Dilek Uludaşdemir, Mine Nur Temuçin, Evrim Kızıler
Lokman Hekim Health Sciences - 2025;5(3):260-269
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of parents who display overprotective parenting attitudes, commonly referred to as helicopter parenting. The relevant line of studies have shown that university students raised with such parenting styles experience a range of outcomes primarily negative ones.[1-5] Helicopter parenting is an approach in which parents actively involve in their childrens' lives, even after the child becomes an adult.[6] Helicopter parenting refers to a controlling and overly involved parenting style, where parents frequently intervene in their child's daily life, make decisions on their behalf, and limit their autonomy and independence. [5-7] In other words, helicopter parents constantly hover around their children like a helicopter and solve their problems on their behalf.[8] Helicopter parenting has been reported to negatively impact children's self-efficacy levels, leading to increased dependence on their parents. [2] The individuals raised by helicopter parents have been associated with negative effects on the social and psychological development of children and adolescents, such as low self-esteem, poor coping skills, reduced levels of adjustment, increased depression and anxiety, and negative social relationships.[2-5] These types of parenting behaviors are also thought to potentially negatively impact nursing students' communication skills. Communication skills refer to the ability to accurately interpret and understand the context of what the other person says, taking into account the other person's social relationships during a conversation, and to communicate and interact with one's intentions verbally and nonverbally.[9] The effective delivery of health care requires understanding the living conditions, beliefs, perspectives, concerns, and needs of patients, and this relies heavily on communication skills.[10] Effective communication skills are critical for all health professionals, especially nurses who are in constant communication with patients and their families, to reduce medical errors and increase patient satisfaction.[11,12] Therefore, one of the goals of nursing education programs is to improve the communication skills of nursing students.[13] However, studies have shown that communication skills of nursing students are affected by factors such as age, academic achievement, satisfaction with their academic program, satisfaction with clinical practice, and parental child-rearing attitudes.[14-16] Previous studies have investigated the relationship between helicopter parenting and academic achievement,[5] learning competence,[6] depression and anxiety[1,2] in undergraduate students. However, there is no existing research examining the relationship between helicopter parenting and nursing students' communication skills. Therefore, more studies are needed to confirm this relationship and provide deeper insights into its implications. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of perceived helicopter parenting on nursing students' communication skills. The research findings aim to reveal the level at which students perceive helicopter parenting behaviors, the current status of their communication skills, and the relationship between these two variables. In addition, the potential effects of sociodemographic characteristics on both perceived helicopter parenting attitudes and communication skills will be evaluated. The results obtained will provide basic data to understand the communication characteristics of nursing students raised by helicopter parents and to develop strategies to improve effective communication skills.
