The Relationship between Perceived Helicopter Parenting Attitudes and Communication Skills of Nursing Students

Introduction: Individuals’ social, emotional, and cognitive skills develop through free experiences and independentinteractions. However, helicopter parenting attitudes can prevent children from developing risk-taking, problemsolving, coping, and social skills and self-esteem by keeping them under constant supervision. The aim of this studywas to determine the effect of perceived helicopter parenting on communication skills of nursing students.Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 443 nursing students. Data were collectedbetween November 2023 and April 2024 using the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Communication Skills Scale,and the Perceived Helicopter Parenting Attitudes Scale. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics,Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and Spearman correlation with SPSS 24.0.Results: The mean score of Communication Skills Scale of nursing students was 95.97±13.71. On the PerceivedHelicopter Parenting Attitudes Scale, the mean scores were 42.19±9.91 for the maternal dimension and 36.95±9.07for the paternal dimension, with the maternal scores being statistically significantly higher. Furthermore, statisticallysignificant weak negative correlation was found between the Communication Skills Scale scores and the basic trustsubscale scores of the Perceived Helicopter Parenting Attitudes Scale (r=-0.101; p=0.037).Discussion and Conclusion: The study determined that maternal helicopter parenting perceptions in the basictrust dimension adversely impact the communication skills of nursing students. These results underscore the criticalimportance of fostering communication skills during nursing education. It is essential to design and implementprograms that enhance students' self-confidence and strengthen their communication abilities throughout thenursing education process.Keywords: Attitudes; Communication skills; Helicopter parenting; Nursing students