Home Based Factors Influencing Secondary School Students' Discipline In Nzam Sub-County, Makueni County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This study sought to identity the home based factors that influence discipline

among students in public secondary schools in Nzaui Sub-county, Makueni

County, Kenya. The research objectives of the study were to determine the

influence of parental economic status, parenting styles and family background

on discipline among secondary school students -in Nzaui Sub-County. The

research design adopted in this study was the descriptive survey. Due to the

high number of students in the district, the study used simple random sampling

to select a representative sample. The Slovin's formula was used to sample

385 students and 136 parents for inclusion in the study. The study sampled 10

head teachers who responded to the interview guide. The study sought to

establish the relationship between students' discipline and the parental

economic status, the parenting styles and the family background. Using the

interview guide to the head teachers, .and questionnaires administered to the

students and parents, data was collected from the respondents. It was analyzed

quantitatively using frequencies, percentages, Pearsons' correlations and

regressions. The study established that indiscipline problems are prevalent in

public secondary schools and that both parental economic status (P-O.875)and

family background (P-O.710) do not significantly influence the discipline of

students. However the study established that parenting styles (P-O.095) do

significantly affect student discipline. The study recommends that parents

should fmd more time of being involved with their children, be more caring

and friendly, in addition parents who offer relaxed parenting style for their

students and have good jobs ought to be over restrictive to their children by

not giving them a lot of freedom.