Parents who micromanage and over-regulate children’s activities do more harm than good, says a study published in the Journal of Family Psychology (March). Lead researcher, Jelena Obradović, associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and her team studied a group of 102 children aged four-six years and their primary caregivers over the course of two and a half hours at a Stanford lab. They found that, especially for children performing ’emotional tasks’, very involved parents asking questions, making suggestions, corrections, offering further instruction, resulted in children having more trouble and behavioural issues.

“Parents have been conditioned to find ways to involve themselves, even when kids are on a task and actively playing or doing what they’ve been asked to do. Too much direct engagement can come at a cost to kids’ abilities to control their own attention, behaviour and emotions. When parents let kids take the lead in their activities, children practice self-regulation skills and build independence,” says Obradović who adds that parents shouldn’t interpret her study as being critical of parents engaged with children.