2019).

Outdoor education is a growing phenomenon with more and more research being publish about the immense benefits the time spent outdoors is having on children and their relationship with the environment and their family. On top of that, the prescription of nature is something that has shown great results in treating kids with high stress levels and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Unfortunately, in America, unless the government begins to devote more funding to public health, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the current lacking system may never change. However, if the concept of hyper-parenting and the health benefits of being active outdoors is understood and spread, perhaps the overall system will see its change from the inside out.

In an outdoor education program, a young boy is using binoculars to look at birds in the distance – Independent School Parent

References

“10 Ways That Outdoor Learning Benefits Your Child.” Independent School Parent, 3 Nov. 2017, www.independentschoolparent.com/school/outdoor-learning-benefits/.

Carling, Maria. “A Second Take on Swedish Parents.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 31 Oct. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainstorm/201110/second-take-swedish-parents.

Janssen, Ian. “Hyper-Parenting Is Negatively Associated with Physical Activity among 7–12 Year Olds.” Preventive Medicine, Academic Press, 26 Jan. 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743515000171?via=ihub.

Laviolette, Julie L. “If You Want Kids to Soar, Ground Helicopter Parenting.” Miamiherald, Miami Herald, 6 Aug. 2016, www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article94120732.html.

Pinsker, Joe. “Why Swedes Are Chiller Parents Than Americans.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Feb. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/02/american-parents-scandinavian-different/582103/.

Sobel, David. “The Challenge of Transplanting the European Forest Kindergarten to North America,” Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens: The Handbook for Outdoor Learning. Redleaf Press, 2016. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=eric&AN=ED564320&site=ehost-live.

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