THE IMPACT OF OVERPARENTING ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF FIRST-YEAR BACHELOR’S DEGREE STUDENTS IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

The aim of the study is to establish whether or not overparenting during school years has a negative impact on low academic achievement of first year undergraduate students. Overparenting involves the excessive amount of attention or parenting power used towards the children, as well as unnecessary levels of advice or direction given, decision making, controlling, guidance, and high levels of being involved in children’s lives. Based on the previous research on excessive parenting techniques and their consequences, this parenting style was found to cause numerous negative traits of character in young adults, specifically as these adults just enter their university. Among some of those traits are such qualities as over-reliance, lack of self-discipline and self-trust, low coping skills, minimal ability to make one’s own decisions, and many others. Participants of this study included 100 students from three different universities in three biggest cities across the country, namely, one university in the capital and two regional universities. A latent variables analysis depicted that there is a number of reasons why overparenting is being utilized in many families in Kazakhstan. For instance, the feeling of regret for lost opportunities that so many parents experience or the desire to compensate the lack of time spent together with their children by controlling the study process. For adult children, the consequences of this parenting style have proven to be more negative than positive, mainly such as over-reliance and lack of self-organization. These negative skills have shown to be one of the main causes of low academic achievements of first-year university students across the country.