High levels of parental warmth and affection combined with
intrusive parental control--that is, moment-by-moment control over and manipulation of a child's behavior--are likely to produce an especially noticeable spiking in the dependency curve (see the Figure with
dependence). That is, parents who continually say, in effect, "Oh, Honey, don't do that! You might hurt yourself. Let mommy do it for you," are likely to reinforce the child's dependency needs at the same time they interfere with the child's normal exploration and self-testing. Thus these children often do not develop a full sense of age-appropriate competence, mastery, and a realistic sense of their own limits. The parent reinforces an infantalizing form of dependency. In
PARTheory the form of parenting producing this immature dependency is sometimes called
smother love or "smother mothering." (See
dependence;
personality subtheory)
