area of anxiety disorders
In recent years, some parents have been referred to as “helicopter parents,” because of their tendency to “hover” around their children. This is used a lot to refer to parents of older children (especially college students; See complete definition below). I suspect that for some, the hovering started way before that. I would like you to think of this concept in terms of how parent behaviors interact with child temperament in the area of anxiety disorders.
Do you think “hovering” might interact with a child’s temperament to either increase or decrease the risk of an anxiety disorder? How so? Remember, there is not a real right or wrong on this.
A helicopter parent is a term for a person who pays extremely close attention to his or her child or children, particularly at educational institutions. They rush to prevent any harm or failure from befalling them or letting them learn from their own mistakes, sometimes even contrary to the children’s wishes. They are so named because, like a helicopter (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach whether their children need them or not. (Yes, this comes from Wikipedia, but I still don’t want you citing them as a scholarly source!)
