ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to
investigate the influence of parenting styles on social adjustment among
secondary school students in Lagos Metropolis. To achieve this goal, the
researcher formulated four hypotheses to guide the study.
There is a significant influence of
authoritative parenting style on student’s social adjustment.
There is a significant influence of
religious background on the parenting style of couples.
There is a significant influence of
ethnicity on parenting style among couples.
There is a significant gender difference
in the social adjustment of youth due to parenting styles.
The sample was one hundred and twenty
(120) secondary school students consisting of 60 males and 60 females. The
research instrument to test the hypothesis was the four point Likert-type scale
of questionnaire.
Independent t-test, the Fisher’’s
protected t-test, ANOVA test analysis of variance supported by the two ways
analysis of variance were adopted to analyse the data collected.
Based on the results of this study, it
found out that a very good parenting style would go a long way in shaping their
wards social adjustment, parents should avoid the negative parenting styles in
other to prevent their children from becoming violent and aggressive in the
society. The study also found out that the permissive parenting styles will
equally breed spoilt and wayward children. Equally, parents should avoid being
too strict with their children but should adopt the authoritative style where
the children can contribute to decision making in their homes which is more
democratic in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract v
Table of Contents vi
CHAPTER ONE 1
1.1
Introduction 1
1.2
Theoretical Background to the Study 4
1.3
Statement of the Problem 10
1.4
Purpose of the Study 11
1.5
Research Questions 12
1.6
Research Hypotheses 12
1.7
Significance of the Study 13
1.8
Delimitation 15
CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review 16
2.1
Concept of Social Adjustment 17
2.2
Theories of Social Adjustment 18
2.3
The Social Orientation of Children 23
2.4
Theories and Characteristics of
Adolescence 26
2.5
Parenting Styles 28
2.6
Cultural and Ethnic Variations in
Parenting Styles 30
2.7
Differentiating Parenting Styles and
Parenting Practices 33
2.8
Differentiating Forms of Parental Control 34
2.9
Differentiating Parenting as a Function
of Children’s Behaviour 36
2.10
Differentiating Parents’ Use of Affect:
Anger, Shame, and Guilt 38
2.11
Cultural Differences in Guilt and Shame 40
2.12
Empirical Review of Literature 42
2.13
Summary of the Review 44
CHAPTER THREE: Research
Design and Methodology 46
3.1 Introduction 46
1.2
Research Design 46
1.3
Population 46
1.4
Sample and Sampling Technique 47
1.5
Research Instrument 47
1.6
Procedure for Data Collection 47
1.7
Validity and Reliability of Instrument 48
1.8
Procedure for Data Analysis 48
CHAPTER FOUR: Data Analysis and Presentation of Results 49
4.1
Introduction 49
4.2
Testing of Hypotheses and Interpretation of Results 49
4.3
Summary of Findings 54
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION,
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 55
5.1
Introduction 55
5.2
Discussion of Findings 55
5.3
Summary of the Study 60
5.4
Conclusions 61
5.5
Recommendations 61
References 63
Appendix 70
CHAPTER ONE
1.1
Introduction
The study of human development is
centrally concerned with understanding the processes that lead adults to
function adequately within their cultures. These skills include an
understanding of and adherence to the moral standards, conventional rules, and
customs of the society. They also include maintaining close relationships with
others, developing the skills to work productively, and becoming self-reliant
and able to function independently. All of these may be important to
successfully rear the next generation. Researchers studying human development
have assumed that the family is a particularly important context for developing
these competencies, and therefore, they have examined how parents socialize
their children to understand variations in adult outcomes. They have attempted
to find associations between the way parents raise their children and
children’s social, emotional and cognitive development.
It has been assumed that variations in
parents’ discipline style, warmth, attention to the needs of the child and
parenting attitudes and beliefs all can be characterized in terms of consistent
patterns of child-rearing, referred to as a parenting styles, that are
systematically related to children’s competence and development. Research that began in the mid-1980s has
focused more on the particular dimensions of parenting that underlie the
different parenting styles to provide a more detailed understanding of how
parenting influences healthy child and adolescent development.
