To endure or to resist? Adolescents' coping with overprotective parenting

Scholars typically consider parental overprotection to be a maladaptive type of parenting with negative repercussions for adolescents' psychosocial adjustment, with frustration of adolescents' psychological needs serving as an underlying mechanism behind these effects. However, little is known about how adolescents cope with overprotective parenting and how adolescents' coping can alter associations between perceived overprotective parenting and adolescents' maladjustment. In the present study, we examined the moderating role of four coping strategies (i.e. compulsive compliance, oppositional defiance, negotiation and accommodation) using a moderated mediation model based on cross-sectional data of 382 Belgian adolescents (Mage = 17.1 years, 44.5% male). Overall, the results showed that adolescents' coping with overprotective parenting alter to some extent the strength of associations between overprotective parenting and developmental problems. Compulsive compliance in particular appears to be a maladaptive strategy in the context of overprotective parenting. Overall, the results underscore adolescents' active role in overprotective parenting.