THE INFLUENCE OF FATHERING STYLE ON SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS
ABSTRACT
This study examined the
influence of fathering style
on social adjustment among
adolescents in Surulere
LED of Lagos State.
Four hypotheses were
formulated to guide the study.
To achieve this aim, the researcher formulated four hypothesis to guide the study:
There is no significant influence of fathering styles on social adjustment of adolescents.
There is no significant impact of fathering styles on proneness to early pregnancy among female adolescents.
There is no significant cultural impact on fathering style on social adjustment of adolescents.
There is no significant influence of religious impact of fathering style on social adjustment of adolescents.
The sample comprised two hundred (200) participants selected through stratified random sampling from four senior
secondary schools in Surulere LED of Lagos State. A well structured questionnaire was administered and used to
solicit responses from the respondents.The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the result at 0.05 level of significance. Fisher’s protected ttest formular was used to do a pairwise comparison of differences in-group means (X) resulting from influence of
fathering styles on social adjustment of adolescents. The result of the data analysis obtained indicated as follows:
There is significant influence of fathering styles on social adjustment of adolescents. It was also found out that there
is no significant religious impact in fathering style of social adjustment of adolescents.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
Early pregnancy is a situation whereby a girl-child is impregnated as a result of
premarital sexual activity. Many girls these days are in the habit of being involved in premarital sexual acts due to
civilization and education. There is no doubt that the traditional values have been overthrown in favour of liberal
sexual attitude. According to Abe (1996), 63% of adolescents do not think that virginity was important, but oldfashioned recreational sex seems to be the way of many youths and the resultant effect of early pregnancy, abortion
and consequently death or destruction of the reproductive organs. Nwobi (1997) describes the family as the network
of persons intimately held together by a bond of social or blood relationship. The family comprises the father as head
and breadwinner, the children who must take orders or directions from the father. Therefore, for the father to raise
meaningful and responsible children in the society the needs to adopt a certain style of leadership or parenting.
1.1 Theoretical Background
Arione, (1994) used two typologies to describe fathering styles: demandingness and
responsiveness; that when crossed yields four fathering styles. According to Arione, authoritative fathers are both
responsive and demanding. They set clear reasonable standards for responsible behaviour that are consistent with
children’s development and provide explanation for their positions. They are also kind, warm, loving and responsive to
children’s needs and will negotiate their expectations. Authoritarian fathers are only demanding but not responsive.
They only place values on obedience to rules and discourage give-and-take between father and child and do not take
their children’s needs into consideration. Permissive fathers are also indulging, they are responsive but not
demanding. These fathers are warm, accepting and tolerant of the child’s impulses. They also make few demands on
the child for mature behaviour, but do not use much or no punishment and avoid exerting their authorities. More
recently, permissive fathers have been separated from neglecting-rejecting ones, who also do not make many
demands because they are disengaged and they are neither demanding nor responsive. Thus this has caused the
girl child who could not get what she wants from her father to use what she has to get what she wants outside the
home. The resultant effect has been early sexual activity which is the result of early pregnancy of the child. Sexual
indiscipline among adolescents in secondary schools includes increasing rates of premarital sex, promiscuity,
prostitution, teenage pregnancy, teenage marriage and motherhood, illegal abortions, child abuse and abandonment
and premature death for teenage mothers as a result of abortion. The Newswatch (1985),main feature was the
increasing rate of teenage pregnancy captioned “Children Having Children”. The situation has assumed a greater
dimension because sexual indiscipline is closely related to criminal acts – such as abortion and child abuse. Teenage
pregnancy sometimes leads to teenage marriage or what is usually called the “Shot gun marriage”. This option is
often frought with both medical, social and psychological dangers and problems. For one thing, a girl’s body is still
growing and if nutrition is deficient such teenage girl is a poor obstetric risk. For another there are psychological
problems associated with teenage marriage such as “Shot gun” marriage, leading t dropping out of school, humiliation
and degradation suffered by the adolescents and their families. There are the financial implications and lack of
psychological support system for the adolescent mother. The attendant dropping out of school for the girl usually
