Table of Contents

Section 1
Background
Definition of Research Problem
Aims and Objectives of study
Literature Review

Section 2
The research design
Sociological Perspective
The Sample/Selection of Subjects to be Studied
The Data Collection: Instrument and Techniques

Section 3
Presentation of Data
Analysis of data
Discussion of Findings and Conclusions
Bibliography
 Introduction
(a)(i) Background
San Juan is a busy town along the East-West corridor in Trinidad with a population of 54 900
(2004). Parents tend to influence the lives of teenagers in the community of El Socorro, this
study is being conducted to identify the impact parents have on the overall development of
teenagers. According to functionalist parents provide emotional and practical support for
teenagers. However, in Trinidad and Tobago there are numerous ways in which parents
contribute towards teenager’s overall development. In Secondary Schools in Trinidad and
Tobago students face many challenges such as: problems with peers, issues with authority, social
inadequacy, time management problems with academics and extracurricular activities. With all
of the challenges students face on a day to day basis, this study is being done to examine role of
parents in their teenagers lives.” Two police stations are situated within the town.

(ii)Definition of Research Problem

In my community, parents play an active role in their children lives. Therefore, I have decided to
examine parents’ role on the overall development teenagers because during stage in a child’s life
they experience many development changes and parents influence tend to affect their decisions.
The role of parents is to provide for their child and should aim to ideal growth and development
of their children, to help them have satisfactory biological, social, psychological and emotional
growth. How a teenager development is affected by their parents?
 Aims and Objectives
Aims:
• To identify the skills necessary to conduct research
• To understand how relationships affects teenager’s overall performance.

Objectives
• To identify the role of parents on teenagers psychological wellbeing.
• To determine how parents contributes to the discipline of teenagers.
• To examine how parents’ influences teenager’s social lives.
 Literature Review
To fully examine the role of parents into the overall development of teenagers in Apple Lane
Morvant , a multitude of sources were examined. These source included blogs, websites,
magazines, newspapers and books.

Carl E Pickhardt Ph.D (2010) states that, “The child tends to idealize the parents, the adolescent
tends to criticize the parents, and the young adult tends to rationalize the parenting received.”
According to Carl Pickhardt a psychologist and author of 15 parenting books as well as books of
illustrated psychology and adult and children's fiction. Adolescents tend to be critical,
dissatisfied, argumentative, passively resistant, moody, distant, less cooperative, and less
compliant to live with. However, during this period of the teenager’s life, parents must now
accept being cast in a more negative one by the fault-finding adolescent. Carl Pickhardt also
elaborates on the fact that teenager’s evaluation become more critical of their parents and they
partly try to justify their independence from their parents. This study contributes to the overall
development of teenagers. This was a credible source because the author had valuable
information and there was also background information on the author.

According to an article titled Family and Adolescents Wellbeing published by Familyfact.org a

credible source that contained background information on the website and footnotes relating to
the article. The article states that, “Children in intact families tend to exhibit better emotional and
psychological well-being and are less likely to exhibit behavioural problems such as school
violence, juvenile delinquency and substance abuse.” In addition, it has been specified that
children in intact families (both biological father and mother present) tend to report lower levels
of psychological distress this included: how often they feel sad, tense, lonely, excited, happy.
However, teens who parents remarried or were in a cohabitating relationship are more likely to
experience psychological distress. Therefore, this study relates to the role of parents on teenagers
psychological wellbeing.

Alice Drinkworth is a writer and journalist and in article titled, Positive & Negative Influences of
Parents on Their Children 2016 expressed that parents who are involved in their teens lives tend
to know where their teen is after school and at often times have meet most of their friends. The
author insisted parents of teenagers who are not involved tend to participatein deviant behaviour
like smoking, drinking alcohol or fighting. Drinkworth noted that children are incline to mask
their parents behaviours for example if their parent practices heathy eating habits, most likely
their child are incline to follow. Whereas a child of an alcoholic parent is four times more likely
to become an alcoholic, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. The author
suggested solutions on positive parenting by being available to the teen in talking about subjects
that interest them and knowing their friends. This research examined how parents’ influences
teenager’s social lives.
 The Research Design

Research is defined as the systematic study of materials and sources in order to establish facts
and reach new conclusion. Quantitative methodology in the form of a questionnaire was used to
research the objectives of the research. The questionnaire was used because it is practical, large
amounts of information can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time
and in relatively cost effective way. Fifteen questionnaires comprising of twenty-three close
ended questions and two open ended questions were systematically issued to parents of #Apple
Lane Morvant with all being returned. Close-ended questions were selected for use because it
was easier and quicker for respondents to answer, the answers of different respondents were
easier to compare, answers were easier to code and statistically analyse and the response choices
clarified question meanings for respondents. The use of secondary data was also used for
example articles in the Literature Review.
 Sociological Perspective
Closed or Structured Questionnaires are a quantitative method of research, which was advocated
by Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). It is a positivist research method, which includes the low level
of involvement of the researcher and high number of respondents.

A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful

information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered,
questionnaires become a vital instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups
or people or entire populations.

It is based on the idea that all data and interpretations are grounded in what is measurable and
observable. All data is based on hearsay or other forms of indirect or revealed authority. This
limits the data to the material, natural world.
 Cover Letter
Dear Participants,

My name is Jane Doe . I attend River Lane College, and I am in the sixth form. The Caribbean
Examination Council (CXC) Sociology syllabus requires a questionnaire for the Internal
Assessment. The topic that I selected was “An examination into the role of Parents on the
overall development of teenagers in # Apple Lane Morvant .”

