An investigation into the child rearing practices of parents and alcohol abuse by black children
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Date
2019
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University of Zululand
Abstract
The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (2014) reported that alcohol is the third highest risk factor contributing to the large scale of disability and disease, and an eighth contributor to global deaths. Significant public health problems in South Africa result from excessive consumption of alcohol (Morajele & Ramsoomar, 2016). Schneider (2007) reported that in South Africa alcohol is responsible for 7% of deaths and 7.1% of the burden of diseases. In their study, Peltzer, Davids and Njuho (2011) assert that in South Africa, it is mostly the young that are most prone to extreme levels of alcohol consumption, therefore exposed to alcohol-related burden of diseases. The South African numbers are disproportionately high to those of peers globally (WHO, 2011, 2014). Hazardous behaviours including binge drinking as well as drinking to intoxicate, are on the rise.
Despite all this, very few studies investigating alcohol abuse have been conducted in South Africa; except for the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of 1998 and 2003. In South Africa as in most countries, a gap has been observed in the literature on parental role and/or influence in their children’s self-destructive behaviours (i.e. including the abuse of alcohol) (Chapman & Werner- Wilson, 2008; Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991; Sprecher, Harris & Meyers, 2008). Most studies and intervention programmes deal with behaviour change on an individual; parents who have to deal with the ever-changing landscape of teenagers and young adults are left out as spectators; untrained to deal with parenting teenagers in the era of excessive substance abuse.
The aim of this study is to bridge this gap by looking into the child-rearing practices and perceptions of parents on alcohol abuse of their adolescent children. Investigating Child Rearing Practices and Perceptions of Parents on Alcohol Abuse of their children will assist to find out what can be included in intervention programmes for parents. The focus of the study was on Black adolescents in Empangeni.
The study consisted of a sample of 54 parents that were divided into five groups. Three groups consisted of ten people each, and then two groups of 12 people each. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems and Family Systems Theories formed the central theories for the study. The study followed a qualitative design that adopted phenomenological approach principles in data collection and analysis i.e. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as presented by Lester (1999).
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Findings indicate a sense of helplessness and inadequacy on the part of the parents and/or caregivers regarding the appropriate parenting skills and strategies. These emanate from the disintegration of family structure, and from the fact that some parents blame the government for interfering on how they should raise their children. Parents therefore expressed a need for parent-oriented intervention programmes and support from the government and communitybased organisations.
A Psychosocial Parenting Framework based on the themes (results) from this study is suggested for developing intervention programmes.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Community Psychology in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2019
Keywords
African worldview, Psychosocial Parenting, Alcohol abuse