**Author details**

**Parenting Style Nigeria**

92 Parenting in South American and African Contexts

**9. Conclusion**

**No of Participants = 355**

**Cameroon No of Participants = 156**

**Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev.**

**Table 8.** Parenting style mean scores for Nigerian and Cameroon participants (Extracted from [27])

belief in and adoption of authoritarian parenting strategy on the other hand [3].

Permissive 9.76 3.43 20.30 5.61 26.05 P<.05

Authoritarian 17.81 5.12 20.64 3.87 6.17 P<.05

Authoritative 33.19 7.21 16.86 4.01 - 26.55 P<.05

From table 8 above it can be seen that Nigerian participants scored significantly higher than Cameroonian participants on authoritative scale indicating that Nigerian parents are more authoritative in their parenting strategy than Cameroonian parents. On the other hand Cameroonian participants scored significantly higher than Nigerian participants on permis‐ sive and authoritarian parenting scale. This indicates that Cameroonian parents are more permissive and authoritarian in their parenting approach than Nigerian parents. However the authoritarian parenting style being practiced by Cameroonian parents are indirect and invisible. The findings also agree with the findings of [18], that reported permissive parenting practices among Cameroonian parents on the one hand and report of Cameroonian parents'

The importance of studying parenting practices is (i) to determine the nature, and variety of practices that parents adopt while bringing up their children, and (ii) to examine the effectiveness and benefits of such practices. From the reviewed literature, " see [18, 7], and the studies reported here, it can be deduced that parental practices vary from one culture to another culture and such practices reflect the cultural values of the society. Nigeria is a collectivistic and patriarchal society with values such as obedience to authority figures, compliance with parental instructions, cooperation and helpfulness within and outside the extended family systems, communal living and good interpersonal relationship. Accord‐ ing to the studies reported here, the Nigerian parents practice dominantly authoritative parenting style and the hybrid authoritarian/authoritative parenting style. Cameroon is also a collectivistic and patrilineal society that values communal living, extended family system and observational learning, learning through play and interaction with peers, and from the findings reported here, the Cameroonian parents dominantly practice permissive parent‐ ing style and the permissive/authoritarian parenting style hybrid. Although Nigeria and Cameroon are collectivistic societies, they still practice different parenting styles and the parenting styles being practiced by these two collectivistic Countries must have been effective in achieving their parenting goals. It has been found in a study that young people

**T calculated "t"**

**P**

Esther F. Akinsola\*

Address all correspondence to: foluk6@yahoo.com

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Nigeria

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**Chapter 6**

**Parenting in Amazonian Riverside Context**

Parenthood is known for its importance in the development of children in different parts of the world. Parental relationships consist of routine actions of care that are necessary for the survival and well-being of the young, including beliefs, values, and expectations in a given

Through the journey of daily care, parents and caretakers gradually prepare children with education that is considered important to be inserted into various social contexts, in addition to taking care of the physical and emotional needs of children [4]. Therefore, parenthood involves social practices performed by those who take care of or are responsible for the education of children, serving as examples of values and beliefs. Culture and history also

What is considered adequate, as well as practices that promote what is considered appropriate in the development of children vary from culture to culture, even within the same country over time history [4]. According to the authors [6] this understanding reflects the contextualist paradigm that challenges the neo-positivist view of the data collected in a given society may be relevant in another, as well as data collected in a particular historical moment are necessarily significant in a period later [6]. In this sense, it is necessary to examine parenting in many social

According to reference [7], the differences observed in beliefs and care practices in different cultures can be described by cultural models that express different methods of parenthood. Parents with high levels of education who live in a city have socialization techniques that are different from those of families with low levels of education who live in the country [7,6].

> © 2013 da Silva Costa et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Simone Souza da Silva Costa, Tatiana Afonso,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Thamyris Maués dos Santos and

Fernando Augusto Ramos

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/57056

participate in this process [5,6].

**1. Introduction**

culture [1- 6].

groups.