Arnolds (2002) theorized that a child tends to behave in the society as they
were brought up or reared by their parents. The social adjustment of individual
adolescent depends on the way and manner he/she is brought. According to Dike
(2003), styles of parenting in the home affects their children’s social
orientation in the larger society. A child cannot behave contrary to how he/she
is nurtured by the parents/guardians. Dike (2003) is of the opinion that
children behave according to the pattern of parental leadership styles. For
instance, a child who is brought up through an authoritarian way of parenting,
will in most cases, exhibit aggression to his/her peers, and show an attitude
of strong reliance on the authority of the adult members of the society. Also a
child tend to show excellence in knowledge, well informed and directed when he
is brought up by the authoritative parenting style, while he/she could be
wayward, rascal, or join the area boy or area girl group if he/she is nurtured
by parents who are permissive in their style of parenting; and a child who is
reared or brought up by the harmonious parenting style, will relate well in the
society with his/her age mates, even with adults. This child who is brought up
by the harmonious parents shows good interactions and cordial relationship with
those who live near him/her. He/she is not hostile and does not easily break
the norms and laid down rules in the society or the community where he lives.
In his early years a child passes
through various phases in his relations with others. A young child is
essentially tremendous egocentric. He sees himself as the center of the
universe. He is a person to be served and waited upon, a person with little
patience for anything which blocks his desire or sense of security. He is,
above all, a person who has small regard and less appreciation of the rights or
feelings of others so long as he himself is served and has his way. Some
individuals seem never to lose their egocentric attitude entirely, perhaps
because of faulty upbringing or because of unusual environmental circumstances
(Rice, 2001).
But the progress of true maturity may
be measured in part by an individual’s growing awareness of and interest in,
other persons, together with an appreciation of their rights and desires and a
willingness to subordinate personal wishes to the greater good of the greater
number. Expanding the child’s social consciousness as he moves toward maturity
is an important training problem. The outcome represents the difference between
a “spoiled disagreeable, poorly adjusted child and a likable youngster who is
finding acceptable social adjustments.
1.2
Theoretical
Background to the Study
1.2.1
Theories of
Parenting Styles
Baldwin and his colleagues (2000)
provided one of the most important early attempts to describe systematic patterns
of child rearing. This research conducted in the 1930s and 1940s, followed a
group of children and their families longitudinally cover time. They observed
parents and children interacting together in their homes, and they also
assessed progress in children’s development at different ages. They identified
two sets of parental childbearing dimensions that were related to differences
in children’s outcomes. As others had done, they distinguished parents along a
dimension of emotional involvement versus detachment. They also distinguished
between democratic and autocratic parents. Autocratic parents were more likely
to simply hand down their rules, while democratic parents were more likely to
involve the child in family decision-making and provide explanations for their
expectations. Their research demonstrated that democratic parents had children
who were less hostile and who worked more effectively in the absence of adult
supervision (Maccoby, 1992, Maccoby and Martin, 1993).
There have been many subsequent
attempts to improve on Baldwin’s descriptions of parenting styles. The most
influential has been the research of Diana (2002) who believed that the
democratic style as defined by Baldwin was not sufficient to produce culturally
competent adults and that democracy must be combined with authority to produce
optimal competence. Beginning in the 1960s, Baumrind identified a set of
characteristics that she believed defined competence for children in North
American society (Stone, 1991), and then she examined parents’ childrearing
beliefs and practices to determine the parenting styles that were associated
with those outcomes. She initially developed a typology of child outcomes, but
research from 1990 onward has expanded to include four distinct parenting styles
such as authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and harmonious.
Stone’s (2003) widely used typology
describes parenting styles as varying along two completely independent
dimensions of demandingness and responsiveness that, when crossed, yield four
parenting styles. Authoritative parents are both responsive and demanding. They
set clear, reasonable standards for responsible behaviour that are consistent
with children’s developing abilities, are firm in their enforcement, and
provide explanations for their positions. They are also kind, warm, and
responsive to children’s needs and will negotiate their expectations.
