ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the effects of eclectic parenting on adolescent behavior in secondary schools in Fako Division. The study utilized a quantitative research design, with a sample of 150 students and their parents from three secondary schools in the division. The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) was used to measure parenting styles, and the adolescence self-report to assess adolescent behavior. Results indicated that the majority of parents in the sample reported using eclectic parenting practices. Adolescents reported higher levels of positive behavior and lower levels of negative behavior when their parents used eclectic parenting practices. The study also found that the relationship between eclectic parenting and adolescent behavior was moderated by gender. However, the study also identified some limitations, including the potential for self-report bias and the difficulty in isolating the effects of specific parenting practices. Additionally, cultural differences may have influenced the findings, as the study was conducted in a specific region of Cameroon. Overall, the study provides evidence that eclectic parenting practices can have a positive impact on adolescent behavior in secondary schools in Fako Division. The findings suggest that parents and educators should consider incorporating a variety of parenting practices to promote positive adolescent behavior. Further research is needed to explore the effects of eclectic parenting on adolescent behavior in other cultural contexts and to address potential confounding variables.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The family is an important unite in society, it is the first socializing agent the child interacts with and it has a great influence on the child’s physical, mental, moral, and psychosocial development (Roska and potter 2011; Cacalagh and Fomby; 2012). Parenting may have profound impacts on the behavior of adolescent’s psychosocial and academic development as parents play an important role in most children’s psychosocial and academic development. Baumrind identified three parenting styles based on parental demandingness and responsiveness, which included authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting. From this perspective, Coste (2015) recognizes the work of Baumrind, a clinical as well as developmental
psychologist best known for her work on parenting styles.

Parental behavioral control involves managing adolescent behavior and activities in an attempt to regulate their behavior and provides them with guidance for appropriate social behavior and conduct. Behavioral control can protect against problem behaviors. In that higher level of parental behavioral control is directly associated with less problem drinking in young adulthood among males, less adolescent truancy, less alcohol and marijuana use, and less frequent engagement in early sexual intercourse. In addition, parental control appeared to prevent escalation in externalizing problems among adolescents who reported affiliating with deviant peers. Chapter one present the background of the study, the state of the problem, research questions, purpose of the study, objectives of the study, justification of the study, significance of the study, the scope of the study, and operational definition of the terms.

Background of the Study

Historically, parental involvement emerged as a compensation program since the 1960s and 1970s in the United State of America (USA) and Europe as among other program aiming at encouraging minority low-income parents to prepare their children for more successful schools and prevent education delays for children (Bakker, Denessen & Brus-Laeven 2007). It was just an appeal to support lower school children achievers through parents’ intervention. Its execution manifests positive results by equipping parents with skills on how to help their children with home works for the enhancement of education progress. Being potential in education, attempt to increase parental involvement adolescents’ behavior has increase positively, likewise their academics performance has. The Jomtien Conference on Education for All (EFA) of 1990 accredits that many nations in the world have to ensure efficient management of education by involving local community including parents. This is because when parents become involved in children education, it enhances students, community and users interests to be traced at the center (WCEFA, 1990). Consequently, it is an ideal for educationalist to ensure all challenges that are thought to hinder parental involvement are worked through. Moreover, the Salamanca Conference on Special Education held in Spain 1994 discussed that, parents should be encouraged to participate in educational activities at home and schools for the purpose of supervising and supporting their children learning. Similarly, the government should promote parental involvement through policy statements that allow formulation of parent school association with the intention of enhancing their adolescent’s behavior. The argument draws strong support on how parents are vital in the way adolescents behave in the way of demanding policy (blue print) which acts upon constraints that limit parents in monitoring children education in secondary schools. This would strengthen efforts towards achieving quality education for all (UNESCO, 2003). Furthermore, the World Education Forum Conference of 2000 held in Dakar, Senegal discussed the roles that governments should play in enhancing partnership with all education stakeholders including parents. This should go beyond not only in financing education and cost sharing but also should build in whole education process and learning for seeking quality education for all (UNESCO,2000). This explains how families and parental involvement is highly required not only in financing education but also in monitoring the whole learning process of adolescents.

Conceptually, Baumrind (1991) defined parental control as the claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family as a whole, by their maturity demands, supervision, and disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys. Parenting behaviors include parental monitoring and parental discipline practices. Donna (2014) added parental responsiveness as another dimension of parenting. Parenting behaviors that measure parental responsiveness include parental warmth, parental support, and parental involvement. As well as an additional style. Parents’ roles in the family environment have primarily been to prepare children for adulthood through rules and discipline. During adolescence, the influence of peers also serves as an important socialization agent.

