Influence Of Social Environment On The Upbringing Of Children In Lagos State

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

An individual’s social environment, including the social relationships an individual makes within it, can have a profound impact on the quality of parenting, which in turn affects a child’s development and future achievements. Inclusive social environments which provide support to parents have been shown to enhance parents’ capacity to care for their children and in doing so promote better child development. They have also been shown to have a positive effect on the family system, and families who are well connected to networks of supportive individuals are better able to cope with factors which may negatively influence their development and achievement.

A child’s social environment is largely dictated by where their parents live and send them to school. In turn, the social environment largely determines who children form social relationships with and the quality of those social relationships, as many of the relationships children form are within their family or neighbourhood. As such, parents’ decisions (or, on the contrary, lack of decision making power) about where to live, work and school can markedly affect the health and wellbeing of their children.

Living in a good social environment increases the likelihood that a child will develop positive social relationships. Social behaviour and the ability to develop positive relationships with others were traditionally conceived as skills which would develop naturally. However, there is an increasing recognition that social behaviours are learned and that children must be taught pro-social behaviour. Children learn from their social environment, for example by mimicking (or challenging) the social behaviour of their peers, and thus what they see in their day to day environment is likely to influence their social behaviour. Social skills can also be actively taught, for example when a parent or teacher reinforces and encourages good behaviours, the probability of these behaviours occurring is enhanced. Teachers and parents may also actively encourage children to apply social skills learnt in one social setting (e.g. the classroom) to other settings (e.g. home or the playground).

Both the parent’s and children social relationships are increasingly recognized as a important factors influencing the quality of parenting, which in turn is an important contributor to the child’s overall development. The children of parents who have strong and supportive social relationships are more likely to develop positive social relationships themselves and having positive and supportive social relationships and networks improves a child’s development. In terms of parenting, social relationships of key importance include those between a child and their parents, but also a child and other adults (e.g. teachers, other children’s parents) and other children (including their siblings). Parental involvement with the parents of other children creates trust and obligations, as well as community norms, which the parents set collectively for their children. This means that parents can collectively take responsibility for children’s behaviour, for example by providing discipline if a child misbehaves.

Relationships between parents and children also affect a child’s ability to develop social relationships in the community. One study reported that the children of parents who had difficulty disciplining their children and being affectionate towards them due to financial stress, received lower teacher ratings in terms of their social behaviour compared to children whose parents did not experience these difficulties.

The menace in the society and failures among the young ones has stared both the government and stakeholders in the face. There is a consensus of opinion about the fallen standard of education  and morals as a big problem that is hindering the posterity of the Nigerian nation in terms of quality man power resources. Most children experience academic problem that manifests itself in the form of academic poor performance. Many researchers have sought to find out the reasons for the downward trend in the academic performance of students. Adesehinwa (2013) reported effect of family type, environment and poor funding on students’ academic achievement; Ogbemudia and Aiasa (2013) reported lack of good home foundation for pupils as cause of poor performance by students; Achieng (2012) found home factors, student factors and institutional capacity as the causes while Adesehinwa and Aremu (2010) posited that factors resident in child, family, society, government and the school may be composite causative effects for these downtrend; they, however concluded that there is a need for each of these variables to be considered extensively, hence the focus of this study to critically consider influence of social environment on the upbringing of children. Other studies showed that the level of family cohesion (Caplan et al, 2002 cited in Diaz, 2004), and family relationships (Buote, 2001) proved themselves capable of predicting performance. 

Over a period of time, it has been observed that children exposed to the same lessons by the same teachers perform differently when they are evaluated (Adesehinwa, 2013). This shows that outside the school environment, other factors influence students’ academic performance. Also differences in the academic performances of gifted and non gifted children cannot be traced to social environment (Adesehinwa and Aremu, 2010). Hence, many other uncontrolled variables can be responsible for the behavior of a child. Schiefelbaum and Simmons (2000) cited by Adell, (2002) consider family background the most important and most weighty factor in determining the behavior and academic performance attained by the student. Among family factors of greatest influence are social class variables and the educational and family environment. Emeke (1984) stressed that the environmental condition and the nature of social interaction that goes on in the family may have some positive or negative influence on the upbringing of a child. One of the tasks of Education is to train young people to become useful members of the society and this training begins at home in the informal way. The home of the child is the first place he/she enters when born into the world by parents.

 A home is a place where pupils live with their parents or guardian and it is the place where they are groomed. It is a place where the child begin to learn the norms and values of the society in which they find themselves. The family is a social unit in any society and it is the source of early stimulation and experience in children (Collins, 2007). The social environment influences the child at the most earliest possible time of his life at a time when his mind is most receptive. It provides the first impression which may last through the whole life of the child. The child often sees the parents, siblings and things in their immediate environment to be most significant and they are capable of promoting or diminishing him in self worth and academic performance (Ekanem, 2004). 

