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New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

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Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#71

Post by CalRobert »

willcipriano wrote: post #50
Dah00n wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Isn't that lack of independent mobility largely caused by car-centric urban planning? If it is, then comparing EU versus US should show a clear difference, as US cities are much, much more car-centric than most (any?) EU city. Personally, I don't see “children’s independent mobility” as a problem (I live in Denmark). At least, not an issue that is any different from when I was a child. The only major difference I se…

Growing up in a rural area I rode my bike all over the place. Should see a difference with rural vs urban as well.

Rural places can be, and should be, one of the best places for independent mobility in kids, but unfortunately are often the worst, since you have no footpaths (aka sidewalk or pavement) and the roads are full of high speed traffic with no shoulder.

Disclaimer - I made it - but I talk about this a bit in a short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ba7xHUdeew about my experience biking in rural Ireland with kids.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#72

Post by jtrn »

Aeolun wrote: post #41
jtrn wrote: post #30

Just my personal experience working as a psychologist with kids: The kids who were overly protected had about the same amount of problems as the kids from seriously neglected homes. So when I want to make my case for NOT overprotecting kids, I say: "If you really want to damage your kid: Protect them from all adversity." I do think that the whole "suicide is increasing" trope is seldom put in context. Of course, it's…

I had to read this twice, because it seemed like you said that overprotective, and neglective parents have the same outcomes, but I think you are mostly trying to say that parents which are neither overprotective nor neglective have a lower rate of issues right?

I can try to elaborate, but my claims (and they are just claims), should be interpreted just as narrowly as you would when reading code, because changing even one little thing breaks the message:

In the context of: "The kids I meet as a clinical psychologist": The ratio of kids "damaged" by neglect and impoverished homes, versus the kids that were struggling with anxiety or apathy caused by overprotection, was about 50-50. This resulted in me spending as much time strengthening the social network around neglected kids, as I spent trying to get parents to stop overprotecting kids.

That doesn't mean that overprotection is as bad as neglect. There are SO many variables in play. For instance: Overprotective parents might also be over-represented in the mental health services, because they are much faster to ask for referrals. For instance, if 10% of the population is neglected, and 1% is clinicaly-overprotected, but the overprotecting parents get referred at 10x the rate, they will make up about the same amount of cases in a clinic.

Based on my anecdotal experience, here are my hypotheses:

Given a normal distribution of "overprotection," the top 1% will be at serious risk of mental health problems.

Overprotection is easier to fix, as kids from impoverished homes are statistically at both an economic and cognitive disadvantage. As such, overprotection i a more unnecessary source suffering.

All things being equal, I think neglect is a stronger risk factor than overprotection

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#73

Post by CalRobert »

unstuck3958 wrote: post #47
david-gpu wrote: post #38

The title blames "helicopter parenting" while the actual study blames the lack of independent mobility: > Considerable research, mostly in Europe, has focused on children’s independent mobility (CIM), defined as children’s freedom to travel in their neighborhood or city without adult accompaniment Isn't that lack of independent mobility largely caused by car-centric urban planning? Children and teens can't safely roa…

As much as I hate cars, it's not just the cars, but also the social isolation that is a signature of urban environments.

How is it a signature of urban environments? I moved from the countryside to a city a few months ago and have already made more friends than I did in years in the country.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#74

Post by CalRobert »

skrebbel wrote: post #20
callalex wrote: post #2

Maybe the earth/environment collapsing around them while nobody does anything to fix it is also depressing.

Nobody? All the solar stats are up and the right, IEA expects fossil fuel consumption will soon plateau, solar panel prices keep going down faster than experts predict, seas are getting flooded with windmill parks etc etc.

Sure, though there's an avalanche of horrible news too. The non-anthropogenic rise in methane suggests we may have triggered feedback loops we can't stop.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#75

Post by spamizbad »

david-gpu wrote: post #38

The title blames "helicopter parenting" while the actual study blames the lack of independent mobility: > Considerable research, mostly in Europe, has focused on children’s independent mobility (CIM), defined as children’s freedom to travel in their neighborhood or city without adult accompaniment Isn't that lack of independent mobility largely caused by car-centric urban planning? Children and teens can't safely roa…

That’s part of it. But a bigger part, at least in the United States, are laws that basically require you (or another adult) to supervise your child at all times until they are 12-15 depending on the state.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#76

Post by klyrs »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #65
chownie wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not have used them but there were definitely third spaces for children and teens in the form of play areas and parks. Add skate parks to that list if you grew up in the early 00s, and probably something else before that.

Maybe. But we got on our bikes and went there. We'd sonetime bike 20 miles in a day...for kicks. Just to bike. There's a third place in every kid's head - and every adult's head - if we don't exercise that muscle (so to speak) we will lose it. The evidence seems to say we are losing it. The adults, and in turn the kids. Fwiw, I liken the situation to Legos. When I was a kid you bought "raw" legos and then created wha…

Lego still sells buckets of bricks. When we take our kid to the store, he wants the kits in pop culture themes. When he's home playing, he wants more basic blocks. Classic example of industry selling to our wants, not our needs. But good news, it's lego: the kits rarely stay assembled longer than a few days.

https://www.lego.com/en-ca/themes/classic

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#77

Post by CalRobert »

david-gpu wrote: post #38

The title blames "helicopter parenting" while the actual study blames the lack of independent mobility: > Considerable research, mostly in Europe, has focused on children’s independent mobility (CIM), defined as children’s freedom to travel in their neighborhood or city without adult accompaniment Isn't that lack of independent mobility largely caused by car-centric urban planning? Children and teens can't safely roa…

If you're Canadian and interested in this you've no doubt watched plenty of NotJustBikes, but I believe there's a car-free island you can check out?

We just gave up and moved to the Netherlands. It's worth a look. I love it here.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#78

Post by CalRobert »

willcipriano wrote: post #63
voisin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a rural area as well but in my mind it is no different or possibly worse - farther distances meant biking was a necessity versus walking, zero bike infrastructure so I had to be commingled with vehicular traffic, and that traffic was going much faster than in a city due to the wide openness of the roads and no need to stop for far distances. I think it was far more dangerous.

Yet we biked everywhere and had no issues remaining mobile. Kids are more trusted to look after themselves in rural areas, adults are as well really.

Of course, the kids who got killed by drivers aren't around to give their perspective.

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#79

Post by MrRolleyes »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #25
skrebbel wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody? All the solar stats are up and the right, IEA expects fossil fuel consumption will soon plateau, solar panel prices keep going down faster than experts predict, seas are getting flooded with windmill parks etc etc.

I don't see why you're getting downvoted. There is an ocean of difference between "we're on track to fix things" and "nobody's doing anything at all", yes, but it does nobody any good to pretend we haven't even gotten on the boat yet. They'll just reach the assumption that it's 100% hopeless.

[dead]

Re: New Study Says Maybe Helicopter Parenting Is Making Kids Depressed

#80

Post by nemo44x »

People helicopter parent children because they have so few children today. This intensifies risk adversity and the default behavior is to over protect and smother their kid since it gives a sense of control.

When people had more kids they could look after each other, and although a tragedy if you lost one you still had others left. Additionally when you have many kids it’s not possible to helicopter them.

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