Effect of Over-Protection on Child Development - Coursework Example

Reflective-Leisure Concept Student Name Institution Affiliation Effect of Over-Protection on Child Development In relation to the varied types of parenting, it has become common phenomenon in the 21st century for parents to become over-protective. Care should be taken to differentiate between strict parenting and over-protective parenting. The first refers to a parenting approach that is based on providing finite rules and guidelines to children. All while providing them enough freedom to express their responsibility and ability to adhere to set rules. Essentially, such parents provide a firm hand that guides the actions of their children and only step in when there is need to. Over-protective parenting on the, other hand, refers to going to the extra extent to protect one’s children from any harm (physically, mentally and socially), even when uncalled for. Over-protective parents are usually paranoid. As such, this parenting approach is based more on protecting a child and less of providing a guideline on which they can base their path in life on (Milevsky, Schlecter, Netter and Keehn, 2007, p. 45). This prevents a child from facing some essential experiences that aid in personal growth. As such, the trend to over-protecting children is having a serious implication on their development. The society today is not as it was five years ago. This reflects the unavoidable changes that we continue to endure and the dynamic nature of trends on which we rely on. For grown-ups, these changes only represent variations they have to adapt to. However, for children, these changes shape their lives in relation to their mentality, personality and risks they face. It is for this reason that parents seem entitles to offer protection to their children. Notably, it is only reasonable and natural for parents to be protective of their children. Being more experienced and entitled to the safety of their children, parents tend to take up actions that they think will only result in the wellbeing of their children. However, determining the effectiveness of such actions becomes difficult, as every parent is different from the other. Essentially, parenting becomes a slippery slope since some lines between bad parenting and good parenting are unclear and often, bad parenting can be mistaken for good parenting (Ravi and Rayalu, 2007, p. 248). However, both good parenting and bad parenting vary from parent to parent and from society to society. This depends on societal norms, experience and upbringing. Children today are faced with a variety of risks and dangers. With the increased ability to access information, parents have become more aware of the dangers that their children are likely to face. While some of these dangers are frequent and require the parents to intervene and protect their children, others remain necessary dangers that parents should not often worry about. The result of access to too much information is paranoia in relation to the safety of children. It should be noted that over-protective parents do not love their children any more than other parents love theirs. Instead, such parents are more involved in their children’s lives so much that it becomes overbearing. Such actions by parents would normally be enjoyable to young children. However, as children become older they often find this approach to parenting stifling. This is especially observable in teenagers, who are at that point in life where they want their independence and privacy. For younger children, this closeness of the parents proves to build stronger bonds between them and their parents. Two views can be arrived at from the evaluation of over-protectiveness. The first of this is the advantageous side. This side views over-protectiveness as being essential for the growth of children. This is especially valid since over-protective parents intend to protect their children from any form of harm, unhappiness, pain, bad experiences, hurt or rejection. Such parents believe that in order to achieve this, they need to know what their children are up to and are worried always. As such, they may be observed to go to extremes to protect their children even when it is uncalled for. The advantages of this approach to parenting include: Parents pay more attention to their children. As a result, they are more capable of giving them the guidance they deserve when it is needed. Over-protectiveness can be effective in establishing good communication lines between parents and children. Such parents engage with their children more often. This results in the children becoming more open with their parents. The result is an enhancement of both communication and trust between these two parties. Overprotective parents are often able to understand their children better. Such parents strive to know their children and establish a lot of interaction with them. This results in such parents being able to detect whether or not their children are okay. This can be an important tool for parenting. The above advantages, while important, only capture few essential aspects of parenting and child growth. Notably, as children grow older, some of these advantages can no longer hold. An example of such occurrence is the breaking down of communication lines between parents and their children as they reach adolescence. Children who have been subject to