Steering or Stifling? The Role of Overparenting in Emerging Adults’ School-to-Work Transition

Abstract

The school-to-work transition (STWT) is a critical developmental task for emerging adults and a family project for parents. Amid a global shift toward intensive parenting, this study examined how overparenting—particularly career-specific overparenting—is associated with emerging adults’ STWT outcomes and whether these associations differ by gender. Two-wave data from Chinese college graduates ( N = 369, 64.5% female; M age = 22.17 years) showed that general overparenting was associated with greater career decision-making difficulties, and its indirect effect on subjective career success through decision-making difficulties was significant only for sons. Career-specific overparenting was indirectly related to sons’ lower career success through career decision-making difficulties, above and beyond general overparenting. However, the direct effect of overparenting on sons’ career success was positive after accounting for the indirect effect through decision-making difficulties. This study extends research on career-specific parenting to overparenting, highlighting its multifaceted roles during the school-to-work transition.