Parenting, Environment, and Its Role in Adolescent Transition into Adulthood

Parenting, Environment, and Its Role in Adolescent Transition into Adulthood

*Nnaemeka Ifeoma. J., Nnaemeka Casmir. N, Godson Chukwudi Anyaorah, Beluonwu Ifeoma., Chike. A., Nwagbo

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria

*Corresponding author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.701145

Received: 10 July 2023; Revised: 14 August 2023; Accepted: 19 August 2023; Published: 19 November 2023

ABSTRACT

Adolescence is the most important stage in every man’s life because it is the bridge that clearly defines the childhood dream and the imagination to actual reality in adulthood. It is a period of storm and stress that comes with multiple complexities, as a result of trauma from, biological, environmental, and social factors. It is not an easy time for adolescents and parents. There are lots of parents- adolescent conflicts that create insecure and unstable feelings which could lead to impulsive and harmful behavior due to both bad parenting and parental dysfunctions. Dealing with these conflicts positively will help the adolescent transform into a more responsible adult which brings about a more responsible society. We discussed the outcome of improper transition due to poor parenting and environmental factors with its complexities and limitation in research on parenting and environment. The importance and problem of home management and environmental influence, understanding the adolescent’s needs, wants, cravings, and the effect of hormones on them. We also provide a contextual explanation of the balance of their role as caregivers and their style of parenting and the negative consequences when relegated and the danger it poses to the adolescent. Also identifying the key factor in parenting by describing the task of a parent and how the society at large influences the process of parenting. We also describe how parental style and environment and resources can affect the adolescent complete transition to adulthood which influence the overall outcome of the individual in terms of understanding, perception, and behavior; suggesting a possible way to abate the crisis by educating parents on when to be what the child needs.

Keywords: Adolescent transition, Parenting, Environment, Adulthood

INTRODUCTION

 Most children suffer parental dysfunction which either makes them underdeveloped or underdeveloped. We may want to ask what underdeveloped or not developing means, but instead let’s ask ourselves what is parenting. Parenting means a mental illness that we willingly accept, whereas motherhood is chronic, and gives us the joy of completeness. It also implies knowing when to be a parent, a friend, a guardian, and an instructor. Functional families are those in which family members are confident about who they are, have positive self-images, and communicate well and freely. Dysfunctional families are comprised of people who are usually self-limiting, those whose personalities seem inhibited, thwarted, or undeveloped: in these families’ communication may be poor, absent, or expressed in destructive or even violent behavior. The Twenty-first [21st] century parent is mostly accidental parents, who were not prepared for the challenges parenting brings. The issues and troubles with the youth of this day have exposed our unpreparedness and unreadiness to be genuine parents. Religion and cultural misinterpretation and practices versus the modern-day fast speed environmental development is not also encouraging, making parenting more of a job than a pleasure. The role of parenting, which includes learning basic values which enable them to develop properly and also family routines, psychosocial environmental factors are potentially important in closing very gaps in children’s development.Previous studies have shown that factors such as socioeconomic status, family functions, family activities, and parenting styles influence the development of young children’s social–emotional competence (Liu J. et al., 2020; Schapira and Aram, 2020; Hooper et al., 2022), have shown that environmental factors, which include parenting styles, activities, and the parent–child relationship influence development. Now, new research by the International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health (2008), based on data from the MCS, confirms that supportive parenting creates a conducive home learning environment that is positively associated with children’s early achievements and well-being. (Kelly, Y., Sacker, A., Del Bono, E., Francesconi, M. & Marmot, M., 2011) This is why we say that the 21st century is not a wonderful time for parenting because many issues are involved. When we talk about the environment, we mean both the home and outside environment, because of the harsh realities of life, parents fend for the home and cannot watch the kids, due to job demands, child upbringing, psychosocial environment, economic situation, compulsory environmental invisible competition, environmental acceptance, and personal decision. Most times parents are very busy meeting up with the external demands of the adolescent leaving the internal demands that are building up. By paying exorbitant school fees, buying expensive clothing, etc., placing them where we think they need and should be, and leaving the most important things they need, which are love, guidance, understanding, and knowing the difference between their childhood imagination and adulthood reality. Society makes it look like the external things are what they need for proper transition but in order words, the parent is overcompensating for what they cannot give because of the challenging environment which has affected parenting in this century

Who are the adolescents?

