**7.3 Positive parenting program**

Positive parenting program (PPP) was developed by Sanders [1, 54]. This triple P is a multilevel parenting and family support system. The main goal of this intervention is to increase knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents. The program conceptualized five developmental periods from infancy to adolescence, and at each period, range of program either can be broad and target the entire population or can be specific and target only at risk children.

The primary principles of this therapy are as follows:


**83**

*out professional help."*

*Helicopter Parenting and Adolescent Development: From the Perspective of Mental Health*

extend across a variety of specific situations (**Figure 2**).

**Levels of modules:** The module covers five levels that have been developed to

The module works on specific situation differently by using the suitable therapeutic technique. Overall, the psychoeducation, parental behavior, emotional resilience, mental gym, cognitive restructuring, promoting constructive coping, and so on all included in the module that works differently in every therapy session

*"Sarah was a 24 year graduate of a BTech program from a reputed public college. She recently moved towns to pursue a job at an IT company. Sarah was worried about the impact of her decision to move on her mother, who having divorced her father when Sarah was just 7 years old, was close to retirement. Sarah's mother was a middle-school teacher, who had dedicated her entire life to raising her daughter post her divorce. Sarah described herself as being a shy child, who would often get bullied at school for her stutter. Although sessions with a speech therapist had reduced her speech impediment and growing up, she gained a greater deal of selfconfidence, she often grappled with anxiety attacks. Sarah described her mother, saying that although she was extremely caring and patient towards her, she felt that her mother would often be excessively cautious and would limit Sarah from going out and enjoying with her friends. This often led to disagreements between the two, and Sarah reported often times feeling guilty post the arguments as she felt that her mother was only trying to look out for her. When Sarah began college, she noticed the disagreements between her mother and herself began to increase. She recalled being extremely annoyed with her mother for questioning her every time she wanted to hang out with her friends, and when she would go on to check her phone. Sarah described being mortified when once her mother went to speak to her teacher about a missed assignment, and recalled worrying about her classmates thinking of her as incompetent at dealing with something as talking to a professor. She gradually began feeling resentful towards her mother, especially when the latter involved herself in Sarah's break up. This prompted Sarah to take up the job in the other city, stating that she wanted some time away from her mother's 'constant nagging.' However, she also felt guilty and was worried whether she would be able to independently handle things. Although at the start of her new job, Sarah felt optimistic, she found herself being increasingly walked over at office, and began taking on more work than necessary. This made her feel burdened and stressed and she began feeling an increase in her anxiety levels. Furthermore, she began to feel that people at her office did not treat her as nicely as they should and she began feeling that perhaps they did not think highly of her. Because of an increased work load, Sarah found it difficult to handle her domestic affairs as well. When she shared these difficulties at work with her mother, she was shocked to see her mom deciding to come to live with her so as to help her out with her problems. Sarah found herself feeling increasing apprehensive about her mother's arrival and upon recurrent anxiety attacks at the thought of her mother going to talk to her boss, Sarah decided to seek* 

*"John was a 36 year old single-father of a 16 year old boy. Having had a child at the young age of twenty and being cut off by his family, John was forced to quit medical school and seek out a job to support his family. John had worked several odd jobs and finally found a stable job as a car salesperson. When his son was* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93155*

according to the problem [50, 51].

**8. Case studies**

#### **Figure 2.**

*The levels of positive parenting program module.*

*Helicopter Parenting and Adolescent Development: From the Perspective of Mental Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93155*

**Levels of modules:** The module covers five levels that have been developed to extend across a variety of specific situations (**Figure 2**).

The module works on specific situation differently by using the suitable therapeutic technique. Overall, the psychoeducation, parental behavior, emotional resilience, mental gym, cognitive restructuring, promoting constructive coping, and so on all included in the module that works differently in every therapy session according to the problem [50, 51].

### **8. Case studies**

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

The primary principles of this therapy are as follows:

Positive parenting program (PPP) was developed by Sanders [1, 54]. This triple P is a multilevel parenting and family support system. The main goal of this intervention is to increase knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents. The program conceptualized five developmental periods from infancy to adolescence, and at each period, range of program either can be broad and target the entire population or can

3.using self-management tools such that parents may change parenting practices for the better (self-assessment, setting goals, and choosing child management

**7.3 Positive parenting program**

be specific and target only at risk children.

b.taking care of oneself as a parent;

d.using assertive discipline; and

e.having realistic expectations.

2.increase parental self-efficacy;

4.promoting personal agency; and

5.promoting problem solving.

