Effect of Parenting Approaches on Students’ Academic Performance Among Public Day Secondary Schools in Yatta Sub-County, Machakos County, Kenya

Education is an element in the stimulation of socioeconomic development as advanced by several government policy documents and various scholars. Education is one of the most important aspects of human resource development. Despite the school administration laying some strategies to improve students’ academic performance, it is still low in Yatta sub-county. Therefore, the study sought to establish the effect of parenting approaches on students’ academic performance among public day secondary schools in Yatta sub-County. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study included 28 public day secondary schools in Yatta sub-county. This study adopted the use of questionnaires and interview schedules to obtain data from the respondents. Raw data obtained from the respondents were sorted, cleaned and scrutinized for errors such as omissions, exaggerations, and biases. Quantitative data collected was then organized and entered into the computer using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data. The study concluded that it is important for parents to adopt the authoritative parenting style among their adolescent children. This is because as much as authoritative parenting establishes rules and guidelines, and demonstrates power, it is more democratic than authoritarian which is important to build the children’s self-esteem and self-discipline which trickles down to good performance. From the study, it was concluded that although neglectful parenting style has been said to lead to poor academic performance, it could lead to a positive influence.