Relationship between Parenting Style and Psychosocial Development of High School Students in Starehe Sub-County, Nairobi

The family plays a critical role in the psychosocial development of adolescents. The shifting family context, especially towards single parenthood, potentially exerts influences on the styles and practices of parenting. This is held to reflect on the psychosocial well-being of children and adolescents. This study investigated the relationship between parenting styles and the psychosocial development of secondary school students in Starehe-Sub County, Nairobi – Kenya. The study is an interpretive research that utilized survey method. A total of 300 form two students from five public schools in Starehe sub-county, Nairobi participated in the study. Stratified random sampling was used to select the schools and proportionate random sampling used to select the students from each school from the list of all students from single-parent families. Self-report questionnaires and Likert scale measures were used to elicit information on parenting style, self-esteem, discipline and interpersonal relations. Correlational techniques were used to analyse the data. The results found no relationship between parenting style and psychosocial development. More precisely, there was no relationship between parenting style and self-esteem, discipline and interpersonal relationship. The study concludes that there is no relationship between parenting style and psychosocial development of adolescents, and recommends further investigation of other factors that may influence psychosocial development of adolescents