Socialization of children into compliance systems in Botswana.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine children's perceptions of compliance system and antecedent socialization practices in the developing country of Botswana, Africa. Predictions were made concerning the effects of sex, family structure and school setting on children's liking for authority figures, guilt feelings about noncompliance, willingness to enforce authority fifures' rules, perception of authority figures' willingness to help, power to punish noncompliance and intersystem support. Predictions also were made regarding parental childrearing practices and attitudes and their relationship to the child variables cited above. Children were 427 boys and girls, 10 to 16 years-old attending primary school grades 5,6, and 7 in Serowe, Botswana. Your ideas about people and rules (YIAPR) was administered to the children in four schools (2 Tswana-medium, an English-medium, and a parochial school). Forty-eit questionnaires were randomly selected to identify the parents/guardians to be given a home interview. A 2 X 2 X 4 (sex X Family structure X school) MANOVA revealed significant differences in children's perceptions of authority and internallization of rules. A 3 X 2 X 2 (Age X Sex X Family Structure) ANOVA revealed significant differences in parental socialization practices and attitudes. A Pearson Correlation failed to indicate any relationship between parental socialization practices and children's perceptions of compliance systems. The data revealed that girls were more supportive of the compl;iance system than boys. Girls were more likely than boys to perveive authority figures as willing to help to show a personal liking for authority figures. Figures also were found to report guilt feelings more often than boys. However, boys were more likely to view authority figures as having punitive power. School differences indicated that children from Tswana-medium schools perceived more intersystem support and were willing to enforce rules more often than were children from English-medium and parochial schools. School fifferences regarding the authority figures power to punish noncompl;iance was inconsistent. Parental socialization practices were found to be influenced by age, SES, and family structure. Older parents/guardians used physical discipline more often than younger parents/guardians. In middle classes, members of extended families had more ruiles than members of nuclear families. Furthermore, in upper classes, older parents/guardians of extended families expressed more traditional childbearing attitudes than older parents/guardians from nuclear families. The relationship between parents socialization practices and children's perceptions of compliance systems was not confirmed. The findings suggest that it is the children's perceptions of their relationship with the authority figures which result in internalization of rules. However, the marginal move of Tswana parents toward Western child realing practices may result in dissonance which produces a strain on the parent-child relationship.