Influence of Parenting Styles on Self-Esteem among Boy Children Aged 11-14 Years in Public Primary Schools in Taita Sub – county, Taita-Taveta County, Kenya

Abstract

Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. The high self-esteem gained will help the boy children to improve their performance in every feel at home and in school. The study was confined to the influence of parenting styles on self-esteem of the boy child within Taita Sub-County of Taita-Taveta County.  The participants in this study were consisted of pupils, administrators, and teacher counselors. Additionally, Baumrind, (2012) states that authoritarian parenting is a style of child nurturing that has many demands and rigidness. Authoritarian parents are very strict and expect their orders to be followed without question. This study employed cross-sectional survey design. A cross-sectional research design is a design in which researchers collect data from participants within a single point in time. The cross-sectional survey design was considered appropriate for this study because it allows the researcher to use minimal contact between the researcher and the respondent. The target population consisted of 2600 pupils, 94 administrators and 80 teacher counselors, from within Taita Sub-County. Pupils involved in the exercise were all in the age between 11 years to 14 years. The population of this study was composed of administrators, teacher counselors and pupils. The study concluded from the results, majority of the respondents-172 (70.5%) agreed that their parents are authoritative. A chi-square test revealed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the authoritative parenting style and self-esteem. A spearman correlation test showed that authoritative parenting style had a 10.7% correlation with self-esteem (rho = 0.107). This implied that a unit increase in authoritative parenting leads to a 10.7% increase in the self-esteem of male pupils in public primary schools. Qualitative analysis revealed that key informants stated the following: ‘Authoritative parenting helps the boys have high self-esteem'; ‘With authoritative parenting, the male pupils become very good leaders, since they practice what they see from parents'. From the findings, there is enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis that stated: authoritative parenting style does not have a statistically significant influence the level of self-esteem of children in primary schools. Therefore, authoritative parenting style influences the self-esteem of male pupils.