Let’s talk about these adolescents who are they. Adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19. (WHO.2023) Aside from 0 to 7 years when the cranium and the brain are forming, this is the most important stage in every man’s life, where they need to be told the truth, not to be chosen for, but encouraged the choices they make with reasons and also let them know the actual interpretation of audio-visual learning. Between 0 to 10 years is a period of conflict when your child reaches adolescence is often due more to your child’s internal conflicts than to any desire to undermine your parental authority but simply to be reassured of your support and interest. At this stage, you are not a parent, but a friend where friendship and guardian are submerged because biology and nature are giving them the last formation of the kind of woman /men they will be, without a proper guardian and formation, the next twenty [20] years is not guaranteed. What are the storm and stress of the audio-visual vision learning of the formative years of 0 to10 years, for instance, the husband kissing the wife in the presence of the child means nothing to the child of that age because to him is just a greeting but when biological development comes to play in the adolescence, the young man and the woman starts to understand the maturation of their reproductive system and start questioning and understanding that kissing is not just a greeting but an erectile stimulus. This is why at this stage friendship and guardianship come to play not parenting.

The trauma the child faces comes in various forms; environmental trauma due to peer pressure that lives the child into doing what they don’t want to do and ends up throwing off what they have to gain that does exist. Parents are too busy to know that the young adolescence needs beyond the smartphone, school fees, and learning environment, they need love, care, and interpersonal identification, and above all, they need “A FRIEND” who will hold their hands, walk them down the dark road, scold them with love and guide them to a brighter light, through the basic rigor of human development, without for one day against all odd using it against them Adolescent social life has always been a source of concern. Most parents lose it here that is what it means losing what you have and getting what you have not. In place of helping the adolescent identify who he/she is we give them the smartphone and ask them to browse out who they are or whom they want to be, in place of teaching our children how to change their first menstrual pad, we leave them in the hand of people who will molest them while teaching them how to change their first pad to how to communicate with opposite sex, elders, and for the boys how to place values on their woman and maintain hygiene and know also that doing a little bit of house chores makes you more of a man than less of it. Amidst doing all these we should also not forget that the biological clock is ticking and those hormones and enzymes that are dormant, age and time have activated them, genuine feelings and emotions are on. It is time we tell them exactly the difference between kissing and making out, safe ovulation and menstruation, and most importantly the importance of hygiene and sexually transmitted diseases.

PARENT-ADOLESCENT CONFLICT

Parent-adolescent conflicts are always paramount because at 13 years which is the beginning of adolescence through to twenty-three (23) years. The adolescent is fully developed, has a sense of reasoning, decipher between good and bad, all they need now is a guardian, not parenting (Suleiman AB, Dahl R.,2019)Adolescents need ongoing love and support as they undergo and manage rapid physical, social, sexual, and psychological changes and explore developing their own identity.Suleiman AB, Dahl R.,2019) As they mature, their relationships with their parents shift and adapt to meet the age-specific needs that emerge. Adolescents seek increased independence and autonomy, which requires ongoing renegotiation and re-organization of the parent-child relationship.22 Branje S.,2018) This can lead to higher levels of conflict and less closeness in the caregiving relationship.They need guidance to put it right because the crisis is centered on parental bully versus adolescent child audio vision and adolescent transition into the reality of life by weighing the balance and listening to the parent, where the biological factors are rearranging the entire system to fit in. Adolescent parent crisis is centered on parental dysfunction Looking at all the factors stated above, we can only believe that poor parenting and poor parental dysfunction such as lack of identification of a child’s real personality, bullying of children into what the parent wants them to be, not listening and understanding the needs of the adolescent and above all not knowing their children, have taken a toll in the production of dysfunctional children which leads to a dysfunctional society. External interference by not having enough time to discuss, know and understand our children makes it almost impossible to know the genetic factors in as much as environmental factor plays 60% in what we do. The crisis will continue not until 21st-century parent understands that the greatest gift they can give their adolescent is their time, love, and their understanding. Every other socioeconomic and psychological factor will automatically fall in line. Parental attitudes and child-rearing styles have been recognized as important influences on the development of a child’s personality (Schaefer & Bell, 1958), which have been demonstrated to be related to many aspects of children’s/adolescent behavior, including children’s social assertiveness, social responsibility, cognitive competence (Baumrind,1971; Brown, 1989), social adjustment and peer relationships (Baumrind, 1967; Wentzel, 1990), academic achievement (Metcalf &Gaier,1987), self-esteem (Anderson & Hughes, 1990; Buri, Louiselle,  Misukanis, & Mueller,1988), locus of control (Wichern & Nowicki, 1976), behavior problems (Becker, Peterson, Luria, Shoemaker & Hellmer, 1962), personality dysfunction and psychiatric disorders (Weissman et al., 1987), and many other behaviors. Parenting styles are important contributors to children’s development and adolescent transition. Effective parenting of adolescents builds on the existing strengths, skills and experience of parents, and the benefits of early investments. Better quality parentadolescent relationships are evident where there has been a history of sensitive and responsive interactions since the early years.

