Effects of Helicopter Parenting on Tutoring Engagement and Continued Attendance at Cram Schools

Abstract

Attending cram school has long been a trend in ethnic Chinese culture areas, including Taiwan. Despite the fact that school reform policies have been implemented in Taiwan, cram schools have continued to prosper. Therefore, in this educational culture, how to achieve a good educational effect is also a topic worthy of discussion. However, whether students really engage in those tutoring programs provided by cram schools has seldom been studied. To address this gap, this study explored how parents’ hovering attitude toward life and coursework influences their children’s engagement in cram schools. This study targeted those students who attend English cram schools to test the correlates between two types of helicopter parenting, tutoring engagement and continued attendance at cram schools. A total of 320 questionnaires were sent out, and 300 were returned, giving an overall response rate of 93.75%. Excluding seven incomplete or invalid questionnaires, 293 valid questionnaires were received. The results of this study show that hovering behavior awareness is negatively related to cram school engagement, whereas cram school engagement is positively related to the intention to continue attending cram school. Moreover, the results imply that parents should alleviate their helicoptering behavior to enhance their children’s engagement in cram school tutoring programs.

Parenting style and children emotion management skills among Chinese children aged 3–6: the chain mediation effect of self-control and peer interactions

“…Children tend to hide their emotions or have variable emotions, intimacy is relatively difficult to establish, and the parent–child bonding is in an unhealthy state of development ( Hollenstein and Lewis, 2006 ; Duncan et al, 2009 ; Tao et al, 2020 ). The “helicopter parenting” of a collectivist society produces “good children who know what they are doing” and “subordinates who do not think for themselves but follow orders ( Ho et al, 2022 ; Hwang et al, 2023 ). “Helicopter parents” interfere and manipulate their children’s thoughts and behavior always, and help them decide everything.…”

A multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting and college students’ game and social media addictive behaviors: A cross-cultural study in South Korea and China

“…Due to the shared cultural values, helicopter parenting behaviors in Korea and China have some similarities. They are characterized by excessive emphasis on academic achievement, in addition to commonly observed helicopter parenting behaviors, such as monitoring children's social activities, making decisions for them, and providing excessive care (Kwon et al, 2017;Ho et al, 2022). For example, Leung and Shek (2019) found that helicopter parents tended to over-emphasize academic performance in China because it can be considered the only indicator of future success.…”