Perceived effect of single parenting on the psychosocial wellbeing of learners in public day secondary schools in Ishiara zone, Mbeere North sub-county, Embu county in kenya

Abstract

The family is a fundamental unit in society as the first socializing agent with which the child interacts. The family’s main responsibility is to train and bring up children in the norms and values of society that affects the psychosocial development of a child. Traditionally, a complete family has been viewed as consisting of a man, a woman, and their offspring; however, there has been an increase in the number of singleparent families, which has been perceived to affect the psychosocial well-being of learners. This study aimed to determine the perceived effect of single-parenting on self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and discipline of learners in public day secondary schools in Ishiara Zone, Mbeere North Sub- County, Embu County in Kenya. The study was grounded on the psychoanalytic theory of identification and the social-learning theory of identification. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population was 1,466 learners and 92 teachers making a total of 1558. The study was done in the 8 public day secondary schools in Ishiara zone and it constituted 306 form three learners sampled through a census, 30 class teachers and 8 Guidance and Counselling heads, also sampled through a census, making a total of 344 respondents. The data was collected using two sets of questionnaires as one for the learners and one for the class teachers while interviews for the Guidance and Counselling heads were conducted. The validity of the research instruments was ensured through the opinions and expertise of lecturers of Chuka University. The reliability of the instruments was estimated using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient with an average correlation coefficient of 0.783 obtained for all variables. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies and inferential statistics such as chi square were used to analyse data with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 26.0. Chi-square tests indicated a statistically significant association between single parenting and self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and discipline of learners in public day secondary schools in Ishiara Zone, Mbeere North Sub- County, Embu County in Kenya. The study findings shed light on the perceived effect of single parenting on self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and learners’ discipline in public day secondary schools. The study’s conclusions and recommendations may be helpful to principals, the ministry of Education and other stakeholders in designing mechanisms to improve the self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and discipline of learners from diverse family backgrounds as well as highlight the counselling needs of the learners whose perceptions might be warped. The study recommended the formulation of guidance and counselling programmes and other policies that will help the learners who need guidance and counselling on the areas covered in this research. Moreover, the findings are also expected to help formulate guidance and counselling policies for learners from duo-parent families that have negative perceptions of learners from single-parent families. The findings will also be an addition to the existing body of knowledge.