This week we pick up with the presentation from Professor Jaipaul Roopnarine on Parenting And Behavioural Health In Caribbean Children. Professor Roopnarine is Professor of Human Development and Family Science, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: 

Learn more about what has been happening globally with children's mental/behavioral health since the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Learn about Parental practices in the Caribbean and its effects as well as learn about how home environments affect children. Learn about positive parenting and how it can benefit children's development and mental and developmental health. 

 Episode HighlightsChildren have been mentally affected by the Pandemic

 Children just like adults have been victims of the Covid-19 Pandemic and have been facing mental and behavioural issues such as Frustration, Boredom, separation fears ,clingy behaviour, Anxiety and Depression among other things. However, they  have been demonstrating resilience and use activities such  fantasy play and artistic expression to cope with the lock downs that have come as a result of the Pandemic.Things that contribute to this resilience include demonstration of attitudes of gratitude,forming trusting relationship with adults and expressions of hope and love for reassurance.

 Parenting Practices and Environment affects children’s behaviour. 

In the Caribbean there are several different parenting styles, parental practices and environments and each of these are risk factors for childrents mental and behavioral development.Parents basic goals are for children to develop a sense of agency and communion to help them develop and cope in society however, in Caribbean society children combat issues such as crime and violence, harsh parenting, neglectful parenting, separation usually due to migration, parental instability, poverty, suicide,substance abuse , natual disasters  and more recently the pandemic. 

While research shows that many caribbean children’s self assessment of happiness is high there are also concerns that are alarming as some children fear abuse whether physically or sexually and a percentage of them have already experienced both forms of abuse as well as psychological aggression from those around them. 

Research shows that there are two groups of parents in the Caribbean and Suriname. They can be understood as high in warmth and low in harshness which usually produces optimal behavioural development in children while the other is high in warmth and high is harshness which usually places children in a place for behavioural and academic difficulties. 

Caribbean parents use 4 main parenting styles: Authoritative Democratic, Autocratic, Permissive and Neglectful/uninvolved. Research in the Caribbean revealed that over ⅓ of parents use the Authoritative democrartic style, 20% use an Authoritarian style  with a smaller percentage proving to be permissive. However the neglectful category had an alarming rate of about 30% across the different countries. These different parenting styles produce different behavioural patterns in children that can range from healthy to unhealthy in terms of internal and external behaviours. While discipline is very important to children's  behavioural development as it helps to instill their understanding of right and wrong the act of discipling ones child in the Caribbean can  sometimes be harsh and Professor Roopnarine explored ways in which this happens in the Caribbean region versus other nations as well as its effects  both in the homes in wider society and suitable alternatives. 

Professor Roopnarine  also highlighted the high exposure to violence and crime that Jamaican children face and how Intimate Partner violence has increased during the period of the pandemic and has also been severely affecting children.