Community-Based Green Care Initiative-A Catalyst for Sustainable Parenting Styles, Teaching Patterns and Early Child Self-Esteem in Nigeria

Community-based green care initiative is an intervention geared towards satisfying the environmental, social, psychological, medical and material care for stimulating healthy well-being of children, adolescence and adults. Evidence-based studies have established that there is continual degeneration of self-esteem among adolescence in developing countries including Nigeria due to problems associated with unsustainable parenting styles and teaching patterns. It is in the light of this, the study examines a community-based green care initiative as a catalyst for sustainable parenting styles, teaching patterns and child self-esteem in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted exploratory survey design and tested three hypotheses on the subject matter. A selfstructured questionnaire and in-depth interview guide were used for data collection. Quantitative data were analysed through percentage distribution table and multiple regressions while qualitative data were analysed using direct quotes. Findings were discussed with reference to relevant empirical literatures and future research highlighted.


INTRODUCTION
In recent times, issues relating to parenting style, teaching patterns and self-esteem are gaining more attention among academicians, educators and policy makers. This is due to the fact that many of the social problems in contemporary societies are significantly linked to unsustainable parenting styles, poor teaching methodologies and low self-esteem. There are empirical evidences to support this assertion. For example, the study conducted by Sedlak and Broadhurst, (1996)  conditions. It also investigates the influence of community-based green care initiative on parenting styles, teaching patterns and child selfesteem.

Clarification of Key Concepts
For the sake of proper understanding of this study, a conceptual clarification of concepts was conducted under this section.

Concept of Community-based Green Care
Green care is currently evolving as a comprehensive term used to describe any intervention that involve the use of nature, plants or  horticultural therapy (is the use of plants by a professional with special training to attain some clinical goals), green exercise (is the use of physical activities such as walking, cycling, horse riding etc. as an intervention to promote healthy well-being and self-esteem) and ecotherapy (is the practice of using conservation, local habitat or a green space as a therapy to assist vulnerable people to act in tandem with nature as well as to stimulate their development of healthy well-being and social inclusion). Based on this reality, the next section shall discuss the guiding principles that are essential to community-based green care initiative. Thereafter, we will examine the concept of parenting styles, teaching patterns and self-esteem.

Guiding Principles of Community-based Model Program
An extant review of literature revealed some guiding principles that are very essential to the development of community-based model program. intervention is that all person and family with illness in the community must enjoy stable and unrestricted access to green care facilities. This may warrant that certain coordination and geographical planning would be executed in order to that local capacity is adequate to meet the needs of community residents. However, full access to community-based green care services might attract service fees or payment through insurance plans.

Provide value:
Community-based green care interventions are expected to provide high quality services to person and family seeking health care services. It must also develop sustainable financial model through which effective care teams, technology and resources required to provide high quality health and social services to patient and family can be made available.

Parenting Styles
Parenting styles are various forms of behaviour that parents or guardian employ in the process of parenting a child. Parenting is a multidynamic activity that involves many specific behaviours and attitudes operating independently and collectively to influence the child development. According to Baumrind (1991) Third, the permissive parents are high in responsiveness but low in demandingness. They are lenient, non-directive and do not require mature behaviour.

Teaching Patterns
Teaching is an act or science of bringing about desirable changes in human learning, abilities and behaviour so as to promote better living (Dorgu, 2015). Teaching helps individuals to secure the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to be responsible citizens (Dorgu, 2015).

Research Design and Population
This study adopts descriptive survey design in which self-administered questionnaire and in-depth interview were used. The consideration for combining both questionnaire and in-depth interview is to fully capture.
The population of the study comprise of pupils and teachers in selected secondary schools in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. One hundred pupils (50 males and 50 females) and twenty (20) teachers were randomly sampled from ten (10)

Methods of Data Analysis
Two methods of data analysis were adopted namely: quantitative and qualitative methods. Data analysis was done at two (2)

Ethical Considerations
Authorization was sought from the management of the schools before conducting the field work. Likewise, consent of the respondents was sought and obtained before the questionnaire was administered on them. All the respondents were made to know that they are free to back out of the study at any point in time and that their identity is kept anonymous and strictly confidential.

