Influence of Parenting Style on Children in Ugbowo Community
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The following are the purposes of this study;
- To identify various parenting styles adopted in Ugbowo Community.
- To investigate how these parenting styles affected self-esteem.
- The study will also find out how parenting styles and self-esteem influences.
- To find out the awareness of Ugbowo Community on parenting style.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The concept of self-esteem is an area of psychology that has gained considerable attention. but for many years has also caused much confusion, as exactly .. ~hat it encompasses and bow it develops, has been unclear. The following are a sample of definitions of self-esteem provide by various researchers. Reber (1985) describes self ..esteem as the degree to which one va1ues oneself, whilst, Corkille Briggs (1975) explains self-esteem as how you feel about yourself privately, not what you present to the world, such as your wealth or status. Steffenhagen (1990) states that. “self-esteem is the very core of the personality and consequently, the basis of all behaviour, normal or pathological” (p.l). Vander Werff (1990) defines self-esteem as the evaluative aspect of the self-concept. These definitions combined appear to sum up the meaning of self-esteem. although explained differently they all point to the evaluation of the self. The research literature on self-esteem provides an understanding of the consequences of low self-esteem for the individual. Harter (1993) reviewed the literature and found tblt self-esteem affects mood and found possible links between low self-esteem, depression. feelings of hopelessness and possibly suicide. Khantzian, 1Ialliday and McAuliffe (1990) studied Bddicts and mention thfit addicts have dysfunctions in ego and self-structures responsible for regulating and maintaining self- esteem. Hart (1993) suggests that low self-esteem can be linked to educational failure, drug and alcohol abuse, wlnerability to peer pressure, eating disorders and suicide. More specifically, Higgins (cited in Masling & Bomstein, 1994) conducted a study that explored the effects of discrepancies between actual self and ideaJ self. He found that the smaller the discrepancy between the ideal and actual self, the greater the likelihood of higher self-esteem, emotional stability and lack of depression. Conversely, the ‘ greater the discrepancy between ideal and actua1 self the lower the self-e!iteem. In summary, it would appear from the literature on self-esteem, that low self-esteem has an affect on the psychological functioning of individuals. often limiting their potential. This research explores possible reasons for high or low self-esteem. concentrating on the development of self-esteem, by examining the potential influence of the parent’s behaviour or type of child rearing approach. To categorize the parent’s behaviour, Baumrind’s styles of parenting are used. These are: Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive, which are defined as follo;ws:
- a) Authoritative parenting style, which combines unconditionaJ regard, acceptance of the child’s behaviour within certain limits, with relatively finn control.
- b) Authoritarian parenting style, which involves the parent using unbending rules to shape the child’s behaviour and imposing their wilt on the child without any give and take. The parent believes they are always right. ·
- c) Pennissive parenting style in which parents show warmth and allow the child a ·great amount of autonomy while exercising little control over them. They allow their children to shape their own behaviour instead of being active in this process (Damon, 1989). For this study it was felt that it was important to use the parent’s combined style of parenting, this meant that some parents were categorized as having an unmatched parenting style, as both parents were different in their parenting style, i.e. one may be authoritarian and the other authoritative. Researchers such as Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts and Fraleigh (1987) have a1so used ~his concept of creating another group.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the influence of parenting style on children in Ugbowo community.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on the study influence of parenting style on children in Ugbowo community. 200 parents from selected homes were selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the influence of parenting style on children in Ugbowo community.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the influence of parenting style on the self-esteem of children in Ugbowo community.
Summary
Parents have some responsibilities which they can never escape from in as much as they bring children into this world. They are responsible for meeting the physical, social, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of their children. Through proper socialization, they are expected to nurture the children and groom them, ready for launching them into the society. Unfortunately, some of these parents fail in these responsibilities and rather encourage some antisocial behaviours in their children. They openly exhibit those maladaptive behaviours for children to emulate and do not monitor what their children do. There is therefore the need to arrest this prevailing conditions if the country is to forge ahead in its sustainable development programmes. As future leaders it is imperative to ‘catch’ the youths when they are young. When children are well-adjusted and disciplined, the nation, the citizenry and the world at large will experience peace.
Conclusion
The present study was done with the aim of studying the parenting styles and its effect on the self-esteem of adolescents, specifically of in Edo state. The main objective of doing this study is in the fact that though there exists a good amount of work done in this area but majority of the work is undertaken for adolescents in western cultures. The study suggests that there does not exist any significant difference between the permissive parenting style and authoritative parenting style of both fathers and mothers in terms of their effect upon the selfesteem of adolescents, and that in most cases these two styles of parenting results in higher levels of self-esteem as compared to authoritarian style of fathers’ as well as mothers’ parenting. Infect a significant negative correlation exists between fathers’ and mothers’ authoritarian parental approach and the self-esteem of their adolescents. Also, it was observed from the results that there is no significant difference between the effect of inter-parental consistency and inter-parental inconsistency on the sense of self-worth among the adolescents and no specific effect on selfesteem led by the gender of the adolescents. Overall, with the help of this study it can be suggested that keeping in mind the consistency as well as discrepancies of the results of this study with the findings for the effect of inter-parental consistency and inter-parental inconsistency on adolescents in some of the different researches already done in this area, what seems as the only option is a ‘mid-way’ which reminds of a ‘good cop and bad cop formula’, that may prove to be more efficient from time to time in parenting.
Recommendations
Haven completed the study, the researcher recommends that more study should be carried out in this area would benefit from larger numbers of participants to enable the researcher to examine the parenting style influences on girls and boys. It could also be beneficial for parents to be given a questionnaire that attempts to look into their perspective of the style of parenting they use, to compare with the child’s results. Looking at the mother’s and father’s parenting style separately and together could also be useful, as other researchers have found differences in boys and girls depending on how they are treated by their parent.
Reference
- Amato, P. R., & Ochililtree. G. (1986). Family resources and the development of child competence. Journal ofMarriage and the Family. 48, 47-56.
- Avenevoli, S., Sessa, F. M., & Steinberg, L. (1999). Family Structure, parenting practices, and adolescent adjustment: An ecological eXamination. ~E. M. Hetherington, (ed). Coping with divorce sin&le parenting. and remarriage (pp65- 90). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- BaumeiSter, R F. (Ed.). (1993). Self -esteem the puzzle of low self-regard. New York: Plenum Press. Baumrind, D. {1968). Authoritarian versus authoritative parental control. Adolesence. 255-272.
- Baumrind, D. (1967). Cbildcare practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behaviour. Genetic Psycholo’gy Monognmhs, 75, 43-88.
- BaUmrind; D. (1975). The contributions of the f&riti.ly to the developmerit of , competence in children. SchizophrerUa Bulletin, M, 12-37,
- Baumrind, D. (1994). The social context of child maltreatment. Family Relations. fi. 360-368.
