**4. Studies on Nigerian samples: Study 1 [14]**

#### **4.1. Participants**

The participants were made up of 852 secondary school students from Ibadan a city in the South West of Nigeria and Ikom another city in the South East of Nigeria respectively. Of this sample, 585 students were from Ibadan, and 267 students were from Ikom. The students from Ibadan are from the Yoruba tribal group, and those from Ikom are from the Efik tribal group. There were 436 males and 416 females in the sample with their ages ranging between 11yrs and 24 yrs, and a mean age of 15.7yrs.

The convenience sampling method which was based on availability was employed in this study. Three research assistants who doubled as secondary school graduate teachers on national youth service assignments were recruited and requested to administer the question‐ naires to the students in their respective schools in Ibadan, (South West, Nigeria) and Ikom, (South East Nigeria).

#### **4.2. Yoruba tribal group**

6 items measures authoritarian parenting style while 9 items measures authoritative parenting style. In addition participants' responses to the scale items in the adapted version varied according to the five point Likert Scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree on a scale of 1 to 5. This differs from the responses to the scale items in Baumrind's version which is a "yes"

Examples of the items in the adapted scale include "My parents respects my privacy", "My parents really expects me to follow family rules", "My parents give me a lot of freedom". For the permissive parenting style, the number of items is five. If a respondent is uncertain for all the items his score would be 15. Therefore any score that is higher than 15 is taken as a permissive score. Consequently for authoritarian parenting style (6 items), any score that is higher than 18 is taken as an authoritarian score, and for authoritative parenting style (9 items) any score that is higher than 27 is taken as an authoritative score. For this adapted scale, the following correlation coefficients for a 5-week interval test retest reliability analysis were

It is important to note here that the low test retest reliability coefficient for authoritarian parenting items may be explained on the following premise. Since Nigerian children's perception of their parents' parenting styles progresses and shifts towards authoritative parenting as they grow up, a shift in this direction might have occurred between the first test and the retest of the participants to the effect that it lowered the reliability of the authoritarian parenting items and increase the reliability of the authoritative parenting items at the retest point. This shift in perception is more likely because the reliability data was collected on Yoruba participants who tend to perceive their parents as more authoritative than authoritarian as they grow older. The implication then is that the reliability coefficient for authoritarian items

The participants were made up of 852 secondary school students from Ibadan a city in the South West of Nigeria and Ikom another city in the South East of Nigeria respectively. Of this sample, 585 students were from Ibadan, and 267 students were from Ikom. The students from Ibadan are from the Yoruba tribal group, and those from Ikom are from the Efik tribal group. There were 436 males and 416 females in the sample with their ages ranging between 11yrs

The convenience sampling method which was based on availability was employed in this study. Three research assistants who doubled as secondary school graduate teachers on national youth service assignments were recruited and requested to administer the question‐ naires to the students in their respective schools in Ibadan, (South West, Nigeria) and Ikom,

obtained: Permissive r = 0.67, authoritarian r = 0.35, Authoritative r = 0.80[24].

may still be lower if samples that are older than the present sample is tested.

**4. Studies on Nigerian samples: Study 1 [14]**

and 24 yrs, and a mean age of 15.7yrs.

or "no" response.

84 Parenting in South American and African Contexts

**4.1. Participants**

(South East Nigeria).

Behaviourally, the Yoruba tribal group demands respect for and obedience to authority figures and elders and they tend to believe that children are to be seen and not heard and to do as they are told. At the same time they demonstrate parental responsiveness and warmth by using behavioural and monitoring controls over their children by monitoring where they are, what they are doing and with whom they are because they are more family oriented and they value family integrity and dignity. Although they do not allow parent-child dialogue, they explain and give reasons for their disciplinary measures and actions. In this respect their children may perceive their parenting style as either authoritarian, or authoritative, or a mixture of both.

