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The Influence Of Fathering Style On Social Adjustment Among Adolescents
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
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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. 1.2
Statement of the Problem The most turbulent state of human development
is agreeably the adolescent stage. The adolescent is characterized by
identity crisis, aggressive, hostile and manifest destruction behaviour.
This problem is related to father’s attitude and style in reaching out
to the adolescent since it affects his confidence level in relating with
people he comes across. When he becomes withdrawn, feels rejected,
depressed and frustrated (Nwadinigwe, 2004). Fathering styles have
correlation with the up bringing of their children. For instance,
fathers who adopt the I-don’t-care attitudes in nurturing their children
especially the girl-children, will end up fathering children who are
wayward, recalcitrant, rascal and maladjusted in the family and the
immediate community or society. For instance, a child (girl) whose
father does not meet up with her demands or basic needs may go out to
meet her peers who would misadvice, misdirect and mislead her into
joining a gang of sexual prostitutes or women of easy virtues who use
their bodies to get material things they lack at home. When fathers
neglect to rear their children very well, it leads the girls to engage
themselves befriending men, the opposite sex who they feel will protect
them like their fathers and provide them what they lack in fathers. This
association could lead to promiscuity, premarital sex, unwanted
pregnancy and abortion which consequently lead to termination of life
and career of the adolescent. It is in this vein that Clinton (1995) saw
a father as a man stabilizing strong influence upon his children,
providing means by which his children may face the outside world with
confidence.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]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 fat ... Continue reading---