PARENTING AND FAMILY UNIT

 In Nigeria, children are regarded as a gift from God and therefore seen as a link to both the ancestors of the past and the future. Parenting is the most important public health issue facing society and the world, it plays a potential role in preventing health problems in children and the adolescent population (Weismann et al., 1987, Wetzel, 1990).in many instances, parents have no vision of the great responsibility in parenting, and on some occasions, there is no special desire for the baby, but a beautiful accident (Armstrong,1974). The early childhood years represent a period in child development when experiences and interactions with parents and family members influence the way a child’s brain develops (UNICEF,2001). It has been implicated in a whole lot of challenges which include childhood illness, accidents, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, truancy, school disruption, underachievement, child abuse, inability to become employed, juvenile crime, and mental illness. Therefore, increasing precise knowledge of the parenting concept is a great necessity. Parenting is not the same as parenthood, which means to be a father or a mother who gives birth, it is not limited to the relationships between parents and children,it is more than that. It is the function, role, and responsibility of the parent in the family unit. In particular, parenting is that role performed by a person that possesses parental status for socializing children and involves responsibility for their well-being, to suitably and positively enhance development in every aspect of their child’s life (Schaefer & Bell, 1958). According to Rutter(1997), parenting is predominantly seen as a task concerning the socialization or education of children that includes dimensions of sensitivity to a child’s needs, social communication and emotional expressiveness, and disciplinary control (Reutter,1997). It is one of the most complicated, challenging, and potentially rewarding tasks that a family or an individual can perform. It is also a learned task, whereby an individual provides for the safety, physical, and emotional well-being of a child by sharing customs and traditions, fostering skills for economic survival, promoting interpersonal and communication skills, and helping children become self-regulatory, productive, and self-actualized. The family is a network of interdependent relationships (Werner et al,2002), and each person influences the behavior of others, indirect and indirect ways. In power and breadth of influence, none can be compared to the role family play. The family introduces children to the physical world through their opportunities, it provides for play and exploration of objects. It also creates bonds between unique people. Attachment to parents and other members of the family usually last a lifetime and serve as a model for relationship in the wider society. Within the family, children learn the basic skills to survive through the role of parenting, and at all times, they turn to the family where the parent is the head for information assistance and pleasurable interaction warm gratifying relationship will predict psychological health throughout the adolescent development in contrast, improper parenting leads to isolation, alienation, conflict among family ties. Many studies have predicted that when parents imbibe the act of warmth and affection and know exactly when to play the role of a friend, guardian, and parent to their kids, children tend to cooperate (Booth et al,2002). However, greater parental involvement may compensate for this lacuna. But the fact is not so, parents are not always available by leaving the children all by themselves without any parental influences. The role working mothers provide not only has pronounced effects on daughters but also alters some perceptions of men and women as well. Daughterswhose mother is working transit into an adult whose perception of the feminine role as involving freedom of choice, satisfaction, and competence-they end up being independent assertive, and achievement-oriented (Hoffman,1989). The sons of working mothers in contrast to those whose mum is not working, will not only perceive women as more competent but view men as warmer and more questioned. The impact of family relationships on child/adolescent transition and development is more complicated when we consider the interaction between them and how it is also being affected by the environment. We should know that as children grow and acquire new skills, the parent should adjust the way they carry on with their parenting role. The child growing independence means that the parent must deal with new issues. Although parent faces new concern every day considering the challenging environment which demands a lot of resources, and time from them. Child rearing becomes easier for those who established an authoritative style during the early years. Reasoning and being a friend work well with adolescents because of their greater capacity for logical thinking and their increased respect for parents expect knowledge (Collins, Madson&Susman-Stilman 2002). As children demonstrate they can manage certain daily activities and responsibilities, your role as a parent shift to that of a guardian does not mean you should let go completely but instead engage in a supervisory role where they exercise general oversight while permitting children to be in charge of the moment-by-moment decision. Parents must guard and monitor from a distance and ensure they communicate their expectations to the child. Although adolescents, during this time of transition, seek greater independence, they also know how much they need their parent’s support, affection, enhancement of self-worth, and assistance with everyday problems (Furman &Buhurmester, 1992). But most parents miss the mark, by continually demanding control and discipline, which push them further away from the family and lead to seeking success from outside. In the longitudinal study (Furma&Buhurmester, 1992), they found out that parents who are warm and involved monitored their child’s activities, and avoided coercive discipline were more likely to have academically and socially competent children. Furthermore, according to Amafo and Fowler (2012) using these authoritative strategies in middle childhood predicted proper transition and reduced engagement in antisocial behavior in adolescents. Parent development affects children as well, parent-child conflict often occurs in early adolescence and is not solely due to teenagers or adolescents striving for independence, most parents of adolescents have reached middle age and are reconsidering their commitment as a result of high demand from the environment, life, and careers they are conscious that their children will soon leave home and establish their own lives (Steinberg&Silk, 2002). Consequently, while the adolescent seeks more autonomy, the parents press for more togetherness- this imbalance promotes friction which parent and adolescent will gradually resolve by accommodating change for one another.

