Adolescence Crisis, Covid-19 and Reorganization of the Family System

Aline Maguiabou Tchidjo1* and Chandel Ebalé Moneze2

Keywords: Covid-19; Confinement; Adolescence; Developmental Crisis; Family Structure

Introduction

Cameroon, like several other countries in the world, is currently suffering the unfortunate consequences of a virulent pandemic (coronavirus, covid-19), caused by a virus (SARS-CoV-2) whose dangerousness obliges the strict observance of elementary hygiene rules, the reorganization, This is a dangerous disease that requires the strict observance of basic hygiene rules, the reorganization and even the cessation of activities in several areas, particularly in schools (no more face-to-face classes in all cycles), as well as the adoption of containment measures, with the main slogan broadcast all day long in the media: “Stay at home, go out only in case of extreme necessity” [1, 2]. In fact, in reaction to the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic on Cameroonian soil, the government of Cameroon set up, on March 17, 2020, a response strategy consisting of 13 barrier measures, which were to take effect on Wednesday March 18, 2020. One month later, on April 30, 2021, the list of government response measures was expanded to 19 in response to the economic impact of covid-19. The main implication of these government anti-covid-19 measures on the daily lives of Cameroonians is the immediate use of containment.

The main advantage of containment is that it protects us from coronavirus contamination. However, will the adolescent in his or her perpetual quest for freedom and escape [3, 4, 5] accommodate to the constraint of being home with parents more often? Is this not likely to generate parent- adolescent relationship conflicts and undermine the balance of the family system? What is the impact of confinement on the socio-emotional development of the adolescent? It is around these questions that the problematic of this study was built, which we unfold below.

Problematic

The study poses the problem of the organization of parent-adolescent interpersonal relations during a period of confinement. It starts from the observation that one of the measures of response to the coronavirus “forces” the teenager to spend entire days confined to the house with his parents, while the psychological rearrangements which accompany the pubertal transformations activate in the young person new socioaffective tendencies: the rejection of parental imagos, the rejection of parental authority, the tendency to distance themselves from their parents, the quest for freedom and autonomy, the tendency to leave the restricted family framework to seek other objects of identification outside the family. We present below some theoretical formulations focused on the psychology of the adolescent and the specificity of his or her relationship with parents.

Adolescence constitutes, from a developmental perspective, the first critical age in the life of the subject, and as such is characterized by important physical, physiological, and psychological transformations [4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. According to Guillemot, et al. [11], during puberty, the child’s body changes in its morphology, in its functioning and in its appearance; in a short period of time - on average four years - it becomes an adult, sexualized body. The adolescent must adapt to these changes, integrate this changing body into his or her self- image, assume his or her gender identity, male or female, and move forward on the path leading to adult genital sexuality.

Indeed, the physiological and physical modifications of puberty push the subject to a psychological reorganization in order to integrate and better live the changes of which it is the place. He must be able to adapt to them, assume his male or female gender identity and evolve towards an adult genital sexuality. With puberty indeed, comes to be grafted what Gutton quoted by Marcelli, et al. [4] names “the pubertal”: process which accounts for the pressure exerted by the biological reality of puberty on the three psychic authorities that are the Ego, the Superego, the Ca. According to this author, the pubertal would be to the psyche what puberty is to the body [4].

Claës distinguishes four “developmental zones” in adolescence: pubertal development (which involves the body), cognitive development (which involves thinking), changes in socialization (which involves social life), and identity construction (which involves the self). It is the last three areas that are affected by the psychological rearrangement inherent in adolescence.

In the same vein, Sillamy [12] argues that adolescence is marked psychologically by the reawakening of infantile sexual tendencies, the richness of affective life, the development of intellectual potential, a specific level of development of body image, the mourning of parental imagos that leads to the desire for freedom and autonomy. It is this last developmental task that interests us in particular in this study.

The mourning of parental imagos is a determining developmental task at this age. The work of adolescence, like that of mourning, thus consists in a loss of object in the psychoanalytical sense of the term, loss of the “infantile objects” that one can schematically analyze at two levels: loss of the primitive object (...) loss of the ‘oedipal object’ charged with love, hatred, ambivalence: the adolescent is led to conquer his or her independence, to free himself or herself from the parental hold and to liquidate the oedipal situation [4], especially at this moment when he realizes, because of his new cognitive potentialities, the limits of the idealized parent.

Cloutier [13], in the same perspective, had shown that adolescence is always a struggle for independence, a period of affirmation and opposition to parents.

Dasen [14] makes adolescence the phase during which the subject must separate from his family and become autonomous, rebelling against adult norms and values. Because the adolescent’s body has acquired adult proportions, he considers himself as such and wants to enjoy the same rights as an adult: to decide on his comings and goings, to make decisions about his life, to have freedom of expression, of judgment, of moral, civic or clothing conduct.

Because of the sexual impulses reborn in adolescence, the subject is animated by the need to undo the infantile bonds and to form new identifications generating new values, wrote Abraham [15]. The search for the Ideal of the Self which has for function to contribute to the formation of the sexual identity pushes the subject towards an affective reorganization. It is thus that he will attach himself to the peers, people of his temperament with whom he shares the same experiences, the same aspirations, the same concerns. The relationships that bind adolescents are of several types: they are comrades, friends or buddies. The importance of friends allows the adolescent to discover another type of social relationship that is less hierarchical and more democratic; he shares values and norms with them and also creates new identifications. The principles of the groups to which they belong influence the construction of their personality and encourage the adoption of more or less noble behaviors. But the adolescent also seeks to identify with stars, with the heroes projected by the media, with some social model.

In adolescence, adds Young [3], the subject, by questioning the parental ideals, seeks to define his own values, principles, norms; to have his own analysis on the great questions of the affective life such as friendship, love, sexuality. In this endeavor, he will be influenced by the models provided by his parents, his friends and other peers, adults in his environment, and the media. Allard [16] maintained that: “Between the adolescent and the media there is a flirtation”. Reality even more prevalent today [4, 9].

The theoretical conclusions developed above are based on observations made in the Western context. One could say from the outset that Africa is not concerned, from the point of view of our own cultural beliefs and practices. Under the influence of authors such as Mead [12]; Mbaïosso [17]; Huerre, et al. [18] or Ezembé [19], the opinion that “adolescence does not exist” spread very quickly and still influences opinion and literature today.

Having conducted studies in a traditional African context (except for Margaret Mead who worked in a cultural context close to Africa, Oceania and Southeast Asia), these authors have come to the conclusion that African societies do not consider adolescence as a stage of development in its own right with its own specificities. Adolescence is short-circuited by initiation rites that take the young child directly to the adult stage. Puberty in Africa is synonymous with entry into adulthood. The young girl is educated with a view to becoming a “good” wife and a “good” mother. The young boy is educated with a view to learning a trade that will enable him to become a “good” husband and a “good” father. It is as if the girl has no choice but to become a wife and a mother, in respect of this “chronological” order, first wife, then mother.

Ezembé [19] also points out that the attainment of customary majority is not necessarily synonymous with the right to speak in the same way as the parents. Thus, the adolescent does not have the opportunity to challenge or give an opinion on what parents or elders in general are saying. Moreover, even the head of the family is reminded that he or she is still a child and that he or she must remain silent in an assembly of older people. The child is definitely the one who has a limited right to speak. How can he assert himself and claim his independence in this case?

In the same vein, Tsala Tsala, referring to the specific case of Cameroon, states that speaking is governed by the rights and duties of some in relation to others. Speaking often means advising, ordering, commanding. Speech is a privilege, a right and an ethical duty; those of the husband over the wife, of the parent over the child, of the elder over the younger, of the chief over his subjects. Also, the speech of certain categories of individuals is usually disqualified (children, youth, slaves, foreigners). Unless they have a particular status that invests them with a certain power (the case of twins, homonyms, etc.).

However, with the pressure of modernity, social changes, the media, especially the Internet and social networks, cultural values tend to be weakened. The Cameroonian teenager is more and more influenced by Western models. Similarly, educational models are increasingly modelled on what is reflected on television, the internet and social media. Today, the African teenager in general and Cameroonian in particular must build a double identity: ethnic and individual. The problem for them is the difficulty of reconciling cultural values, imposed by their parents, and the demands of modernity, which seduce and attract them [7, 20]. This is at the origin of generation conflicts between parents and adolescents, also called family crises. The teenager is torn between the culture of his or her ethnic group and a Western lifestyle. The problem is that the teenager will claim his autonomy because he wants to belong to his time and enjoy its components, and not to go back to the time his parents lived. One then attends on his part a pressing demand of change directed towards a new model [7]. This demand is not well accepted by the parents; hence the crisis within the family, which, moreover, functions as a system made up of interdependent elements such that the absence or change of one element leads to the disruption of the system.

Galy Mohamadou [10], in a study conducted on 250 adolescents in the city of Maroua, was able to demonstrate the influence of parental guidance, in terms of educational style, on the emotional development of adolescents. The democratic parent is more likely to bring his or her child back to him or her than the parent who systematically tries to impose his or her authority. The latter situation is likely to lead to serious generational conflicts.

Isn’t the current situation of confinement, with the untimely “friction” that it entails, likely to exacerbate parent- teen conflicts? What is the impact on the family system?

The systemic approach of the family in relation to the adolescent crisis is elucidated by Cuendet [21] as follows: adolescence is defined as a period during which a member demands new family rules and a certain autonomy. It is the passage from one system of rules to another requiring a modification of the purposes of the system, and thus a structural adaptation.

The restoration of family equilibrium for the stability of the system requires the adoption by all members of a new life model accepted by all. This often requires the intervention of a therapist. In other words, the resolution of the crisis requires individual changes within the family system in order to restore structural and functional order and ensure the evolution of the system [7].

How is the situation of confinement experienced by Cameroonian families? What are the consequences on the socio-affective balance of the adolescent? What mechanisms do parents put in place to cope with it?

A visit to four families allowed us to answer these questions. The methodology of data collection and analysis is presented below.

Methodology

We describe our methodological and operational approach in three main areas.

Results

The elements of the respondents’ discourse are presented below and analyzed in a vertical approach, i.e., case by case, contrary to the discussion of the results which will be done in a transversal/horizontal perspective.

Discussion

Confinement is a situation that brings together members of a family. People who, in general, were not always at home together. The father goes out, the children go to school, the mother goes to work. With the confinement, they have to be together. Being together, they will truly discover each other, they will truly get to know each other. Confinement becomes a revelation of behaviours, a moment when behaviours that were previously hidden are revealed, a situation in which the other is perceived in a different way.

When the child was at school, we didn’t have all the time to observe him, but thanks to confinement, we have him in front of us all the time, we can observe him for longer and form a different perception of him than before. And the child himself can form a perception of the parents that is different from the one he had before. The phenomenon takes on a particular meaning in adolescence. Adolescence is indeed the time of the body, wrote Chaby [22]. Before adolescence, the child’s body is governed by a serenity that translates the silence of the organs. But in adolescence, with the physical transformations and psychological processes that follow, the body makes “noise” [4]. It is this change in the adolescent’s body, and in turn in his or her mind, that developmentalists call a developmental crisis. This crisis is normally transient, marking the transition from one stage of development to another.

Indeed, each new stage of development requires the loss of a previous equilibrium, and the search for a new psychic position, which corresponds to a change of state that is not self-evident, whatever the benefits of the change considered [23]. According to these authors, any change of state gives rise to a sort of “developmental mourning”, which reflects the loss of the previous state. This loss does not leave the subject indifferent and requires work on oneself to adapt to the change and to re-establish a new balance.

In the adolescent, the process of adapting to the developmental crisis involves various more or less risky behaviours: family runaways, school runaways, consumption of toxic products, risk-taking at the wheel and accidents, violence and transgressive behaviour, eating disorders, sexual behaviour, irresponsible behaviour, opposition to parental authority, with rejection of parental images. It is this last aspect that interests us in particular in this study, which examines the quality of parent-adolescent relationships in times of confinement.

From what emerges from the interviews with the participants in this study, opposition to parental authority, exacerbated by the constant presence and physical proximity to parents, is a reality among the 4 adolescents. However, this opposition manifests itself differently from one adolescent to another. Thus, the desire to break with the order established by the parents is more expressive in Cathia than in the three others. To explain this difference, we call upon cultural and religious determinants, which are more prevalent in certain cultures and traditions than in others. These include the respect due to elders, the prohibition of discussing certain issues with adults, and education in listening and submission without words [7, 19, 24].

In all the cases studied, the confinement has, from a relational point of view, scratched the daily life: their way of living, their way of doing, their way of being. The situation has induced a certain number of rules of conduct to which the adolescents do not adhere. Nevertheless, the latter find strategies to manage to bypass the vigilance of the parents and do what they really want and which characterizes the stage of development to which they belong: escape, freedom, autonomy, activities with peers [4, 9].

Cathia is required to do more household chores than before, she quickly gets out of it to focus on what she likes best: dancing, listening to music, playing sports. The critical presence of her mother “suffocates” her in a way; however, not being able to speak to her directly, the teenager takes out her frustrations either on her older sister (who is particularly appreciated by her mother), or on her younger sister (protected by her mother), or on an object of hers which she violently breaks. Thus, in reaction to the frustrations of which she is the object within the family, Cathia tends to react by aggressive impulses which will be supported on objects of her entourage. This behavior joins Kaës’ thesis [25] according to which one observes in a subject confronted with a crisis situation sudden and decisive change in the course of a process which implies a rupture, a separation, a wrenching) a specific psychic work aiming at the restoration of the broken balance. This psychic work is built around support.

