We examined the associations among parent–child relationships, two types of parenting practices (helicopter parenting and autonomy support), and college students’ perceived academic outcomes. Participants were from a private university in Upstate New York. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the above associations. Results showed that mothers’ autonomy support was positively associated with children’s academic control, whereas fathers’ helicopter parenting was negatively related to children’s academic control. Regarding the mediation effects, the mother–child relationship mediated the association between mothers’ two types of parenting practices and children’s academic control. However, the mediating effects of the father–child relationship in the association between fathers’ two types of parenting practices and children’s academic control were not significant. Consequently, our findings indicate that helicopter parenting and autonomy support could be related to fathers’ and mothers’ parenting contexts. We suggest that autonomy support is an appropriate parenting practice for promoting college students’ academic success as well as enhancing the parent–child relationship. In addition, we suggest that helicopter parenting is not advantageous for developing college students’ academic control, but could be beneficial for the parent–child relationship. These mixed effects of helicopter parenting on college students’ relational and academic-related outcomes should be investigated further. Moving beyond the dichotomous perspective regarding autonomy support and helicopter parenting, we believe that it is necessary to strengthen understanding of their merits and provide guidance for parents who have college-aged children to enable them to employ more developmentally appropriate parenting practices.

我们研究了亲子关系，两种育儿习惯（直升机育儿和自主支持）以及大学生对学习成果的感知之间的联系。参与者来自纽约州北部的一所私立大学。结构方程模型被用来检验上述关联。结果表明，母亲的自主权支持与孩子的学业控制呈正相关，而父亲的直升机育儿与孩子的学业控制呈负相关。关于调解效果，母子关系调解了母亲的两种育儿习惯与孩子的学业控制之间的联系。然而，父子关系对父亲的两种育儿习惯与孩子的学业控制之间的联系的中介作用并不显着。因此，我们的研究结果表明，直升机的父母养育和自主支持可能与父亲和母亲的父母养育情境有关。我们建议，自主支持是一种适当的育儿实践，可以促进大学生的学业成功并增强亲子关系。此外，我们建议直升飞机育儿不利于发展大学生的学业控制，但可能有利于亲子关系。直升飞机育儿对大学生关系和学业成果的混合影响应进一步研究。