Authoritarian parents are demanding but not responsive. These parents place
high values on obedience to rules, discourage give-and take between parents and
children, and do not take their child’s needs into consideration. Permissive or
indulgent parents are responsive but not demanding. These parents are warm and
accepting and tolerant of the child’s impulses. They also make few demands on the
child for mature behaviour, do not use much punishment and avoid exerting their
authority. More recently, permissive parents have been distinguished from
rejecting-neglecting parents, who also do not make many demands on their
children, primarily because they are disengaged and thus are neither demanding
nor responsive (Spoch, 1999).
Spoch’s (1999) research
indicates that authoritative parenting is most effective in leading to healthy
adjustment for children. Authoritative parenting consistently has been
associated with a wide range of positive adolescent outcomes, including better
academic performance, increased competence, autonomy, and self-esteem, more
advanced moral development, less deviance, anxiety and depression and a more
well-rounded orientation to peers (Macobby and Martin 1993), Steinberg (2001).
Spoch has proposed that authoritative parenting is most effective because of
parents’ high expectations and support for mature behaviour. Much of the
research on parenting styles in relation to child and adolescent adjustment has
been conducted on white middle-class families, but since the start of the
1990s, researchers have become increasingly interested in ethnic and cultural
variations.
1.2.2
Theories of Social
Adjustment
One of the normal tendencies of an
adolescent is to attach greater importance to the attitude and opinion of
others, especially those of his own age, than he does at any other time in the
developmental sequence. Adolescence is a time of expanding and urgent interest
in persons of the opposite sex, both as person and as biological organisms. It
is a time of seeking an appropriate social role and satisfying social
relationships which will be in accord with concepts of self. It is, above all
else, a time when personal adjustment, both present and future, is closely
related to social success and to ability to play the social role in which the
individual would like to see himself (Runner, 2000).
A youth is an individual without
experience, still in fact, a child, who finds himself in what is to him a
rapidly expanding adult’s world. He finds himself with new physical urges, new
physical growth, new interests and values, and new concepts of self. He finds,
unwittingly, that he has turned his back on much that used to be important to
him. The process of growing up is both difficult and strange, particularly in
its relations with others, either contemporaries or adults. From his social
explorations he must finally emerge with mature and adequate social attitudes,
standards and skills if he is to find any degree of social adjustment as an
adult.
In his early years a child passes
through various phases in his relations with others. A young child is
essentially tremendous egocentric. He sees himself as the center of the
universe. He is a person to be served and waited upon, a person with little
patience for anything which blocks his desire or sense of security. He is,
above all, a person who has small regard and less appreciation of the rights or
feelings of others so long as he himself is served and has his way. Some
individuals seem never to lose their egocentric attitude entirely, perhaps
because of faulty upbringing or because of unusual environmental circumstances
(Rice, 2001).
But the progress of true maturity may
be measured in part by an individual’s growing awareness of and interest in,
other persons, together with an appreciation of their rights and desires and a
willingness to subordinate personal wishes to the greater good of the greater
number. Expanding the child’s social consciousness as he moves toward maturity
is an important training problem. The outcome represents the difference between
a “spoiled disagreeable, poorly adjusted child and a likable youngster who is
finding acceptable social adjustments.
An examination of the location within a
community of a child’s friends will illustrate the foregoing point. As a very
small child his friends consist of relatives and children who are brought to
the house to visit. When the child is able to go about a bit, it will be found
that he has a concentration of friends in the immediate vicinity of his home,
but seldom anywhere else. A little later the friends will be somewhat more
scattered, but all in the same or the adjoining block. By the time he enters
elementary school his friendships may extend for two or three blocks but the
end of the first year it will be found that he knows children scattered over
most of the entire area served by his grade, although his best friends are most
likely to be those living in his immediate neighbourhood. This dispersing
process will be accelerated with the individual’s entrance into junior and
senior high school, until a map of the dispersion of the adolescent’s friends
will find them spread rather widely over the community, and even outside of it,
although still with a strong concentration within the neighbourhood. This
condition will be particularly marked insofar as there are strong
socio-economic, racial, or national differences existing within the community
(Anderson, 2000)
1.3
Statement of the
Problem
The social adjustment of children these
days has been negative in the society; this has been attributable to the type
of parenting in which these highly maladaptive children were reared and
nurtured. Studies carried out by Strausser (2001), showed that children’s social
adjustment in the community is not far fetched from the way they are brought up
by their parents. According to this finding, children who are socially
deficient, are mostly reared by parents whose styles of parenting were
basically authoritarian in nature. Children whose parents are very autocratic
and authoritarian, become highly aggressive, violent and autocratic to their
peers in the school and at home. This is because, they had learnt aggression
and violence from their parents who used force and high handedness in bringing
them up in the home.
