Parenting styles and students’ academic performance of senior two and senior five students in Masuliita town council : A case of selected secondary schools

Abstract

The study was to about parenting styles and students’ academic performance of senior two and senior five students in Masuliita Town Council in Selected Secondary Schools. The study was guided by the following objectives; i) to establish the different parenting styles used on learners in selected Secondary Schools in Masuliita Town Council, to analyze the influence of parenting styles on the academic achievement of students in selected Secondary Schools in Masuliita Town Council and to establish the strategies for enhancing students’ Academic performance in selected Secondary Schools in Masuliita Town Council. The study obtained data from 77 respondents and using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, it was revealed that the children are cared for under what is commonly appreciated as parenting in homes right from the time they are born, and the process continues through the life time, and intermittently interrupted when one is sent to school where they interact with other learners and exhibit the life style they have learn while at home. Children are instrumental in bringing them up at home because they are the ones whom they interact with immediately at birth and for the first part of their life on earth seeing them and copying from them life ways. It was revealed that strict parenting authoritarian parenting comprising rules and regulations on children is in place to tame any excesses from the children as they grow up and school. Parents set rules and enforce boundaries by having open discussion and using reasoning. The parenting style was agreed teach the children all the formative aspects of livelihood like hygiene, eating habits, behavior and other aspects of life growth. In the event of authoritarian parenting the children will end up being introvert, while with authoritative parenting, the person ends being extrovert because they are allowed to take some control over themselves as peoples. Many parents allow their children to take part in co-curricular activities as a way to enjoy the bursaries for education that the schools give and also the tertiary institutions when they go beyond advanced levels. Parental support helps the children to become more skilled as they learn a lot from home regarding life planning like taking care of themselves, how to relate with other people, exploit their natural abilities during play and domestic chores, and others. Parenting style influences students’ discipline at school showed that all respondents agreed that since charity begins at home, the parents of children develop them at the earliest stages of their lives. The parents teach children mannerism when they have started breast feeding, when they start recognizing people, when they continue to learn better in life, up when school comes in to take on the day and boarding routine of shaping the academic and more external life events in the growth and development of the child. The study recommended that parents should authoritative parenting style which is open to better upbringing of the children and model them into elitists persons who can benefit from the current education system for better skills development and advancement of knowledge Secondary Schools in Masuliita Town Council, there should be motivation of learners by parents and staff using intrinsic and extrinsic motivators like thanking the students, reading out their names on assembly and other forms of recognition which stimulate intrinsic motivation by promoting the student’s sense of curiosity, when the children are made to compete for better marks, get recognized for good performance and the subsequent praises this comes with good teaching. This can drive better performance from the school and bring with academic prosperity and there should be increase in the interaction between parents and teachers in order to establish a bridge for better monitoring of children both at home and school because communication about the child become easy.