Authors: Eucabeth Kemunto Manyibe, Tonny Amisah & Stephen Asatsa
The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
P.O BOX 62157-00200. Nairobi, Kenya
Email:eucabethmanyibe@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Parenting styles help in guiding children as they develop into adults, and each style has an important implication for children’s future functional development. This means that parenting plays a principal role in child socialization, providing an early understanding of identity. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of parenting styles and other factors on teenage pregnancies among teenage mothers in Kajiado County. The study specifically sought to establish the influence of authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style and uninvolved parenting style among teenage mothers in public schools in Kajiado County. The study adopted a concurrent mixed-method with a sample population of 340 participants, 298 teenage mothers, 20 parents and 22 high school Heads of counselling department. Two sub counties were selected based on the increased cases of teenage pregnancy. The study used census sampling technique to select 298 teenage mothers from the schools in Kajiado North and Kajiado west sub-counties. Systematic sampling was used to select parents on the list of the cases recorded at the sub-county offices and counseling teachers was automatically be include from 22 schools. The study employed a modified Parenting Style Four-Factor Questionnaire and interview schedule to measure parenting styles as perceived by the teenagers. The Adolescent Clinical Sexual Behaviors Inventory (ACSBI-S) tool was adopted to collect the respondents’ data on teenage sexual activities. Data from the semi-structured interview guides were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis and presented in verbatim. Pearson correlation was used to test relationships between independent and dependent variables. the study findings revealed that there was a weak negative significant relationship between authoritative parenting style and sexual interest (r=-.166; p ˂0.05), Sexual knowledge (R=-187; p ˂ 0.05, Sexual risks (r=-.222; p˂ 0.05), and concerns about appearance (r=-.275; p˂ 0.05), However there was no significant correlation between authoritative parenting style and sexual discomfort (r=-.043; p >0.05). The study found that besides parenting styles, there are other factors influencing teenager risky sexual behavior among students including socio-economic factors, Peer influence, Social media, Family support, School factors. Based on the findings, the study suggests all stakeholders in education to promote accurate sexual health knowledge, positive attitudes towards responsible sexual behaviors, effective communication within families, and supportive peer networks as crucial strategies in reducing risky sexual behaviors among students.
Keywords: Parenting styles, parenting styles influence, Teenage Sexual Behaviors, teenage mothers pregnancies, Teenage mothers
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Suggested Citation
Kemunto, E. M., Amisah, T. & Asatsa, S. ( 2023). Influence of Parenting Styles and Other Factors on Risky Sexual Behaviors among Teenage Mothers in Secondary schools in Kajiado County, Kenya. Journal of Education in Developing Economies, Vol. 2, 10-28. Available online at http://writersbureau.net/journals/jede/influence-of-parenting-styles-and-other-factors-on-risky-sexual-behaviors-among-teenage-mothers-in-secondary-schools-in-kajiado-county-kenya.pdf