Confinement poses the problem of density on the ground. When the density in a space is high, you have the impression that you are being deprived of space, that others are encroaching on your private space. This situation alone can lead to aggression. This is clearly seen in Cathia, who develops defence mechanisms, basically aggression towards her sisters, to protect her space and safeguard her privacy.

Hassan is particularly fond of the company of his peers. But faced with the ban on coming and going imposed by his parents (to protect him from the coronavirus, but also from the risks of delinquency), the adolescent has found a strategy of circumvention. Indeed, through the call box activity that he carries out, with the “blessing” of his parents, Hassan manages to spend hours of relaxation with his friends whom he meets all day long, while staying at home (as required by the parents). For the parents, the call box is a way for the teenager to usefully occupy himself during confinement, but for the teenager, it is an excuse to escape with peers. Thus, without overt conflict with parents, Hassan conducts his social life in accordance with what theorists of adolescence describe at this age [6, 8, 26, 27]. The young boy has difficulty expressing his feelings when it comes to the relationship with the father, let alone judging the paternal function. This general behavior of the adolescent is explained, in our opinion, and based on our knowledge in the field [23, 28] by the specificity of the traditional and religious education that the adolescent received.

Bello manages to leave the house regularly to be with his friends, despite his parents’ opposition. He only engages in group activities, which are currently prohibited because of the high risk of covid contamination19 (soccer, basketball).

The adolescent tends to avoid physical proximity to his parents. He comes home only for prayer, meals, or baths. His phone has been taken away from him, to prevent him from straying, but the teenager regularly uses a phone connected to the internet, without his parents’ knowledge.

Ina is also forced, by her guardian in particular, to stay at home. The latter argues that she is a young girl who should not risk her future by flirting with young people of questionable morality. But the young girl, who aspires to freedom like all young people of her age, finds a way to satisfy this urge: she willingly accepts to take the oxen to the pasture, an activity innovated by the entry in confinement, which allows her to leave the confinement of the family home from time to time. She also regrets that her parents no longer have a field. Indeed, the teenager would have liked it otherwise, because going to the field would be for her a “good pretext” of escape. Ina also manages to satisfy the need to be with her peers by using a noble motive: she goes to the home of friends in the neighborhood to look for notebooks from the 5th grade class in order to prepare for the next school year. Here again, the desire to enrich her emotional and social life [12] is fulfilled by the subject. Ina is also more likely to vent her frustrations on her tutor (who is biologically closer to her, her paternal uncle) than on her tutor, who appears more severe and strict. Her guardian is thus positioned as an object of “affective support” [29] on which the adolescent releases (through vindictive words) the destructive impulses generated by the latent relational conflicts linked to the confinement situation.

Thus, opposition to parental authority can manifest itself in one way or another, depending on the education the adolescent has received, the type of relationship he or she has with his or her parents, and the support provided by the environment.

To explain the tendency of adolescents to reject domestic tasks or to become involved in them in a casual manner, we invoke the chronopsychological thesis.

From the chronopsychological point of view, the human organism adapts to situations according to age and according to their sequence in the life of the subject [30]. The student in particular tends to register and adapt to the functioning of the year as society has structured it (a time for school, a time for vacations, a time for vacations). This means that when the student, and mainly the adolescent (given his level of cognitive development), knows that it is the school year, he adapts his cognitive faculties in order to adapt to the school requirements. However, as soon as it comes to the vacations, another cognitive adjustment takes place, he becomes resistant to everything related to school and aspires rather to relaxation, so much so that the parent is often obliged to make special negotiations to convince him to take vacation classes.

Therefore, with the confinement that forces the adolescent to stay at home during a period that he or she has already integrated, from a chronopsychological point of view, as school time, a cognitive rearrangement must take place to adapt to the new situation. It is not because he is at home that he will automatically put on the (symbolic) mantle of the vacationer and submit to parental demands related in particular to domestic chores, errands, study supervised by the parents (and not by the teacher). The adolescent considers that he or she is still in school and that, although at home, the parents should behave as if he or she were not there and let him or her move around freely. This is why in all the adolescents studied, there is this resistance to parental demands.

