Putting the self back in the child—An African perspective

Abstract

Many theorists and helping professionals have emphasized the importance of self‐concept in personal adjustment. Increasingly, theorists and caregivers are perceiving self‐concept as playing a pivotal role in the specific realm of learning, teaching and everyday living. As clinicians and scientists we see daily the close tie between parental competence, teacher's influence and emotional functioning and how children succeed with many of life's worries. Insufficient attention has been paid to the theoretical underpinnings of predicting children's emotional reactions to stress and conflict with self from a systems viewpoint. Longitudinal preventive and developmental studies of adults’ influence on children's ability to cope with life's stresses and classroom's conflict, through polydimensionl procedures incorporated into a therapeutic counselling or consulting atmosphere that includes caring, respect, empathic understanding and acceptance, are mandatory. Theoretical frameworks are already developed which must be drawn on to drive the best predictions of when and how to involve our child client (patient) with social and family support. The current essay will attempt to bridge school and family systems and social network theories to the understanding of children's coping with self in a bid to enhance their self‐concept.

Key Word:

• Conflict
• self‐concept
• classroom
• child

Notes

∗Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Adebowale Akande

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adebowale Akande∗

∗Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Adebowale Akande