Parenting Styles as Antecedent to Self-Esteem of Adolescents in Rongai Sub-County, Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Adolescence is a time when teenagers try to balance their own wants and needs with the wishes of their parents. Consequently, parenting styles play a key role in helping young people either overcome this developmental milestone without much challenge or instill negative lived experiences with detrimental effects on their self-esteem. This article focuses on the role of parenting style in developing adolescent self-esteem. A descriptive survey was conducted on a target population of 38411 adolescents in the Rongai sub-county of Nakuru, Kenya. A self-response questionnaire was administered to stratified random samples of 450 respondents aged 13 to 19 years. A total of 380 questionnaires were completed in full, which corresponds to a response rate of 84.4%. The respondents comprised 204 (53.5%) females and 176 (46.5%) males. 252 (66.3%) of the respondents had both parents, 108 (28.5%) single parents, and 20 (5.2%) legal guardians. Self-esteem was high in 169 (44.4%), moderate in 134 (35.2%), and low in 78 (20.4%) of the respondents respectively. Authoritarian parenting accounted for 278 (73.2%), compared to authoritarian 78 (20%) and permissive parenting 26 (6.8%). Self-esteem was highest in adolescents with authoritative parenting 214 (56.28%) compared to 46 (12%) with authoritarian parenting and 44 (11.6%) with permissive parenting. The p-value was calculated to be <0.001 by the chi-square test, and therefore the association between parenting style and adolescent self-esteem was found to be significant. The result of this study presents significant implications for parenting styles and adolescent self-esteem in Rongai sub-county.