Parenting Styles and Sexual Behaviour among Teenage Girls in Kieni East Sub-County- Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

Teenage stage is when an individual is in the transitional years from childhood to adulthood. This stage marks the onset of cognitive, physical and emotional changes therefore a very important time for the teenagers as they struggle with self-identity and career issues. Different parenting styles influence the lifestyles of the teenagers. Teenagers learn attributes and societal expectations through the parenting styles in their families. Parents play a vital role in shaping and developing acceptable morals to protect teenagers. The study addressed five study objectives namely to establish the influence of an authoritative parenting style on sexual behaviour amongst teenage girls, to assess the effects of authoritarian parenting style on sexual behaviour amongst teenage girls, to analyse the extent of involvement of permissive parenting style on sexual behaviour amongst teenage girls, to evaluate the challenges of neglectful parenting style on sexual behaviour amongst teenage girls, and to identify strategies to enhance responsible sexual behaviour amongst teenage girls in Kieni East Sub-County, Nyeri County, Kenya. The research was supported by social learning theory by Bandura 1977 and later modified by Hensley in 2004 and attachment theory byBowlby andAinsworth in 1950. Mixed research method (qualitative and quantitative) approach specifically sequential explanatory design was used. The target population were girls aged 13-19 years from girl schools in Kieni East Sub County. A sample size of 392 girls were drawn. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire on parenting styles using the Index Parental Style (IPS), data on teenage sexual behaviour was collected using the Scale on Sexual Risk Taking (SSRT) and coping measures was collected using the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS). The quantitative data was then analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 while the qualitative data was collected using interview guides and analysed using thematic analysis. The study showed that being high or low in responsiveness and demandingness affected the sexual behaviour of the teenage girls in various ways. The results from the teenagers showed that the teenagers were quite resilient. The score obtained from the resilience scale used gave a mean average of 15.43 out of the possible 19.00. This means that with a standard deviation of 1.94, the resilience levels of the teenagers were considerably high.The study recommends that parents should consciously embrace positive aspects of the various parenting styles to enhance their relationships with teenagers since this will improve their sexual behaviour.