One of the most fundamental truths in Africa today is that our culture is no longer essentially African and yet not fully western .Scholars ,religious Leaders and Cultural apologetics struggle so hard to articulate current issues whether in marital setting, family life , governance, or workplace in the context of traditional ,conservative, African culture .I really do not connect with the reasons for such primitive fixation especially in the light of apparent and confounding evidence that the cultural software that drives our current behavioral orientation is a hybrid and not purely of the historical African culture.
Parenting is one fundamental social function that is predictive of sound mental health in the children. Scientific Literature is rich in how parenting, family life and relationships are linked to the mental well being of Children .Communication styles such as amorphous communication patterns where instructions are not explicit but inferred have been associated with mental illness. When the marital relationship is skewed such that the father is either absent or a mere figure could be associated with the development of mental illness.
In the Psychodynamic profiling of the mentally ill, the primary Socialization especially the climate in which a child grows are very crucial in determining his mental well being in adulthood . Once this process gets faulty, the Secondary socialization through peers and others become profoundly powerful and often maladaptive. Parenting is not only an art but a science that is based on certain scientific principles. Parenting is defined as care of the young in preparing them to manage the tasks of life. Parents provide the Childhood experiences and populate the environments that guide Children’s development and contribute to their mental health .Parenting is expressed in cognitive and practices. However, parents do not parent and Children do not grow up in Isolation, but in multiple context s and one notable context of parenting and child mental health is the culture which must be interrogated against sound scientific principles.
Every Culture is Characterized and distinguished from other Cultures, by deep rooted and widely acknowledged ideas about how one needs to feel, think and act as an adequately functioning member of the culture .Insofar as parents subscribe to particular conventions of a Culture , they likely follow prevailing “Cultural Scripts “ in Childrearing which may need review from time to time. Culture Influences when and how parents care for Children, what parents expect of Children , and which behaviors parents appreciate, emphasize and reward or discourage and punish .Thus, Cultural norms become manifest in the mental health of Children through parenting according to Marc Bornstein.
There are about 4 types of parenting styles namely authoritative which is responsive and demanding ;Neglectful which is neither responsive nor demanding ;Indulgent which is permissive ,responsive but not demanding ;and Lastly authoritarian which is demanding but not responsive .
Irrespective of the Style adopted, the ultimate goal is the mental wellbeing of the Children in a way that they turn out to be great citizens of the world , responsible parents and outstanding contributors to the development of Society
The adolescent period is the most Challenging period for the parenting task. Jean Piaget in his Cognitive theory described the adolescent period as being Characterized by ‘Hypotheticodeductive ‘ reasoning when they come up with critically new and profound ideas to challenge the leadership of their parents. This period that is characterized with Conflicts between the adolescent and the parents which may necessitate that some of our cultural paradigms are reviewed as parents seek to understand them practically guided by scientific understanding of this stage with sound spiritual and cultural Principles that are wholesome.
The tendency here is to clamp down on the confrontational adolescent which often leads to a disconnect where the adolescent may come up with a dual –life; Lives another life outside but conforms to the parents ideas while at home. Some may get out rightly rebellious and get into crimes to sustain themselves independent of their parents and to prove that their hypothesis of life is right. Their female counterparts may get into prostitution and even elope with a lover who they feel understand them and has given them the opportunity to express themselves which may get compounded by HIV Infection, unwanted pregnancy and dropping out school .This often occurs when parents get very rigid and legalistic. Communications skills are very important here just as the quality of harmony achieved in the marital relationship is predictive of the parental role where children do not become political tools to settles scores and undermine the authority of each other as a couple. Some parents may even abandon their parental responsibility to a third party because of religion and cultural prescriptions which may invariably lead to moral failure of the children.
Dr Adeoye Oyewole
adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com
+2348034905808(Whatsapp only)
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