The family, being a powerful influence on the child and its importance as a primary agent of socialization could in no doubt enhance or hinder the academic achievement and behavior of the child depending on the social climate in the family. Variance in psycho-social emotional fortification in the family background could be an indicator to high or low academic performance of a child, bearing in mind the intervening effect of high and low socio-economic status and emotional stability of students which is a pre-requisite to academic achievement (Adebule, 2004). This is because psychological problems are potential sources of trouble with learning. It is therefore against these backgrounds that this study sought to determine influence of social environment on the upbringing of children in Lagos State.

The environment is the immediate surroundings in which the child finds themselves. It is also referred to as the physical and psychological conditions that affect children (Ogbemudia and Aiasa, 2013). The parents or guardian of the students are responsible for providing the right home environment that will facilitate effective learning for their wards. Furthermore, in pupil’s home environment, some factors that influences their academic performances include: parental educational background, occupation, economic status, marital status and home location; family size and peer group. 

The home environment means the family background of the child; this includes all the human and material resources present at the home that affects the upbringing and living, such as the parent’s level of education, their occupation, socio-economic status and socializing facilities available in the house. Thus, the home is the basic institution for providing the child’s primary socialization and laying the educational foundation for the child upon which the other agents of socialization are built. The education received by a child from parents and significant others at home is most likely to have a highly significant and dominant effects on the behaviours of the child later in life. What the child learns at home and how his/her family motivates him/her towards education contributes to the child’s success or failure at school. Even though, environment also plays a very remarkable role in the life and educational success of every individual.

A child’s early home environment has a profound effect on his well-being. Beginning in infancy, a problematic home environment can disrupt the brain’s stress response system, reduce the quality of care giving a child receives, and interfere with healthy development.

Research has linked negative home environments during children’s first three years with a host of developmental problems, including:

i) Poorer language development by age three. 

ii) Later behavior problems. 

iii) Deficits in school readiness. 

iv) Aggression, anxiety and depression. 

v) Impaired cognitive development at age three.2-4 

Longer-term effects have also been documented: A child’s early home environment and the skills he learns in the first three years have been linked to 

High school graduation. 

Teen parenthood. 

Adult employment and earnings.

Most families frequently engaged their children in activities ranging across these dimensions; however, different patterns were observed across different social groups. Families in low socio-economic position households, living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, or with mothers speaking a language other than English at home, provided fewer learning experiences. This may in part be due to the challenges families living in socially and economically disadvantaged circumstances face in accessing the financial and social resources needed to provide a rich early home learning environment for children.

Family influence processes depend, in part, on child and parent development. That is, the relationship between two family members is a developing one, with each member of the relationship affecting the other member over time. Maccoby (1984) discussed at length the effect of child development on bidirectionality. Maccoby highlighted the role of such developmental factors as physical growth, language development, conceptions of others, and autonomy in children's interactions with their parents. As they develop, children become better able to communicate with family members and become increasingly aware of others’ points of view, as well as becoming more skilled at portraying themselves favorably (Newson & Newson, 1976). Children also become more skillful in their approach to noncompliance with parental requests (Kuczynski & Kochanska, 1990). Moreover, children show increasing emotion during conflict with mothers and siblings during the second year of life, and they show increasing understanding of their family members and of ways to comfort their siblings (Dunn & Munn, 1985). These changes enable children to better coordinate their own activities with those of other family members.

At the same time, parents also develop and change in many ways, developments that are, themselves, important to the changing nature of family influence processes. For example, parents adjust their parenting and disciplinary styles to match their children's development (Kuczynski et al., 1987). That is, concurrent with changes in children's interactions with family members, parents respond to their children's cognitive development by using increasingly verbal instructions and explanations in place of physical demonstrations, and by making more sophisticated verbal responses to their children's requests (Maccoby, 1984). With maturity, children are more likely to be influenced by their parents’ petitions to their sense of fairness, and their parents respond to this change by decreasing their emphasis on reward and punishment. Furthermore, older children's greater understanding of mutual obligations means that, as children get older, their parents are more effectively able to discipline by revoking their children's privileges. Older children can also be influenced by their parents’ emphasis on what other people will think of their behavior.

Although we have discussed development here primarily in terms of the parent–child relationship, the same principles apply to other family relationships. Moreover, parents also develop as individuals, independent of their development as parents; that is, their development as adults, outside the realm of the family, likely also contributes to the dynamics of family influence processes (Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan, personal communication, July 26, 2007). Thus, the interacting effects of all family members’ development contribute in important ways to social environment influence.

Besides these, the environment within the family offers special learning conditions for the child and can thus positively improve the development. Especially for young children the home environment is very important, and concrete activities, as, for example, reading aloud are very stimulating. So far it could be shown that a stimulating environment can affect the development even stronger than the socioeconomic origin. Since disadvantaged children often suffer of worse home environments, a lot of federal programs try to compensate for disadvantages in home environments, for example, Head Start in the United States or Sure Start in the United Kingdom. These are designed to level the playing field at or shortly before school entry, for children from less privileged backgrounds and poor social environment. However, there are still some unexplained mechanisms, especially for very young children in Lagos state.