Also, a child becomes way-ward in the
society because he is brought up by the permissive parents who applied
I-don’t-care attitude in bringing up the child. Little wonder why most children
of these days are recalcitrant, obstinate, delinquent, harlotic, bullies, armed
robbers, fighters, examination cheats, depraved-minded, alcoholics, drug
abusers, addicts, violent demonstrators and destructive individuals in the
school and at home; cultists and gangsters etc. These vices are anti-social
behaviours that are perpetrated in the society by those whose parents may have
lacked the correct parental styles and patterns in child-rearing.
This study therefore, set out to
investigate the problem of parenting styles on the social adjustment of
secondary school adolescents in Lagos State.
1.4
Purpose of the
Study
The main purpose of this study is to
examine the influence of parenting styles on social adjustment among secondary
school students in Lagos State.
Other specific objectives of the study
include to investigate:
1. Whether there are difference in the
social orientation of students who were brought up by authoritative parents and
those brought up by the authoritarian parents.
2. Whether there is gender difference in social
orientation of students as a result of parenting styles.
3. Whether the socio-economic status of
parents affect their styles of parenting.
4. Evaluate whether the religious
backgrounds of parents affect their styles of parenting.
1.5
Research Questions
These research questions were asked in
this study:
2.
Is there any difference in the social adjustment of students
who are brought up under authoritative parenting style and those brought up
under authoritative style?
3.
Is there any gender difference in the social adjustment of
students as a result of parenting styles?
4.
To what extent will the socio-economic status of parents
differ in their parenting styles?
4.
Will the religious backgrounds of parents affect their
styles of parenting?
1.6
Research Hypotheses
These hypotheses were formulated and
tested in this study:
1.
There is no significant influence of authoritative parenting
style on students’ social adjustment.
2. There is no significant influence of
religious background on the parenting style among couples.
3. There is no significant influence of
ethnicity on parenting style.
4. The is no significant gender different in
the social adjustment of students in schools.
1.7
Significance of the
Study
This study will be beneficial to the
following individuals:
1.
Parents: Parents, no doubt,
are those who nurture and take care of children after giving birth to them in
the home. With this findings and recommendations made in this study, parents
would be well informed. Pertaining to different levels of patterns of parenting
in the home. This study, no doubt will enable parents/guardians to be able to
know how best to rear their children and wards, it will help them to be able to
identify those recommended parenting styles that will give the children or
wards good rearing process and upbringing in the society. This is because
children reared in proper ways by good parenting styles, will be different from
the children reared under bad or harsh parenting styles. With the application
of this recommended styles of parenting, parents would be able to rear children
who would be very respectful to them and the society. Because this admixture of
democracy/authoritarians give the children the opportunity of partner well with
their parents while being reared up.
2.
Children: The children, especially
the youth in the society would benefit from the recommendations of this study
because it will help them to understand the way of bringing them up as
adolescent. With this study, children would be able to identify the best
parenting styles or patterns in the family. With this study also, children
would be enable to know that they ought to be controlled and obedient to their
parents.
3.
Teachers: Teachers would no
doubt, be able to understand more, the different aspect of parenting styles.
Some teachers are parent also, they will be exposed to the essence of
child-upbringing by reading this work. This study will create important
knowledge on parenting styles to the teachers. Teachers will also be able to
learn the more, that good parenting styles would be beneficial to both the
teachers and the school system where both the teachers and the children are
found. This is because, if the children are well brought up, they would be good
and right thinking individuals in the society and the school.
4.
The Society: The society will
benefit from this study because there will be great impact of this study on the
individual in the society. Also both the new researchers and students who want
to carry out new research on topics related to this study will find this study a
reference point or material.
1.8 Delimitation
This study covers the influence of
parenting styles on social adjustment among secondary school students in Lagos
State.
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