RESULTS
This section deals with the statistical testing for relationship between the variables understudy and the research hypotheses formulated for this study. In doing this, inferential statistics were used as the tool for analysis. Pearson Chi-Square = 93.68 df = 4, Sig. (2-sided) = 0.00 Table 1 above shows that there is a relationship between parenting styles and child selfesteem. The result of the analysis showed that both male and female respondents agree that there exists significant relationship between parenting style and child self-esteem as showed with chi-square value of 93.68 under the probability of 0.00. This implies that there is strong relationship between parenting style and child self-esteem. Investigating the issue further, the response of interviewees during IDI session generally agreed with the views above. For example, a female teacher said: Let me start with the popular saying "charity begins at home". That is a child attitude or behaviour is a true reflection of the kind of home s/he comes from. This is so true because; children are like a clay mould in the hands of their parents and they are design by the way their parents train them. Thus, child behaviour shows the kind of person his/her parents is. . It is the instruction and discipline that parents give to their children that inform their understanding of the social world. A child begins his/her life listening and learning from parental instructions and way of life which become part and parcel of his/her behaviour… For instance, my first child who is also my first son mistakenly breaks a glass cup that belongs to one of my neighbour and when I confronted him he admits that he is guilty of the misbehaviour… This is due to the way I trained him. I always encourage him to always say the truth no matter what the consequence of his action may be…but, it is worrisome for me to see how some parents try to defend their child who had been confirmed responsible for a misbehaviour whether at home or in school. (IDI/Female/Parent/2014) Also confirming the relationship between parenting styles and child self-esteem, a father concurred that: I strongly agree that parenting style influence child selfesteem. It is the way parents train their children that they would behave within and outside the home. Today's children are smart children, they are even smarter than the smart phone … they emulate whatever they see their parents doing. For example, my sister-in-law daughter (less than 3yrs) use to watch her mother cooking and one day she picks the matches box and went to the stove trying to put on the stove without knowing that her mother is close to her…. this indicates that children behaviour is influence by the style of parenting. Thus, parents with low selfesteem will also train their children to have low selfesteem. (IDI/Male/Parent/2014) From the responses above, one can deduce that a significant relationship exists between parenting style and child esteem. The finding tallies with Baumrind, (1991) who submitted that parenting style is the entire behaviours exhibit by parents or guardians in their attempt to control and socialize their children or wards. Pearson Chi-Square = 15.09, df = 5, Sig. (2-sided) = 0.00 The table above presents chi-square analysis showing the relationship between teaching patterns and child self-esteem. The result shows that there is significant relationship between teaching patterns determine child self-esteem development with chisquare value of 15.09 with the probability of 0.00. This indicates that teaching pattern is a factor determining child self-esteem. To shed more light on this, a mother affirms that: In building self-esteem in a child, teachers are the next after the parents. This is due to their special roles in educating the children to develop more knowledge about dealing with fundamental issues of life. But, many teachers today are not ready to perform these tasks… They are too hash on the pupils, by giving them difficult punishment to do. This could be because they are mostly underpaid, job insecurity and demotivated. As such, some teachers use to say to others that "we cannot stress ourselves in caution or teaching the students after all what we get from the management is peanut or poor salary" This ultimately kill their interest and morale for educating the children to develop high self-esteem… Sometimes, they (teachers) seem to believe that it is only the parents that have to do the work of child-rearing and (IDI/Female/Parent/2014).
Another interviewee disclosed that: Honestly speaking am very worried about the current teaching methodologies that are being used to educate students in contemporary Nigerian educational system. Many students are academically weak that they cannot participate actively in essay competition or any serious academic engagement. This is due to the fact that they are not taught with the use of effective teaching methods and patterns that are supposed to help them develop good interactive, reasoning and writing skills. This is not so surprising because majority of those who are in teaching profession today are not trained teachers but they choose to be teachers due to lack of job opportunities and socio-economic pressures. As such, they lack quality teaching skills and competences… If this act continues, we will have generation of students with inability to engage in critical thinking and right decision making. Hence, this phenomenon should be averted by engaging well-trained personnel and experienced teachers… (IDI/Female/Teacher/2014) Arising from the responses above, it can be affirmed that there is significant relationship between teaching pattern and student self-esteem development in the study area.

Test of Hypothesis
The research hypotheses formulated for this study were tested as follows: The result in table 3 above depicts that community-based green care has a significant influence on parenting styles. The result shows that community-based green care account for 68.8% of the total variance in parenting styles (R 2 = 0.688). This implies that community-based green care initiative will contribute to sustainable parenting styles in Nigerian communities. The finding corroborates Berget, Ekeberg, and Braasted (2008) and Haubenhofer, et. al., (2010) who submitted that community-based green care initiative is a social rehabilitation program that helps to improve on their educational, medical, physical, psychological and social well-being of people with mental health challenge and those who have not held a job for a period of time. The finding also supports the view of Artz and Davis (2017) who noted that community-based green care increases intensity and exactness in work, feeling of self-efficacy and other certain aspect of behaviour that are important in daily life. Thus, it can be deduced that communitybased green care aim at curing psychosocial problems among adults which do lead to good parenting style. The result in table 4 reveals that the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) 0.265 that is, the independent variable (community-based green care initiative) is able to explain 26.5% of the total variation in teaching patterns; degree of freedom (Df) 11 and the p-value 0.00 (p<0.05). The result also there is a direct influence between community-based green care initiative and teaching patterns. The finding tallies with Artz and Davis (2017) who reported that some types of community-based green care intervention such as therapeutic horticulture, eco-therapy and green exercise help children to gain sense of connection and learn skills important for normal functioning. Similarly, the finding corroborates with Dell, Chalmers, Bresette, et. al., (2011) and Trotter, Chandler, Goodwin-Bond, Casey, (2008) who submitted that animal-assisted care farming such as horse riding enables effective treatment of substance abuse among children and also equine-assisted counselling allows children who were having difficulty with peers or academic activities. The result in table 5 shows that the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) 0.580 that is, the independent variable (community-based green care initiative) is able to explain 58.0% of the total variation in child self-esteem; degree of freedom (Df) 6 and the p-value 0.00 (p<0.05). The result also there is a direct influence between community-based green care initiative and child self-esteem. The finding Chardonnens (2009) and Haubenhofer, et. al., (2010) who reported that combination of equine-assisted psychotherapy and equine-facilitated psychotherapy help to improve interpersonal physical and emotional communication as well as self-esteem among children.

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study is to examine a community-based green care initiative as a catalyst for sustainable parenting styles, teaching patterns and child self-esteem in Ogun State, Nigeria. The finding of study has shown that community-based green care initiative is an effective form of care intervention that has positive influence on sustainable parenting styles, teaching patterns and self-esteem. It is also a psychosocial therapy, social and educational interventions involving series of natural activities (such as care farming, eco-therapy, anima-assisted therapy, green exercise, and horticultural therapy, eco-education, wilderness as well as nature therapy) that enable people to interact with the nature elements in a bid to improve their physical and psychological well-being. However, based on the discussions in the paper, it is very obvious that community-based green care is best alternative program that should be encouraged and applied by the government at all levels, educators, professionals and parents in their efforts to curb the menace of poor academic performance, depression, anxiety, mental health, social skills, stress, bad parenting styles, poor teaching methods and low selfesteem among children, adolescents and adults.