Filipinos are typically family-oriented. Parents and children uphold the family tradition of strong family ties and adhere to the teachings of the Church regarding to families. The greatest impact of migration is experienced in the family.
Arguelles, et al. (2004) said that the family is the heart and the center of the Filipinos. It is where faith and the gospel value are learned and lived. It is where love, justice, peace, fraternity, and equality are experienced, nourished and cultivated.
Migration breaksthis center, this experience, and this harmony, It separate, splits, detaches, and segregates the family. It creates a dysfunction in the normal course of the family life, generates a variety of new problems and challenges to the family, church and the society. The 1987 Philippine constitution, article XV section 1, provides that “the state recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation’’. It is then imperative that the state should strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.In the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul II in 2000, the Holy Father stressed the basic responsibility of parents to train their children in the essential value of human life. They must grow up with a correct attitude of freedom with regard to material good, by adopting a simpler and austere lifestyle and being fully convinced that man is more precious for what he is done for what he has.
In the light, the family is called to a love that goes beyond the four walls of its home environment.He family is called to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values, essential for the development and well being of its own members and of society (Legaspi, 2002). Children’s characters are products of family upbringing, and their attitudes are manifestations of their adherence to social beliefs. Social orientation of the children is formed early on in life. Social orientation creates an impact on the individual’s formation of values.
These set of values are reflected in their own choices, attitudes and preference in their lives. Value orientation is one of the major responsibilities vested in the family.Within the culture of the Filipino family, values such as: good manners, kindness, generosity and obedience are well observed. Likewise implied are the high regard for education, values on money and high regard for manner and relationship. Carandang (2001), a well known child psychologist, observed through that a Filipino child has to learn a lot of “feeling out” (pakiramdam) in one’s adjustment with in family or his extend family system. She also noted that although values are well integrated in Filipino family, fostering child’s independence is less emphasized.
Furthermore, Cinco (2008) affirmed that the inculcation of values and attitudes, the conditioning of daily habits of living, the shaping of outlook in life, the values and commitment to education all point to the impact from the home. Parents should develop a positive attitude that encourages children to perform better in life. In most cases, OFW parents failed to extend the necessary support which could lead to the nurturance of children’s innate capabilities. Thus, most children tend to grow up without proper guidance. The Filipino concept of value point out to what one generally held in high esteem.
Our beliefs that our value orientation is our guiding principles in life with respect to the personal and social ends us normally desire. According to Erickson, the adolescent seeks answers to the questions “Who Am I? ” and “What Am I to be? ” The Psychosocial task of the adolescent is the establishment and identity. Adolescent’s needs to establish a self-concept that accepts both personal strengths and weaknesses faced with dramatic changes in body structure and function and greater expectations to assume responsibilities.Many adolescence experience temporary difficulty in developing a positive self-image. Adolescents, who are accepted, loved and valued by family and peers generally tend to gain confidence and feel good about them. Adolescents need to learn to build on their strengths and not be preoccupied by problems.
In global migration, labor mobility has drawn increasing attention in recent years, due in part to the rapid growth of such migratory streams and also because scholars and policy makers alike are looking into links with development goals.Interest has also been stimulated by the increasing diversity of people crossing national boundaries: immigrants, temporary workers, refugees, executives of multinational corporations and, have been influenced by push and pull factors such as inadequate income levels in the home country, better jobs available abroad, opening of borders, easier mobility due to better communications and transportation infrastructure, and increasing need for services around the world. Overseas Filipino Workers are often times called the modern Filipino heroes.They worked so hard to earn money to be sent to their loved ones and this contribute to the economy of our country.
Even though some of them experienced transgression from their employer, they faced themselves into migration to alleviate their families from poverty. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported that Camarines Sur has the highest number of OFW’s with total number of 2,004 or 42% as of year 2010 (www. pinoyOFW. com).
As parents left their children to find greener pastures, their role as father and mother shift into being a dollar earner.Thus, the children of the OFWs were left and their guidance is given to their grandparents, uncles, aunties, and relatives. The father is said to be the “pillar” of the family. He is generally the provider and the breadwinner. Hence, this agreement does not mean that his responsibilities has come to an end, he have other obligation to fulfill as the child grow. On the other hand, a mother is the homemaker and is said to be the “light” of the family, the child’s first teacher and the one who trains and molds the character of the children.
But could these things happen if both of them cannot fully line up their obligations as parent because of their absence? Thousand of Filipino children are growing up without parents whose job abroad engaging in the different such as construction, domestic helper, waitress, caregiver and etc. but their children whom they leave behind, misses their parents’ love and care that only their parents’ hands can give. About the age of 15 years, many adolescents gradually draw away from the family and gain independence.This need for independence combined with the need for family support sometimes create conflict within the adolescents and the family. The young person may appear hostile or depressed at times during their painful process. At this age, adolescents prefer to be with peers rather than to their parents and may seek advice from adults other than their parents.
Parents sometimes are bewildered by their stage of development, instead of reducing controls; they increase them, causing the adolescent to rebel.Some of the discord of the family at their times is due to the generation gap. The values of adolescent may differ from those of the parents. This difference may be difficult for the parents to understand and to accept. Adolescents still need guidance from their parents although they appear neither to want it nor to need it. However, adolescents need to know that their parent’s care about them and that their parents still continue and help them.
Restrictions and guidance need to be presented in a manner that makes adolescents feel loved.They need assistance and guidance and fewer restrictions. They should have the independence they can handle and yet they know that their parents will assist them when they need help. Traditionally, the task of providing daily cares for young children fell to mothers.
But with a majority of mother’s now in the labor force, securing high quality, affordable childcare has became a key priority for parents. Childcare is an integral part of caring, knowledge on human development and the stages ofpersonality development may give rise to a better understanding, that the health needs of children differ from those of adults in terms of physical body, emotional processes and intellectual functioning. Modern childcare is preventive in nature and is focused not on the child alone but on the family as a whole. The parents, in particular play a crucial role in developing child’s personality. Disruption in the family environment may somehow affect the child’s personality development. To help build the child’s personality, parents must nurture the child in all aspects of his development.
A good self-concept, projected by an active, alert and healthy body affects the child’s total personality. Children need somebody to be their role models in order for them to grow better. They will be using these experiences as a learning tool in their life. Parents need to overcome the obstacles that prevent them from becoming involved parents.
The influential role of parents is a time when fathers were expected to be aloof. Although Spock initially placed more emphasis on the mothers, he explained that the mothers’ presence greatly affects the child’s character throughout his life.The lack of a parent in a child’s life is a major cause of problem for today’s children. The absence of parent may be as damaging to the home. Parents need to recognize how badly kids need them. If they are there for their children, they will have a higher standard of living, do better at school, and be less likely to commit any crime, be more emotionally stable and make sure of their sexual identity.
This study aims to find out the psychosocial effects experience by the selected students of Universidad de Sta.Isabel in the absence of their parents who is working abroad. For several years, the responsibility of taking care of children lies solely on the mother and father. They usually stand as the primary figure in child’s rearing practices. Being a mother and father are two distinct roles.
It is true that both of them play a crucial role in a child’s growth and development but each of them has his own distinctive role in the upbringing of the child. It is in this context that this study was focused to bridge the gap on mother’s involvement in childcare.As psychology students, the researchers believed that development of a child and its significance on how they are molded are significant in the process of adulthood. Since the respondents belong to the teenage years, the researcher aims to determine the psychological and social changes that they experience, and the challenges they faced during this crucial stage.
These findings may help significantly in understanding the behavior of selected students of Universidad de Sta. Isabel with an OFW parents and how they could be helped in their process of development.
