T-SNE VISUALIZATION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS’ PERSONALITY TRAITS BY OVERPARENTING VS NON-OVERPARENTING BACKGROUNDS
Keywords:
Overparenting, self-efficacy, assertiveness, resilience, medical students.Abstract
Overparenting, also known as helicopter parenting, has only recently emerged as a potential barrier to the development of key psychological characteristics in emerging adults. This exploratory cross-sectional study aimed to (a) compare self-efficacy, assertiveness, and resilience between medical students raised by overparenting and non-overparenting parents; (b) examine the relationships between these psychological characteristics and parenting style; and (c) visualize personality profiles using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE). A total of 200 MBBS students (100 overparented and 100 non-overparented) from a medical college were recruited. Participants were assessed using the Consolidated Helicopter Parenting Scale (CHPS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS), and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Group differences were analyzed using t-tests, correlation analyses, and multiple regression models controlling for demographic variables. K-means clustering and t-SNE were applied to explore personality profiles. Non-overparented students demonstrated significantly higher self-efficacy, assertiveness, and resilience scores than overparented students (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Overparenting was a significant negative predictor of all three psychological characteristics after controlling for age, gender, and academic year (β = −0.36 to −0.45, p < 0.001). Cluster analysis identified two distinct personality profiles, with non-overparented students generally exhibiting higher levels of self-efficacy, assertiveness, and resilience, as well as greater internal profile diversity and variability. The t-SNE visualization further demonstrated complete separation between the two groups based on these psychological characteristics. Overall, overparenting was negatively associated with self-efficacy, assertiveness, and resilience, three traits that are important for medical students.
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