forces into poverty cycle, while high increasing rate of illegitimate pregnancy exacts a heavy financial toll on tax
payers. Finally, single parenthood seems to be increasing among adolescents as a result of early pregnancy due to
premarital sexual activity with/its implication for the proper psychological well being of the child and the mother, and
on the long run, with social implications for the society (Kuforiji, 1998). It is a well known fact that more teenagers are
engaged in sexual intercourse at earlier ages. Rafiu (1994) found that in a sample of 100 students in secondary
schools 48% boys and 36% girls stated that they had sexual intercourse by age 15. A large proportion of the girls
indicated that they had partners who were old enough to be their fathers, while only a small fraction of the male
sample indicated that they had sex with older girls. Thus the problem of “Sugar daddy and sugar mummy” is a major
one among adolescents. The adult society that preaches sexual morality and delayed gratification is thus creating
more problems. As a primary socializing agency the family’s impact on man is total. According to Onyejiaku, (1991)
no child born into the world with the knowledge of right and wrong, rather it is when he internalized the societal norms
and values that he begins to relate with people around him effectively. The responsibility of raising up a child to
become socially and psychologically well adjusted adult is mainly that of the father. According to Lamb (1997) a father
is a man who begets a child, a male parent, the founder of a family or race, one who exercises parental care over
another, a guardian or protector. Nwadinigwe (2004) postulates that within the family, role sharing among the parents
exist. The father is expected to discipline the child and ensure he is brought up in proper way. A father according to
Clinton (1995), is a man stabilizing influence upon his children, providing means by which his children may face the
outside world with confidence. The must significant figure in a family setting and the head of the house in all issues of
paramount importance. Scholars theorized on individual behaviour, socialization process, fathering process and their
influence on adolescents. When children watch the behaviour of model, especially, their fathers, they quickly tend to
imitate both the specific responses and generalized response patterns of the model, the father or mother as fathers
are viewed as models worthy of emulation by their children. Similarly, a child may face trauma of neglect when the
father who is supposed to be supportive and involved is not around to give appropriate model, care, comfort and
supervision to the child. Fathers who adopt the I-don’t-care attitudes or styles in bringing up their children especially
during their formative ages will end up having wayward, recalcitrant, rascal family and the immediate community or
society. For instance, a girl child whose father does not meet up with her demands or needs may go out to form allies
with the peers who would obviously misadvice, mislead and misdirect her into joining gangs of sexual promiscuous
persons, women of easy virtues who are in the ha its of using their bodies to acquire what they lack from their homes.
The gradual process of promiscuity could graduate the child into being a mother at tender age, prostitution and the
loss of educational career cum opportunities in future. Also fathers who are too rigid or authoritative, may produce
children whose characters are deceptive. These children may be sheep in homes but wolves in the outside world. In
any case, they are pretenders who hide their characters in the presence of their autocratic fathers, but tend to live
another pattern of life entirely from the ones they exhibit in the home. At home they are quiet and innocent, outside
the home, they are wayward , sensuous and promiscuous. This hide and child to premarital sexual activities and
consequently unwanted or even abortion and loss of precious tender life (Uzoma, 1998). The sociological theory of
symbolic interaction posits that children and infants are ignorant of rules and roles of the society when they are born
and to turn them to socially responsible beings, they must acquire new roles by their interactions with significant
others especially, their fathers, mothers and siblings. Through interaction with the father who disciplines directs and
nurtures the child, the child acquires social norms, values and skills within the culture. The father’s roles in traditional
perspective is being aloof and distant. A situation whereby the father is respected but feared by the children who
never learned to know him very well, unlike the mother who care for the home and raised the children. It in this light
that Osarenren (1998) claimed that the process of socialization starts in early life and is a life long process. Moreover,
Howels (1985) saw the fathers as inculcating attitudes and behaviours that their children needed for educational,
moral and vocational development and that if father fail to bring up their children, especially the girls, it leads them to
adopt traits and negative behaviours that are inimical to the societal norms.
THE INFLUENCE OF FATHERING STYLE ON SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS