TOPIC: Emerging adulthood, parenting, and the transition from high school to university

GOAL: Examine the roles of parents and the effects of different types of parenting when adolescents/ young adults are transitioning from high school to university or college. The main focus of the research report will be on parenting.

THE RESEARCH PAPER IN GENERAL: First, why is the transition to university stressful?; secondly, what individual characteristics do the students bring to the situation, what role do parents play, and then what types of coping strategies do students use to deal with the stress and their problems during the transition to college/university?

Please work towards how parents influence their adolescent’s transition to university and what factors might affect this relationship. Factors that need to be covered are: PARENTAL EDUCATION, FAMILY INCOME, GENDER OF THE PARENT, AGE/GENDER OF THE ADOLESCENT, and ETHNICITY. 

IMPORTANT THINGS TO COVER THROUGHOUT THE PAPER: 

– a description of how parent-adolescent relationships change during the transition of the adolescents from high school to university (for example, adolescents struggling to become autonomous, living on their own…) 

– how parent-adolescent relationships look different today compared to the past few decades (perhaps the use of technology, how much university students contact their parents compared to the past, etc). 

– When describing how the transition to university and the parenting are different today, please compare the effects of helicopter parenting  (parents who are overly involved in their children – which means that adolescents aren’t necessarily separating from their parents to the same extent as children of parents who are less involved) on the transition to university.

– Please compare the effects of helicopter parents to parents who give an optimal amount of attention to their kids, or not enough attention.

– Please show the effects that too much/not enough parental attention have on the development of the adolescent.

– Cover “emerging adulthood”

o Arnett’s theory of Emerging adulthood – what are young adults dealing with at this time?

o Baumrind’s model  – level of involvement, level of warmth.