We’re thrilled to share our latest study published in the Journal of Adult Development! In this study, that was led by our close Georgian colleague Nino Skhirtladze, we explored how overly protective parenting impacts the identity development of young adults in Georgia. Essentially, we looked at how young adults figure out who they are and how their parents’ behavior influences this process.

Here’s what we found: When parents are overly protective, their kids tend to struggle more with understanding themselves. We also found that when young adults feel like they’re being suffocated by their parents’ overprotection, they are more likely to give up on their goals. In other words, overprotective parenting seems to make it harder for young adults to know themselves. And when young adults stop caring about their goals, it seems to make this confusion even worse.

Those who are interested in the details of the study can read the full paper here.