Relationship Between Parental Conflict, Family Structure And Bullying Among Public Secondary School Students In Kiambu County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Bullying, as a form of school violence is a big challenge and there is evidence that it

is happening in many parts of the world including Kenya. Most past studies in Kenya

have focused on prevalence, causes, forms and effects of bullying. However, not so

much has been done on the influence of family especially parents on bullying. The

purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between family structure,

parental conflict and bullying among public secondary school students in Kiambu

County. The social dominance and dominance formed the theoretical basis of the

study. The study employed the correlation research design. The target population was

55 secondary schools with a student population of 13,772 students in Kikuyu Sub

County of Kiambu County. A sample of 13 schools was determined and the specific

schools where chosen using stratified sampling technique. The schools were stratified

based on criteria of school gender category (mixed, boys only and girls only), school

accommodation (boarding only, day only and boarding-day). Simple random

sampling method was used to select respondents (n=346). The study used a

questionnaire to collect data. Reliability of the questionnaire was established using

split-half method from data of a pilot study that was carried out in Lari Sub-County.

Descriptive statistics in form of frequency tables and means were used to analyze the

demographic characteristics, while chi-square was used to establish relationships

between parental conflict, family structure and prevalence of bullying. Statistical

Package for social Sciences version 23 was used in data analysis. The study

established a statistically significant relationship between school type by

accommodation and being a perpetrator of bullying, χ2(1) = 21.486, p=.001. Majority

of the respondents (65.8%) were living with both parents, 18.6% were living with

single mothers, while 6.6% were living with a guardian who was a relative, with the

relationship between family structure and bullying was not statistically significant,

p>0.05. The study further established a significant relationship between parental

conflict and being a bullying victim and a bullying perpetrator, p