*The levels of positive parenting program module.*

techniques);

a.ensuring a safe, engaging environment;

c. creating a positive learning environment;

The specific goals of the therapy are as follows:

1.promoting self-sufficiency of parents;

**82**

**Figure 2.**

*"Sarah was a 24 year graduate of a BTech program from a reputed public college. She recently moved towns to pursue a job at an IT company. Sarah was worried about the impact of her decision to move on her mother, who having divorced her father when Sarah was just 7 years old, was close to retirement. Sarah's mother was a middle-school teacher, who had dedicated her entire life to raising her daughter post her divorce. Sarah described herself as being a shy child, who would often get bullied at school for her stutter. Although sessions with a speech therapist had reduced her speech impediment and growing up, she gained a greater deal of selfconfidence, she often grappled with anxiety attacks. Sarah described her mother, saying that although she was extremely caring and patient towards her, she felt that her mother would often be excessively cautious and would limit Sarah from going out and enjoying with her friends. This often led to disagreements between the two, and Sarah reported often times feeling guilty post the arguments as she felt that her mother was only trying to look out for her. When Sarah began college, she noticed the disagreements between her mother and herself began to increase. She recalled being extremely annoyed with her mother for questioning her every time she wanted to hang out with her friends, and when she would go on to check her phone. Sarah described being mortified when once her mother went to speak to her teacher about a missed assignment, and recalled worrying about her classmates thinking of her as incompetent at dealing with something as talking to a professor. She gradually began feeling resentful towards her mother, especially when the latter involved herself in Sarah's break up. This prompted Sarah to take up the job in the other city, stating that she wanted some time away from her mother's 'constant nagging.' However, she also felt guilty and was worried whether she would be able to independently handle things. Although at the start of her new job, Sarah felt optimistic, she found herself being increasingly walked over at office, and began taking on more work than necessary. This made her feel burdened and stressed and she began feeling an increase in her anxiety levels. Furthermore, she began to feel that people at her office did not treat her as nicely as they should and she began feeling that perhaps they did not think highly of her. Because of an increased work load, Sarah found it difficult to handle her domestic affairs as well. When she shared these difficulties at work with her mother, she was shocked to see her mom deciding to come to live with her so as to help her out with her problems. Sarah found herself feeling increasing apprehensive about her mother's arrival and upon recurrent anxiety attacks at the thought of her mother going to talk to her boss, Sarah decided to seek out professional help."*

*"John was a 36 year old single-father of a 16 year old boy. Having had a child at the young age of twenty and being cut off by his family, John was forced to quit medical school and seek out a job to support his family. John had worked several odd jobs and finally found a stable job as a car salesperson. When his son was* 

*4 years old, he had lost his wife in an accident and was forced to raise his son on his own. John described his son as having had a weak immune system as a child, and would fall ill often. As a result, John would constantly worry about his son falling severely ill and hence growing up would stop his child from playing outdoors as often as his peers. This resulted in his son often reacting angrily and asserting that John did not care about him like other parents. John's son was academically above average and won several accolades from school. John found himself hoping that his son would become a surgeon and make a name and a comfortable living for himself. However, John's son stated he was not particularly interested in medicine. John stated that since early childhood he would try to fulfill all the desires of his son. He reported that he would not reprimand his son in case he caused mischief, often times defending his son and blaming the school authorities for mismanagement. Lately, John reported noticing that his son has become increasingly arrogant towards others and would even talk back to John if he does not fulfill his demands."*

#### **9. Conclusion**

Parenting and parenting style are an intricate and complex phenomenon that is determined by a number of factors, both individual and contextual. Furthermore, parenting choices not only yield a here-and-now result but also have long-lasting implications on the psychophysiological health of the child. From the original conceptualization of parenting style as constituting only four typologies, that is, authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and negligent, the terrain of parenting styles has greatly evolved. The turn of the twentieth century demonstrated the phenomenon of another approach to parenting, dubbed "overinvolved or helicopter" parenting. Helicopter parenting not only was seen as evolving from the parent's own anxiety but was also mediated by their regrets and factors within the child (such as his or her vulnerabilities). These anxieties, shaped by sociocultural beliefs about parenting practices and the parent's gender, prompt the parent to engage in practices that involve hyperinvolvement, problem solving, and directiveness toward the child. Such behaviors yield several potential consequences on the development of the child. Research has been mixed in the determination of the impact of helicopter parenting. While certain studies have evidenced a greater deal of satisfaction by young adults during their college life, there has also been a great deal of studies implicating an increase in mental health difficulties (such as anxiety, depression, and malignant narcissism) as well as poorer self-regulatory and coping skills in the individual. Mediated and understood through the lens of theories such as self-determination and circumplex model, the helicopter parenting is a phenomenon that provides several avenues of research and early intervention strategies to mitigate potential negative consequences.

#### **Acknowledgements**

The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Ms. Megha Kar, MPhil trainee at AIBHAS-AUUP in organizing the related content.

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**Author details**

Deepika Srivastav1

Delhi-NCR, India

\* and M.N. Lal Mathur2

\*Address all correspondence to: deepikasrivastav0@gmail.com

2 Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi, India

provided the original work is properly cited.

1 Department of Clinical Psychology (AIBHAS), Amity University-Uttar Pradesh,

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Helicopter Parenting and Adolescent Development: From the Perspective of Mental Health*

All the figures are originals. To make the content impressive, these are prepared

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93155*

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**Note**

#### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Helicopter Parenting and Adolescent Development: From the Perspective of Mental Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93155*