Therefore, one might wonder why these young people reject domestic obligations, but devote themselves essentially to leisure activities and mainly to peer activities, to the detriment of studies. Indeed, since adolescents are more inclined towards social life involving peer activities [31], school appears to be the place par excellence for meeting with peers and organizing common activities [4, 9]. School for the adolescent is not limited to the teaching-learning process. It is the place of escape among peers, expression of his maturity, construction of his identity, identification, construction, and even deconstruction of the landmarks of social and affective life. [26, 27, 32, 33].

All parents participating in the study acknowledged that the confinement provided an opportunity for them to become physically and emotionally closer to their child. They took advantage of it to redefine rules of conduct aimed more at protecting the adolescent from the risky behaviors inherent to adolescence. The situation of confinement favored dialogue with the teenager, education in taking charge of a house (for girls), education in moral values and social norms, and initiation to active life. In short, the educational model was revised and “improved”, according to the parents, thanks to the entry into confinement. From the point of view of developmental psychology, the physical and affective presence of parents is restorative for the mental equilibrium of the child and adolescent [34]. Even if the latter tends to resist the parents’ authority, to let them know that he is no longer a child. According to Cloutier et al. [5], adolescents may very well oppose their parents and distance themselves from them without breaking with them.

Indeed, the particularity of the adolescent is certainly to be a person who vigorously claims his autonomy and his individuality, but he still remains deeply dependent on the family framework of his childhood. He needs, even if he refuses to admit it, to be accompanied and supported by parents on the path to adulthood, the real contours of which he does not know [4]. Thus, the success of the transition process towards the structuring of the adolescent’s adult ego depends on the parent. Still, it is necessary that the parental function is well conducted [5, 8, 35]. The theoretically recommended model is one that includes the adolescent, with his or her needs, with his or her interests, in the process of rearranging the educational model and the family structure as a whole [4, 7, 9]. The adolescent should not be a spectator of the process, but an actor, a partner with the parent. At the same time that he or she is called to listen, he or she should be listened to in turn. True parent-adolescent dialogue is not a vertical relationship but a horizontal one [28, 33]. Also, parents should be role models for the adolescent in the way they do and be. For example, the parents in the study tended to impose the anti- covid-19 barrier measures on the children without strictly practicing them themselves. Yet, formal intelligence provides the adolescent with the ability to evaluate, assess, and judge the actions of his or her parents [36, 37].

Conclusion

The objective of this article was to measure the influence of confinement on the socio-emotional balance of the adolescent, and, by extension, on the stability of the family group to which he belongs. Through a case study, carried out with four adolescents and their parents, eight participants in all, we have established that the permanent presence of the parents, with the constraints it induces, is accompanied by a more or less manifest relational conflict. This situation tends to reinforce the adolescent’s desire to distance himself from his parents, to seek, outside the restricted and “oppressive” family framework, spaces of expression, escape and fulfilment. The company of peers is the most sought after, in accordance with what is theoretically established. If it is impossible, because parents are opposed to it, to meet friends, friends of the same age with whom he shares the same aspirations, the same interests, the same way of doing and being, the teenager will tend to join his peers in the audiovisual media (telephone, tablet, internet, television).

From the point of view of the parents, the confinement is an opportunity of meeting with the child, of dialogue, of redefining the way of functioning of the family, of (re)modeling the behavior of the young person, in order to preserve him from the risks of contamination to the coronavirus, on the one hand, but especially from the deviant social behaviors. Confinement gives parents the opportunity to discover their child from an angle they were unaware of. A new facet of their child comes to light, and what the parent discovers can be shocking, hence the need for parents to mobilize a certain number of actions.

However, the structural and relational rearrangements engaged by the parents, in sign of adaptation to the situation of confinement are not always well received by the teenager. The latter, if he cannot express his thoughts to the parents, because of cultural barriers, always finds strategies of circumvention to escape the vigilance of the latter and to satisfy his desire for freedom and autonomy. How can developmental psychology help?

With reference to theoretical and empirical data on adolescent psychology, we propose that in a project to reorganize the family system, the parent must involve the adolescent as a partner in the process, by instituting a true vertical dialogue with the latter, which takes into account his or her needs, interests, beliefs and ideas. The parent must also position himself as a role model for his child, who constantly observes him and tends to judge his actions .

What we heard from our participants certainly didn’t reveal all the secrets of adolescence as it grapples with the violation of its “space”, but it did make us realize that behind what adolescents show us about themselves lies a vast unsuspected field to be discovered as soon as the opportunity arises. Confinement or anything that resembles it, holidays, etc. are opportunities that parents and professionals working with adolescents can seize to capture episodes in the lives of our young people that deserve to be highlighted, explored and taken care of.