Influence of Family Setting on Behavioral Patterns among Children Aged 9–12 Years: A Focus on Lying and Attention-Seeking among children

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of family setting and family environment in which the child is raised and how these factors shape the child’s behavior. More emphasis is drawn on the behaviour of lying as well as attention-seeking among children aged from 9 to 12 years old. The study seeks to understand why children lie, cut things, and tell imaginary stories to attract their parents’ or family members’ attention, and whether these behaviours are related to the way they are raised, the environment they grow up in, the care, love, and support they lack, or whether they are ways of expressing unmet emotional needs during middle adolescence. It also examines whether such behaviours are related to family structure issues or represent part of the natural developmental stages children go through. To gather the necessary data, the researchers used a structured questionnaire employing a 5-point Likert scale, which is commonly used in research to measure attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. The questionnaire was divided into two main sections. The first section focused on family setting, including parental presence (both parents, single parent, or divorced/separated), parenting style (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful, including level of involvement), care-taking arrangements (extended family, grandparents, relatives, or blended families), and family interactions such as communication, emotional support, and overall family climate. The second section evaluated children’s behavioural patterns by assessing the occurrence of behaviours such as lying and attention-seeking. The findings concerning family setting reveal that many children with a high response rate enjoy a peaceful, healthy, supportive, and caring environment with consistent supervision, elders’ care, and advice. As shown in tables (1 up to table 24), 82.3% and 76.1% of children enjoy a peaceful and stable environment, 85.9% receive care, direction, and guidance from their caregivers, and 78.9% experience open and healthy communication among family members. In addition, 49.2% follow family rules and routines, 85.9% of family members demonstrate high awareness of emotional support, 73.2% often to always spend long periods of time with their children, 77.5% provide care that inculcates good morals, 73.3% never to rarely experience frequent tension at home, and 71.8% have adults whom they listen to and ask for support. Regarding lying and attention-seeking behaviours (tables 11 to 24), the findings show that a high percentage of families report that these behaviours are never to rarely practiced by their children. Specifically, 53.6% never to rarely lie to avoid getting into trouble, 71.4% do not tell even small lies, 60% never to rarely deny doing things even when evidence is clear, and 79.7% never to rarely lie to get what they want. Furthermore, 72.9% never to rarely hide information or avoid telling the truth, 74.2% never to rarely blame others for their actions, and 63.4% never to rarely behave in an exaggerated way to catch others’ attention. Attention-seeking behaviours such as interrupting conversations, becoming noisy when neglected, misbehaving to attract attention, pretending to be hurt, cutting objects into pieces, and telling imaginary details were also reported as never to rarely occurring by the majority of families. Even though the findings on family setting and lying behaviour show that a high percentage of children enjoy a peaceful, secure, safe, cooperative, and supportive environment that provides emotional and mental support, there are still some children who display negative behaviours related to lying and attention-seeking. These behaviours strongly influence children and produce rejected behaviours within the community. This highlights the need for families to provide more care, attention, and support to children aged from 9 to 12 years in order to help them develop positive behaviours and become actively involved members of society. Supporting children during this stage contributes to raising a healthy generation capable of building the future, rather than producing unhealthy generations that may hinder the development of the communities they join.