I am requesting your assistance to complete this questionnaire for my IA. You are advised to
answer all the questions truthfully. I can assure you that all information will be kept confidential.
I am looking forward to your participation.

Thank you in advance for co-operation.

Yours respectfully,

____________________
 Presentation of Data
A total of 15 questionnaires were distributed to parents who live in Apple Lane Morvant out of
which 14 was returned. Of these parents 40% were male and 60% were female.

Figure 1
is a pie chart showing the responses of parents towards teenagers having trouble focusing
or concentrating.
28% said that their teenager always has trouble focusing and concentrating on a task at hand
while 42 % said sometimes, 21% responded with rarely and a small amount 9% said never.
Figure 2 Bar graph showing ways in which parents encourage their teens to achieve their goals.

54% of parents agree that motivating, setting strict and allowing them to figure it out themselves
are ways to help teens achieve their goals. 13% agreed that they motivate their teens and another
13% allow them to figure it out themselves. Conversely 20% set strict rules for their teens to
achieve their goals.
Figure 3 is a doughnut pie chart that displays parents’ responses to setting house rules for their teens.

87% of parents said they set rules while 13% said no they do not set rules.

Figure 4 is a 3D column illustrating how often teenagers engaged in violence at school.

33% of parents selected never to question how often dose the teenager engage in violence, 20%
said Always while 27% said sometimes and the rest (20%) choose rarely.
 WAYS TO DISCIPLINE TEENAGERS
Talking to the teen 40%

Beating 26%

Verbal Abuse 0%

Grounding / taking away personal items 20%

Ignore 13%

Figure 5 is a table showing ways in which parents discipline their teenagers.

Majority of parents 40% talk to their teen as a form of discipline, 26% resort to beating. 20%
Ground / take away their personal items and a small amount 13 % ignore.

Figure 6 is a 3D clustered Bar graph showing the extent social interaction among teens and parents is helpful for
their development.
27% of parents strongly agree that social interaction between parents and teen is helpful for their
development into adults, while 33% agree that it is helpful. 13% of parents remain undecided,
20% disagree and a small amount 7 % strongly disagree.

Figure 7 is a 3D pie chart showing parents answer to religion being an important factor for a child’s development.

54% of parents agreed to the question religion being an important factor for child’s development
while 46% disagreed.
 Analysis of Data
From the survey conducted it can be inferred that the role of parents is important for the overall

development of teenagers in #Apple Lane Morvant . Of the fifteen (15) respondents 6 parents

came from single parent families, while 2 came from nuclear families; however the remaining 7

came from extended families. The 6 respondents that came from single parent families where

between the ages 18-30 years’ old and the 7 that came from extended families were between the

ages 30 to 50 years old. Moreover, the age difference between the parents from single parents

and extended families could be a result of teenage pregnancy and isolation from family because

of poor choices. Parents in extended families tend to be older because of old family values that

have been passed on from generation to generation which promotes marriage before becoming a

parenthood.

Referring to Figure 1. majority of the respondents 42% stated that sometimes their teen has

trouble focusing or concentrating on a task at hand, 20% of these respondents agreed that their

family is dysfunctional. Dysfunctional families tend to play an integral role in the child’s

development and at times because of disagreement within the family teenagers have trouble

concentrating on tasks such as school work, chores and other activities. However more than 50%

of respondents agree that their teen feel more comfortable speaking them, this shows that it’s not

entirely disagreements that cause problems when it comes to the child concentrating it could

thereby be teens not feeling comfortable speaking to their parents.

Figure 2. indicates that 54% of parents selected all of the above when asked how they encourage

their teen to achieve his or her goal, while a small amount 13% allow their teen to figure it

themselves. This shows that most parents motivate, set strict rules and eventually allow their

teens to figure out their goals for themselves. This illustrates that the parents’ role in the teen’s

life is beneficial because they help with important decisions they will have to endure and guide

them on the right path.

Most parents agree that setting house rules is important for the development of their teens

because it help them learn self-discipline and respect for others. When respondents were asked if

they set house rules in Figure 3 a vast amount 87 % said yes while a small amount 13 % said no.

Of the respondents that said yes more 60% were neutral when asked if teens obeyed the house

rules put in place. From this it can be inferred that even though parents set rules, some cases

these rules will be eventually broken. Parents influence is not entirely to be blame if teens break

house rules there are also outside factors such as peer influence and social media which perfumes

the mind of teenagers.

When respondents were asked if their teen ever engaged in school violence 33% said never while

20% said always. Out of the 20% that engaged in violence 15% said no to previous question if

they set house rules for their teens to follow. Moreover, parents contribute to discipline of

teenagers by the setting of rules from home, Figure 5. A table 40% parents discipline their teens

by talking to them whereas 26% resort to beating their teen as a form of discipline. Contrasting

to the fact 13% ignore their teen as a source of discipline, beating teen can cause conflict

amongst the parent and child and could later cause the teen to resent his or her parents.
Social interaction among teen and their parents is important because when teen and their parents

get together for social gatherings there is an opptunity for them to share their stories and the

problems they face either school wise or friendship related. In Figure 6. 27% Strongly agreed

that social interaction is helpfully for teens development into adulthood while 33% just agreed.

Conversely only 7% of the respondents strongly agree that social interaction between two parties

wouldn’t be helpful. Lastly when the question was asked to respondents if they agree that

religion is an important factor to their child’s development more than half 54 % agree while least

then half 46% disagreed. In most families’ religion is an important factor to a child’s

development, as an outcome of this survey its mostly important in extended and nuclear families.