Parenting typologies such as authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful developed by Baumrind (1967, 1971) were found to be a pivotal element in defining the behavior and attitude of parents toward their children (Joshi, Sharma, & Mehra, 2009). Additionally, the interaction between parents and adults is associated with cultural surroundings (Keshavarz & Baharudin, 2009). Many scholars and researchers in social science in the world like, Epstein, Bakker, Davis, Henderson, Lewis and Keith who have studied on parental involvement in adolescents behavior. For instance, Epstein (2002) argues that, no school improvement has been created without parental involvement which strengthened parents, teachers, administrators and students ‘partnerships which end into benefiting adults, improving schools, assisting teachers and strengthening families.

Contextually, one of the most important trends in parenting research over the past decade has been towards a greater contextualized understanding of the origins of parent-child relationships, the meaning they have to parents and children, and the effects they have on an array of outcomes in adolescents. There are diverse examples of how ‘context’ has been used in research, denoting anything from an individual’s culture (e.g. African Caribbean) to a social setting (e.g. neighborhood with a high rate of violence). No clear consensus has yet emerged on which demarcation(s) of context may be most relevant or useful. To complicate matters, several definitions of context are confounded (such as that between ethnicity and income). As a result, the concept of ‘context’ has sometimes been criticized because of the vagaries and uncertainties in how it is operationalized. Nevertheless, we now have substantial evidence that at least some associations between parent-child relationship quality and adult wellbeing differ reliably across sub-populations and social settings.

Also in the context of Cameroon In that economic status affects parents’ psychological functioning, which then affects their parenting behaviours and adolescent’s socio-emotional functioning. Parental disciplinary styles and parenting practices vary among families of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Economic pressure was indirectly related to poor parenting through high maternal and paternal depressed mood, and poor parenting was related to adolescent externalizing behaviour (Conger et al, 2002). The differences in parental control are associated with different adolescent behavioural outcomes depending on if parental control is punitive or if it is control that includes monitoring or setting limits for the adolescent (Donna 2014).

Family structure serves as a risk factor for adolescents, since adolescents from divorced or single-parent families are two to three times more likely to display problem behaviours. Donna (2014) posits that adolescents in married, biological two-parent families generally fare better than children in single-mother, cohabiting stepfather, and married stepfather families

Theoretically, some of the theories which will be used in related literature review include Social learning theory by Albert Bandura in the year 1997, the Ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979) and the psychosocial Development theory by Erik Erickson (1950 -1963). Researchers in the 1930s to 1960s, employing a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, used various factor analytic methods to identify the major dimensions underlying observer ratings of general parenting characteristics.

In the typical study, trained observers spent considerable time interviewing or observing parents (or sometimes read through large files of material on parents) and rated parents on general trait
terms (e.g., strict, accepting, harsh) using Likert scales. Factor analyses of the data from these primarily European American, middle class samples typically identified two dimensions of parental influence on adolescents behavior: One assessing constructs such as parental acceptance, warmth, or support and the other assessing constructs related to parental control. In five classic studies during this time period, the labels for  the first factor were: Acceptance versus rejection,7 emotional warmth versus hostility, warmth love versus hostility, and warmth versus hostility Labels for the second factor in these same five studies were: Dominance versus submission, detachment versus involvement, permissiveness versus strictness, autonomy versus control, and permissiveness versus restrictiveness. The consistency of findings across studies was impressive, and two influential literature reviews (one in the late 1970s and one in the early 1980s) concluded that these two major dimensions of parenting could be labeled as parental support and parental control or as parental responsiveness and parental demandingness. As discussed in these reviews, these two factors were usually found in studies employing global observer ratings, parental influence on adolescent’s behavior

