The Influence of Family and Parent Types on the Child Rearing Practices of Parents: Nigerian Experience

Abstract: This study investigated the influence of family and parent types on the child rearing practices of parents of children in day care centres in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested. The population studied consisted of 12080 parents of children (age from birth to 3 years) in the 604 government approved crèche/nursery schools in the State. A sample of 1200 parents (respondents) was drawn from this population using multistage random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a 51-item Child Rearing Practice Scale (CRPS) with Pearson’s average reliability coefficient of 0.84 adapted to evaluate child rearing practices under the five domains of child rearing related to infancy, namely: feeding, cleaning, protection, stimulation and monitoring of growth and development. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while one-way analysis of variance and independent t-test were used where appropriate to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. The findings revealed that family-type and parent-type of parents of children in day care centres in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria significantly influence the child rearing practices of such parents. Parents of children from extended family do significantly better in child rearing practices than their nuclear family counterparts, while those of two-parent families do significantly better than their single parent and step-parent counterparts. The findings are of practical essence to day care centres, social welfare centres, government and some non-governmental organizations.

Key words: family type, parent type, child rearing, mother.