#### **4.3. Efik tribal group**

Behaviourally, the Efik tribal group are not as demanding of respect and obedience to authority figures as the Yoruba tribal group. This is because they tend to be more community oriented by organising themselves into community associations and ensuring regular and frequent meetings for cohesion and bonding, and they punish defaulters. The enforcement of com‐ munity or tribal bonding and involvement may be perceived as authoritarian approach by members of the tribal group. It is therefore expected that young people of Efik decent would perceive the parenting style under which they were brought up as more authoritarian.

#### **4.4. Procedure**

All the participants were secondary school students in their respective schools. As requested by their teachers, they completed a written questionnaire. The questionnaire contains three sections. The first section is a biographical information form. One of the remaining two sections contains measures of parenting style. Below are results of the parenting style section of the research.


Results:

\* Note: Critical X2 = 1.645, P<.05 Extracted from [14]

**Table 1.** Distribution of Parenting styles and their hybrids

In table 1, the highest number of participants perceived their parenting style as authoritative (381 or 45.3%). This is followed by the hybrid combination of authoritarian/ authoritative style ( 248 or 29.8%). Undifferentiated parenting style hybrid followed with (81 or 9.0%), and then authoritarian parenting style with (72 or 8.1%). The chi-square values for these proportions are significant at P<.05. These are the parenting styles that had over 5% representation in the sample studied. These results indicate that adolescents and young people brought up under authoritative parenting style and the hybrid combination of authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles are significantly represented in the sample studied in this research.

The analysis presented in table 3 indicated that participants of Yoruba decent significantly perceived their parenting style as more authoritative, less authoritarian and less permissive, while participants of Efik decent significantly perceived their parenting style as more author‐

Cultural Variations in Parenting Styles in the Majority World Evidences from Nigeria and Cameroon

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/57003

87

Participants in this study were made up of 352 students from a Private University in Ogun State, and a Federal University in Lagos State, both from the South Western part of Nigeria. The students from both universities were sampled on the basis of availability. They were undergraduate students studying psychology, and they were selected from 100 to 400 level. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 32 years. 144 of the participants were males and 208 were females. All the participants were full time students in their respective universities. The participants completed a written questionnaire that contained biographical information section and measures of parenting style, and some selected personality variables. Below are

**Parenting Styles No/Parenting style % X2**

Authoritarian 32 9.1 2.51\*

Authoritative 215 61.1 10.37\*

Authoritarian & Authoritative 105 29.8 5.41\*

In table 4 above, the highest number of participants (215, or 61.10%) fell under authoritative parenting style. This is followed by the hybrid combination of authoritarian and authoritative parenting style (105, or 29.80%). The next in number is authoritarian parenting style (32, or 9.10%). The chi-square values for these proportions were significant at P<.05. From this result, participants brought up under the three parenting styles were significantly represented in the sample studied. This result therefore validates an earlier documentation of the practice of the

Total 352 100.0

authoritarian and authoritative parenting style hybrid by Nigerian parents.

itarian, more permissive and less authoritative.

**5. Study 2 [13]**

Results:

**5.1. Participants and procedure**

the results for the parenting style measure.

\* Note: Critcal X2 = 1.645, P<.05 Extracted from [13]

**Table 4.** Distribution of parenting styles and their hybrid


**Table 2.** Number & Percentages of Participants under each Parenting Style by Ethnic Groups (Extracted from [14])


**Table 3.** Means & Standard Deviations for Participants' scores on Parenting Styles by Ethnic groups df = 849 \*\*P<.01 (Extracted from [14])

Results in table 2 under the ethnic groups indicate that more participants of Yoruba decent perceived their parenting style as authoritarian, authoritative, and the hybrid combination of authoritarian/authoritative than participants of Efik decent. The results are: authoritarian: Yoruba – 44 or 4.9%, Efik– 28 or 3.10%; authoritative: Yoruba- 289 or 34.3%, Efik- 92 or 11%; authoritarian/authoritative combination: Yoruba- 157 or 18.5%, Efik- 91 or 11.3%.

The analysis presented in table 3 indicated that participants of Yoruba decent significantly perceived their parenting style as more authoritative, less authoritarian and less permissive, while participants of Efik decent significantly perceived their parenting style as more author‐ itarian, more permissive and less authoritative.
