Parenting in the South Seas. Educational Skills in Remote Archipelagos of French Polynesia

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an exploratory research on parental practices and attitudes in three peripheral archipelagos of French Polynesia: the Marquesas, the Australs, and the Tuamotus Islands. Its aim was to identify parenting typologies in isolated contexts using the Parenting Skills Evaluation Scale (Échelle des Compétences Éducatives Parentales, ECEP) with 120 parents living in remote islands. The data analysis indicates that families living in such isolated contexts are in a rather vulnerable situation in relation to schooling. Parental attitude is in most cases normative, attributing a significant importance to school success, but domestic practices appear mostly liberal, characterized by unsupervised autonomy combined with moments of strictness, as observed in other postcolonial and marginalized contexts. Finally, the article discusses the efficacy of the ECEP as a valid measurement tool in family studies, confirming its effectiveness.