Parenting and the Environment

Parenting and children’s behavior must always be understood in the context of the meaning and values of the individual’s particular sociocultural, (Demos et al,2000). The Nigerian family is changing as many are cutting off the extended family network, thereby placing the role of parenting on themselves alone. Challenges within the environment have placed enormous constraints on them which in turn has affected their role. The increased rate of divorce has placed more burden on single parentswhich in turn affects the development of the child because more children are undergoing marital transition and rearrangement. The family, the more troublesome, the adolescent transition.With economic pressure in our environment, a lot of women are now working mothers,  As mothers spend more time on the job and less at home, family roles and patterns of functioning are changing working mothers have too little time to spend with their children (Booth et al,2002). However, greater father involvement may compensate for this lacuna. But the fact is not so fathers are also not available by leaving the children all by themselves without any parental influences. The role working mothers provide not only has pronounced effects on daughters but also alters some perceptions of men and women as well. Daughters whose mother is working transit into an adult whose perception of the feminine role as involving freedom of choice, satisfaction, and competence-they end up being independent assertive, and achievement-oriented (Hoffman,1989). Although some researcherslike Gottfried et al (1994) have found no significant relationship between an employed mother and adolescent transition and development. But in our environment, judging from personal observation they are a whole lot of negative effects of parental absence in the home. Most parents leave their wards in the care of total strangers due to the loss of communal parenting. This has resulted in many antisocial behaviors among the adolescent. Most times the adult stranger they left their child with is the cause of the traumatic emotions the child had to process as he/she grows. Gottfried et al (1994) also stated that what affects a child/adolescent development is the individual differences among mothers, because research has shown that such factors as parental involvement and the quality of the home environment are linked to children’s development, regardless of the mother’s occupation. Most times, the employed mother feels guilty about leaving the children to work which leads to compensatory behavior where they resort to over-pampering the child with external gratification, not understanding their needs, they try to come for the lack of time they spent at work. Those children grow to be independent, self-sufficient, and responsible for chores at home. But this child lacks adult supervision/monitoring. In most cases this has proven over time to have an adverse consequence for boys, it affects their performance and they tend to have more behavioral problems and an increase in parent-child conflict (Route &Dermid, 1991). This lack of supervision also leads to early dating behavior, precarious sexuality, and greater susceptibility to peer pressure (Satti& Kerr,2000), this is exactly what we are facing among the youth where a majority, because of peer pressure joins various cult and anti-social behavior. It is important to state that whether a father or mother works does not affect development and transition, but rather the nature of their work situation, their attitude, and their role in the family that affect the development of the child. It boils down to saying that we should be mindful of the parental style we employ in our search to better the lives of the family. We must consider these children and the danger that looms when they are left all alone to fend for themselves.