over-protectiveness have been observed to devise means of evading overprotective actions of their parents. As children continue to want and explore their independence, they opt to lies and devise schemes to aid them in bypassing the over-protective barrier set up by their parents (Hudson, and Dodd, 2012, p. 42). As such, communication lines become blurred. The result is a common observation that children of overprotective parents tend to be good liars. The fact that these lies have to be practiced and used against their parents defeats the initial advantage observed. In reference to the altered advantage observed above, it can be noted that there are other disadvantages observed in relation to over-protective parenting. These disadvantages have been noted to affect the development of children negatively at all stages of their growth. Such effects include rebelliousness, overdependence on parents, panic disorders, reduced self-esteem and confidence, emotional withdrawal and lack of proper spiritual growth. While children who are subject to overprotection from parents may not face all these development issues, they are susceptible to a majority of them. Rebelliousness can be observed in the case of teenagers. Overprotective parents tend to deny their children the essential aspect of freedom. Younger children tend to enjoy being with their parents since they rely a greater deal on their parents. However, teenagers have a tendency to want to fit in socially. This means establishing other circles apart from the family setting. Such association rely on the independence of the individual. Lack of such independence leads to the child feeling left out socially as he or she fails to experience some of the events that their peers attend. In such instances, these children blame their lack of social exposure on their parents. Such children end up being rebellious as they try to overcome the control imposed on them by their parents. Such rebellious behaviour may savour or interfere with the relationship such parents have strived to have with their children. Another notable issue, overdependence on parents, also affects individuals when they are older. Observably, once grown up, children have to observe a high level of independence. Without a proper foundation, children grow up to be incapable of doing things on their own. A property of overprotective parents is their persistence in preventing their children from making decisions on their own. This is in addition to the failure to allow children to take up activates independently. Such children tend to seek their parents approval of their actions. As such, they lack the mental capacity to act independently when called for (Nelson, 2010, p. 221). Unlike strict parents who offer guidance but empower their children to be independent, over-protective parents raise children who are unable to face some of the harsh realities of life that require individual action. Overdependence on parents yields an additional issue. Overprotective parents tend to establish interactions on behalf of their children. Similarly, they deny their children the chance to fend for themselves and deal with various situations. The fact that these children have to seek approval for their actions before taking some actions or making decisions makes them lack an essential level of confidence in themselves (Hancock, Lawrence and Zubrick, 2014, p. 96). This lack of confidence reflects on their behaviour socially. This is especially observable as the children grow older. The above noted confidence issue raises more issues that affect a child’s social abilities. As teenagers, self-confidence becomes important in determining a child’s ability to relate with others well. A child’s confidence in himself/herself is an important tool in life. Social interaction is important as it equips a child to deal with social difficulties and harm. Observably, personality is built from one’s interaction with others. However, the lack of confidence provides a hindrance to such interaction (Mofrad, Abdullah and Samah, 2009, p. 113). The application of self-confidence extends past the social scene, as it is also important in the professional scene. In relation to self-confidence, it can be noted that over-protection has a high potential to result in low self-esteem. Moving away from the effects of over-protectiveness on individual confidence and social life in extension, one can observe that over-protectiveness can result in incidences of panic in children (Van der Bruggen, Stams, and Bogels, 2008, p. 1260). Observably, overprotective parents tend to overreact to minor issues. In such situations, they step in to interfere with any issue that is face by their children. As such, these children lack the ability and confidence to deal with a variety of issues. These children become used to their parents sorting these issues for them. Once faced with the same situations these children may panic. Not only do such children lack the know how to deal with such issues, but they also lack the confidence to face these issues and work out solutions to them. These children are stunted in relation to their problem solving ability and ability to face new hardships as a result (Hudson, and Dodd, 2012, p. 27). Observably, experimenting is an essential part of growing up. Individuals are always subject to new occurrence. As such, it is imperative that any given individual be ready to face