ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on the context and critical importance of the current political, educational, economic, and societal-cultural contexts in which families are parenting their children and specifies the importance of religion in Nigeria. It focuses on the critical importance of the current political, educational, economic, and societal-cultural contexts in which families are parenting their children. Parenting is a collective activity and the intervention of others outside the nuclear family often occurs during the physical and non-physical chastisement or punishment of a child. Baumrind describes three parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. The aim of parenting is to produce socially skilled individuals who can succeed and provide themselves as well as for other family members. Religious beliefs are integral to the culture and are enmeshed with it. Urbanization, political upheaval, technological advances, and exposure to Western influences have shaped the form and function of the extended family system and the practice of religious beliefs.
