A systematic review of “helicopter parenting” and its relationship with anxiety and depression

The aim of this systematic review was to investigate helicopter parenting and its relationship with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Since helicopter parenting is a fairly new construct, this review considered parental control and overprotective parenting to be dimensions of helicopter parenting and thus, eligible for the study. The studies included in the review focused mostly on parental control, helicopter parenting and overprotective parenting, respectively. The majority of the studies revealed a relationship between helicopter parenting and anxiety and/or depression. However, issues with the validity of the findings were found and thus precluding firm conclusions regarding putative causal relationships as well as highlighting problems with self-report measurements of helicopter parenting.