anything thrown at him. An example is given of a parent who stops his or her child from climbing a tree. In truth, tree climbing can be dangerous if the child falls. However, falling would teach the child a good lesson while imparting in him or her sense of both independence and confidence. Preventing the child from climbing the tree would teach the child to run away from dangerous and difficult situations. This thought can be put into clarifying the ideology of induced panic due to overprotection by parents. Panic hinders a child’s development and makes him or her suspicious of new experiences. The above noted suspicious nature of children brought up by overprotective parents can result in certain emotional issues. One of the most notable issues is emotional withdrawal. Social skills are often based on confidence and trust. However, as observed for children of overprotective parents, they may have issues related to self-esteem, confidence, and trust (LeMoyne and Buchanan, 2011, p. 401). Lack of trust comes from the lack of experience in relating to others, while lack of confidence results from overbearing supervision by parents. This mixture only opens the child up to his or her parents. These children may treat other parties as strangers. This lack of trust leads in such children closing themselves off from their peers. This results in their being emotionally closed off. Such children find it difficult to establish meaningful relationships with other children. Since friends play an important role in the development of individual character and personal growth, being emotionally withdrawn prevents such children from experiencing an essential part of growing up. The growth of any given child depends a great deal on a mixture of various aspects of the society. Notably, the role played by a parent in the growth of a child cannot sustain his or her various psychological and social needs. The parent should provide a basis for social development, which is important to the development of any given child. Failure to provide such a basis hinders proper development. Observably, overprotective parents tend to provide a barrier to social development as opposed to promoting it. Children need to learn certain aspects of life by themselves. While this may mean exposing them to certain dangers, it is only through such exposure that the child learns to handle such dangers (Ungar, 2009, p. 268). Research shows that experience is more effective a teacher as opposed observance. If a child were afraid to experience various social aspects and adventure, he or she would have to learn by observing. Such a child will lack the much needed life experience and childhood that is important for growth. Over-protectiveness for toddlers may be called for since learning at this stage is quite difficult. Additionally, a child at this age is more dependent on the parent as oppose to the society (Creswell, Apetroaia, Murray, and Cooper, 2012, p. 103). As the child grows, he acquires more needs as opposed to the basic ones offered by his or her parents. As such, there is need to offer the given child the freedom to develop with age socially, emotionally, and mentally. Failure to do this leads to the inefficiency in personal growth. Therefore, in as much as parents who are over-protective usually do so in good faith, the outcome may not be as preferable as they think them to be. Essentially, over-protective parenting is an ineffective method of parenting if one intends to raise a self-sufficient, well-rounded, well-developed individual. Reference List Creswell, C., Apetroaia, A., Murray, L. and Cooper, P., 2012. Cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics of mothers with anxiety disorders in the context of child anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. vol: 10. Hancock, K. J., Lawrence, D. and Zubrick, S. R., 2014. Higher Maternal Protectiveness Is Associated with Higher Odds of Child Overweight and Obesity: A Longitudinal Australian Study. PLoS ONE 9(6) Hudson, J. L., and Dodd, H. F., 2012. Informing early intervention: Preschool predictors of anxiety disorders in middle childhood. PLoS ONE, 7(8) LeMoyne, T., and Buchanan, T., 2011. Does hovering matter? Helicopter parenting and its effect on well-being. Sociological Spectrum, 31, 399-418. Milevsky, A., Schlecter, M., Netter, S., and Keehn, D., 2007. Maternal and paternal parenting styles in adolescents: Associations with self esteem, depression and life-satisfaction. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 39-47. Mofrad, S., Abdullah, R., and Samah, B. A., 2009. Perceived Parental overprotection and separation anxiety: Does specific parental rearing serve as specific risk factor. Asian Social Science, 5 (11), 109-116 Nelson, M., 2010. Parenting out of control: Anxious parents in uncertain times. New York: University Press. Ravi, P. and Rayalu, T. R., 2007. Parenting styles as perceived by parents and adolescents. Indian Psychological Review, Special Issue, 69, 249-252 Ungar, M., 2009. Overprotective parenting: Helping parents provide the right amount of risk and responsibility. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 37, 258-271. Van der Bruggen, C.O., Stams, G.J.J.M. and Bogels, S.M., 2008. Research review: the relation between child and parent anxiety and parental control: a meta-analytic review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 49, 1257-1269. Read More