Statement of the Problem

Looking  at  the   moral  values  of   our  society  and   the  changing  trend   in  adolescent conduct   in   their   mode   of  dressing,   dating,   aggressiveness,   response   to   elders,   cheating,

entertainment  and   relationships with   opposite  sex. Also the  parenting   models or   methods adopted   by  families   in   child  upbringing.   The   lack   of   attention,  love,   acceptance,  care,

attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behaviour modification of the growing person. This   contending  issue   motivated   the   researcher  to   investigate   and  identified   the relevant variables   of  parenting  styles   that influence  adolescent   behaviour and  their   social adjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behaviour problem. Adolescents’ behaviours   were   narrow   to   their   attitude   towards   elders,   drug   abuse/addiction,   sexual behaviour, delinquent behaviour and examination malpractice. Looking  at  the   moral  values  of   our  society  and   the  changing  trend   in  adolescent conduct   in   their   mode   of  dressing,   dating,   aggressiveness,   response   to   elders,   cheating, entertainment  and   relationships with   opposite  sex. Also the  parenting   models or   methods adopted   by  families   in   child  upbringing.   The   lack   of   attention,  love,   acceptance,  care, attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behaviour modification of the growing person.This   contending  issue   motivated   the   researcher  to   investigate   and  identified   the relevant variables   of  parenting  styles   that influence  adolescent   behaviour and  their   social adjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behaviour problem. Adolescents’ behaviours   were   narrow   to   their   attitude   towards   elders,   drug   abuse/addiction,   sexual behaviour, delinquent behaviour and examination malpractice. Looking  at  the   moral  values  of   our  society  and   the  changing  trend   in  adolescent conduct   in   their   mode   of  dressing,   dating,   aggressiveness,   response   to   elders,   cheating, entertainment  and   relationships with   opposite  sex. Also the  parenting   models or   methods adopted   by  families   in   child  upbringing.   The   lack   of   attention,  love,   acceptance,  care, attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behaviour modification of the growing person. This   contending  issue   motivated   the   researcher  to   investigate   and  identified   the relevant variables   of  parenting  styles   that influence  adolescent   behaviour and  their   social adjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behaviour problem. Adolescents’ behaviours   were   narrow   to   their   attitude   towards   elders,   drug   abuse/addiction,   sexual behaviour, delinquent behaviour and examination malpractice. Looking  at  the   moral  values  of   our  society  and   the  changing  trend   in  adolescent conduct   in   their   mode   of  dressing,   dating,   aggressiveness,   response   to   elders,   cheating, entertainment  and   relationships with   opposite  sex. Also the  parenting   models or   methods adopted   by  families   in   child  upbringing.   The   lack   of   attention,  love,   acceptance,  care, attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behaviourmodification of the growing person. This   contending  issue   motivated   the   researcher  to   investigate   and  identified   the relevant variables   of  parenting  styles   that influence  adolescent   behaviour and  their   social adjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behaviour problem. Adolescents’ behaviours   were   narrow   to   their   attitude   towards   elders,   drug   abuse/addiction,   sexual behaviour, delinquent behaviour and examination malpractice. Looking  at  the   moral  values  of   our  society  and   the  changing  trend   in  adolescentconduct   in   their   mode   of  dressing,   dating,   aggressiveness,   response   to   elders,   cheating, entertainment  and   relationships with   opposite  sex. Also the  parenting   models or   methods adopted   by  families   in   child  upbringing.   The   lack   of   attention,  love,   acceptance,  care, attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behaviour modification of the growing person. This   contending  issue   motivated   the   researcher  to   investigate   and  identified   therelevant variables   of  parenting  styles   that influence  adolescent   behaviour and  their   socialadjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behaviour problem. Adolescents’behaviours   were   narrow   to   their   attitude   towards   elders,   drug   abuse/addiction,   sexual behaviour, delinquent behaviour and examination malpractice.Looking at the moral values of our society and the changing trend in adolescent conduct in their mode of dressing, dating, aggressiveness, response to elders, cheating, entertainment and relationships with opposite sex. Also the parenting models or methods adopted by families in child upbringing. The lack of attention, love, acceptance, care, attachment to the child and really acting as a source of protection and model for behavior modification of the growing person.

This contending issue motivated the researcher to investigate and identified the relevant variables of parenting styles that influence adolescent behavior and their social adjustment; also to find out ways of solving the adolescents’ behavior problem. Adolescents’ behaviors were narrow to their attitude towards elders, drug abuse/addiction, sexual behavior, delinquent behavior and examination malpractice.

Research Objectives

General research Objective

To find out the effects of eclectic parenting styles on the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO

Specific Objectives

1. To examine the effect of Authoritarian / Authoritative styles on the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO
2. To examine the effect of Democratic parenting /Permissive parenting style on the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO

General Research Question

What is the effects of eclectic parenting styles on the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO?

Specific Research Questions

1. How does Authoritarian / Authoritative styles influence the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO?
2. How does Democratic parenting/Permissive parenting styles influence the behavior of adolescents in some selected secondary schools in FAKO?