Effect of Parenting Styles on Student’s Behaviour in Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi County-Kenya

Abstract

Parents form the core unit of a family and are at the very basic in the growth and development of their children. This includes moulding the children’s behaviour at different stages of life. While studies have been conducted to establish what influence parenting styles have on their children, there is no consensus on how the behaviour of children is influenced by the method used by parents in bringing them up.  This paper, therefore, is a result of a study that sought to establish the effect of parental styles on the behaviour of students in secondary schools in Nairobi County. Respondents were sampled from 60 public secondary schools in Nairobi County consisting of head-teachers, student counsellors and students who were targeted as respondents and from whom data was collected. The study established that students had been involved in indiscipline cases at least 1 to 3 times in the previous year. The study concludes that discipline and child behaviour will largely depend on the style of parenting adopted by the parents. While some parenting styles like authoritative promote good behaviour in children, others like authoritarian promote dysfunctional behaviours. Despite having money to pay for the students and facilitate their learning, the study found out that some parents did not spend time with their children hence increasing cases of indiscipline. The study recommends parents’ involvement in promoting good behaviour among their children both at school and at home.