PARENTING AND ADOLESCENT

Many behavioral scientists have a view on pre-adolescence and adolescence as particularly stressful periods during which the child is being pulled and buffeted by the often-conflicting standards of parenting and the influence of their peers. Family relationship plays a role in children being susceptible to pressure which makes adjustment difficult. when families are warm and supportive and neither highly punitive nor highly permission when a parent uses authoritative style children are less likely to succumb to pressure, according to Steinberg (1986) children whose parent are often busy and supervises them little, tend to have greater pressure in anti-social behavior. Parental influence depends on the type of group the adolescent forms.

 Brown and Huang (1995) assessed four dimensions of parenting; warmth, demandingness, psychological autonomy granting, and parental encouragement of education. They found that adolescents in male adaptive crowds did less homework and were more likely to use the drug if their parents were inhibitive, which is low on one of the four dimensions, in contrast, if the parent were facilitative, that is high on one of the adolescents, adolescent did more homework and was less likely to use drugs even if they were in the maladaptive crowd- they adjusted better if their parents were authoritative rather than authoritarian. In this study, the extent to which positive parenting led to pro-social outcomes or problematic parenting to anti-social outcomes depended on the type of peer crowd the child has been pushed into because of less supervision. Parent influence may diminish but then their presence plays a significant role in determining adolescent transition and development.

CONCLUSION

What can we do, in the context of our social world today, to provide the kind of caring community that children need for healthy development, and that parents also need? Perhaps developing trustful parenting in our own family lives is our first and foremost step. Can we complete a historical circle by reviving trustful parenting? Parenting, like essentially all human behaviors, must be understood in the context of the culture in which it exists. Parenting styles derive from broader cultural values, and they help to perpetuate those values. Trustful parents do not measure or try to guide children’s development, because they trust children to guide their development. They support development, rather than guide it, by helping children achieve their own goals when such help is requested and needed. My aims in this essay are to explain why trustful parenting worked so well for hunter-gatherers, why it was replaced by directive parenting in agricultural and industrial societies, and why conditions may now be ripe for a rebirth of trustful parenting. We are told that we must protect children from all sorts of accidents, which means serious restrictions on their forms of play and exploration. We must protect them from diseases, which can be contracted from almost anything they do. We must protect them from predatory adults presumed to be lurking in every neighborhood, and from the harmful influences of peers and of older children or adolescents. We must protect them from their foolishness; we read regularly new data purported to prove that children — especially adolescents—are, for biological reasons, knuckleheads. We must protect children’s fragile self-esteem through constant, increasingly meaningless praise, by attending their games (which we arrange for them) and cheering for them, and by trying to arrange their lives so they never fail. And we must protect their futures, as we are told we can, by forcing them through more and more years and daily hours of an educational system that they do not embrace and does not speak to their real needs and concerns. With all this, and with all good intentions, we deprive children today of freedom at least as much as did parents in feudal and early industrial societies. We don’t beat children, but we use all the other powers that we have as their providers to control their lives. What would it take to revive the trustful parenting style? Many parents would like to adopt a more trustful style, but find it hard to do so. The voices of fear are loud and incessant, and the fears are never completely unfounded. They can’t be completely dismissed. Terrible accidents do happen; adult predators do exist; delinquent peers can have harmful influences; children and adolescents (like people of all ages) do make mistakes; and failure can hurt. We are also, by nature, conformists. It is hard to swim against the current and risk the negative judgments of our parenting peers. Yet some do swim against the current, and a greater number swimming that way may change the river’s direction.

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