Exploring parenting practices of Guyanese parents based on their upbringing: the connections to their children’s wayward and wandering behaviors

ABSTRACT

Effective parenting experiences of individuals during the childhood years within micro-ecological environments are pivotal to cultivating good parenting practices in later adulthood. This study explored the parenting practices based on upbringing and the connections these practices had on children’s proclivity to wayward and wandering behaviours. The study employed a qualitative exploratory design through a phenomenological approach. It utilized semi-structured interviews to gather data from 10 Guyanese parents of juveniles who had wandered away from home or reported as wayward to the social services in Guyana. The findings suggest that authoritarian parenting style is predominant among this cohort of parents. However, a combined authoritarian and permissive style materialized as an unanticipated outcome. Lack of knowledge of child developmental stages and computer illiteracy emerged as key themes which have implications for appropriate parenting interventions. The findings offer credibility to a strong link between ineffective parenting practices and negative juvenile behavioural outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavior
• parenting
• juvenile/child
• parenting practices
• Guyana

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ms Debbie Patricia Hopkins is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Guyana, Guyana. Her research interests are in the area of children and Women which include child abuse and parenting.

Dr Emmanuel Janagan Johnson is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator for Social Work Unit, Department of Behavioural Sciences at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. His research interests are which include Children and Families, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Social Work Education, Community Development and Community Health.

ORCID

Debbie Patricia Hopkinson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2867-0703

Emmanuel Janagan Johnson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2543-1144

Notes

1 Juvenile Offenders Act Chapter 10:03, p. 4, ‘juvenile’ means anyone under the age of 17 years.

2 There is a heavy reliance on corporal punishment. The more stressed parents were the more frequently they used corporal punishment, quarrelling and shouting and the lower the level of interaction with their children.