THE ROLE OF PARENTING STYLES ON VIOLENCE AMONG STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EMBU COUNTY, KENYA

Oct 15, 2026

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Youth violence affects schools through bullying, physical fights, gender violence, and attacks on school property, consuming learning time and sometimes causing injuries or deaths during strikes. This study examines how parenting styles influence students’ violence in Embu County, Kenya. Using a survey research design, the work applies Bioecological and parenting styles theories, collecting data via student questionnaires, focus group discussions, and interviews with guidance and counseling teachers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Parenting Styles Theory

Asian Journal of Contemporary Education DOI: 10.18488/journal.137.2018.21.8.18 Vol. 2, No. 1, 8-18 © 2018 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved. [URL:](URL: www.aessweb.com)[ ](URL: www.aessweb.com)[www.aessweb.com](URL: www.aessweb.com) THE ROLE OF PARENTING STYLES ON VIOLENCE AMONG STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EMBU COUNTY, KENYA Simon Njogu Njagi1 Jonathan M. Mwania2+ Beatrice Manyasi3 1,3School of Education Maasai Mara University, Kenya 2Department of Educational psychology South Eastern Kenya University, Kenya (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 1 February 2018 Revised: 19 February 2018 Accepted: 23 February 2018 Published: 28 February 2018 Keywords Parenting styles Authoritative Authoritarian Permissive indulgence Permissive neglectful Violence. Youth violence, both in and out of school, is worldwide problem. Students’ violence is manifested in form of bullying among students, physical fights gender violence and violence against school property during school strikes. Violence in secondary schools wastes a lot of learning time as students and teachers spend a lot of time dealing with disciplinary issues related to violence, at times it has also led to loss of life and school property in school fires during school strikes. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of parenting styles towards students’ violence in schools, in Embu county. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was anchored on Bioecological theory and parenting styles theory. Questionnaires were used to collect data from students on parenting styles and students’ violence, focus group discussion schedule was used to collect in-depth views of students while interview schedule were used to collect views of guidance and counseling teachers. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 15 schools which had reported more cases of violent behavior out of the 132 secondary schools in the county. Stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling were used to select 399 participants. Purposive sampling was used to select 15 Guidance and counseling teachers from the 15 schools. For the purpose of this study parenting styles were limited to authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive indulgence and permissive neglectful while students’ violence was limited to physical fight amongst students and destruction of property in the school. The study found that parents have a big role to play in influencing their children’s violent behavior through poor role modeling, inadequate advice and lack of listening to their concerns. The paper discusses contribution of parenting styles on violence among secondary school students in view of these findings. Contribution/Originality: This study documents the primary role played by home environment through parenting styles and home microsytstem, represented by parent-child relationships in explaining violence among secondary school students in Embu County. The study makes suggestions on ways of addressing the adolescent violence at the family level. 1. INTRODUCTION World over student violence has been a common place feature (Leach, 2003) . Rutebuka (2001) contend that, violence is an injustice that is meted on someone or something that is entitled to respect or observance. According to Aluede (2011) violence among students in Canada stands between 10 % and 11 % most of who report having been victimized by peers. According to Onukwufor (2013) in Nigeria, 20.8% of the secondary school students are physically aggressive, while the prevalence of verbal aggression among the students is 48.3% . A report by Department of Basic Education (2014) over 18% of the 14 million students in South Africa who attended school in the country in year 2012 experienced physical violence. School violence in its various forms creates an environment of insecurity among students to who the violence s directed and at times the violence is dire

FAQs

What violence-related behaviors are examined among students in this study?

The study focuses on physical fights among students and destruction of school property.

Which parenting styles are analyzed as predictors of student violence?

The analyzed parenting styles are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive indulgence, and permissive neglectful.

How was data collected for assessing parenting styles and violence?

Student data were collected using questionnaires on parenting styles and students’ violence. In-depth views were gathered through focus group discussions, and guidance and counseling teachers were interviewed.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper