L’exercice de la parentalité au Cameroun : coparentalité et pluriparentalité au sein des familles recomposées à Yaoundé

Abstract

The issue of parenting in blended families is generating increasing interest among many researchers around the world. Indeed, the specific family context in which it takes place gives rise to new forms of parental practices, such as co-parenting and multi-parenting. The choice of this topic is justified by the growing number of such families in Yaoundé and by the desire to understand, within the specific Cameroonian context, how parenting is carried out in these settings. Methodologically, data collection was conducted through documentary research, unstructured interviews, and life stories. From a theoretical perspective, GARFINKEL’s ethnomethodology was employed to analyze the methods used by the main actors (custodial parents, stepparents, non-custodial parents, friends, and neighbors) involved in parenting within blended families to fulfill parental roles. The analysis of the collected data shows that within blended families, parenting is carried out through co-parenting and multi-parenting. The principle of co-parenting has certain specific features in the way it is practiced, and since parenting is expanded, co-parenting is also broadened. In addition to the co-parental relationships that the custodial parent establishes with a new spouse or with the non-custodial parent, he or she may also form others with a close relative, as well as with any person willing to share parental responsibilities or to collaborate in the exercise of parental functions. It also emerges that multi-parenting is a social principle in the sense that any adult is considered a potential parent, capable of fulfilling the roles assigned to biological parents without requiring written legal authorization. However, with changes in mentality, the economic crisis fostering individualism, the nuclearization of the family, and the rise of insecurity, parents are today less supportive of this practice than they were in the past.