by Robin Landry

Created on: August 07, 2009

Are today's parents overprotective of their children and teens? Like most deceptively simple questions, there really is no easy, black or white answer here. I suspect that most parents can be described in a manner that is similar to the way in which Goldilocks assessed the Three Bears' porridge. "This mom is too strict!" "This dad is too permissive!" "These parents are just right!" The trouble is, parents can often be all three of these during different stages in their child's development or in different situations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; however, it makes it very difficult to answer a question like, "Are today's parents overprotective of teens?" with a basic, "Yes" or "No."

Most researchers seem to agree that there are four basic parenting styles: Indulgent, Authoritarian, Authoritative, and Uninvolved. The various styles seem to be measured by the balance between the number and strength of demands that the parent places upon the child and the depth of the parent's responsiveness to the child's wants and needs.

Indulgent parents generally place low demands and few expectations on their children, while being highly responsive to their wants and needs. Authoritarian parents seem more likely to place high demands on their children while being far less responsive. Authoritative parents have high demands and expectations coupled with being highly responsive to the child's wants and needs. And finally, uninvolved parents have low demands and expectations and are unresponsive to the child's wants and needs.

When it comes to being overprotective, I would guess that authoritarian and indulgent parents are most susceptible, while authoritative parents seem to strike a better balance and uninvolved parents are probably more prone to neglectfulness than over protection. The authoritarian parent is desperate for control and may severely limit the child's activities and interactions in an effort to maintain control over the child's life. If the authoritarian parent has a strong aversion to risk himself, he may present as overprotective as he attempts to remove all elements of surprise and uncertainty from the child's path. But what if the authoritarian parent is a risk-taker? In that situation the parent may exert his authority in an attempt to make the child more "adventurous" than he might otherwise be.

Likewise, the indulgent parent might be overprotective in the sense that she gives in to the child or makes special accommodations

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