Browsing by Author "Nzioki, Gideon Keli"

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    Relationship Between Perceived Parental and Teacher Psychological Control and Learned Helplessness among Form Three Students in Makueni County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2025-07) Nzioki, Gideon Keli
    Low motivation and passivity towards learning tasks resulting from perceptions of uncontrollability of outcomes is a persistent problem, especially among low-achieving students. Literature has attributed this to the development of learned helplessness among some students. Despite the adverse effects of learned helplessness in such aspects as decreased academic performance, self-destructive strategies, maladjusted behaviour, and depression, the construct remains largely uncharted among the secondary school population in Makueni County, Kenya. Additionally, findings on dispositional and contextual antecedents of learned helplessness remain equivocal. In view of the foregoing, in the first two objectives, the current inquiry proposed to establish the prediction of learned helplessness from perceived teacher and parental psychological control. Further, the study explored if mindsets mediated the relationship between perceived parental and teacher psychological control and learned helplessness. This study was informed by the Mindsets Theory (Dweck, 2017). and the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017). It was based on an exploratory correlational research design where the target population comprised 3890 (1988 girls) form three class of 2023 in all 48 secondary schools in Makueni Subcounty. To ensure random allocation a multi-stage sampling technique was used. The locale was purposively selected for the study. Stratified random sampling was applied in the selection of schools in different school types and students by gender. A core of 413 (212 girls) respondents (MAge =16.82, SD = 1.08) was randomly selected from the participating schools to respond to the questionnaires. Before this, a pilot study was undertaken involving 48 students. Data were collected using an adapted Psychological Control Scale - Youth Self-Report Measure, Psychologically Controlling Teaching - Student Report, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale and the Learned Helplessness Scale. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences, SPSS, version 25 and SPSS AMOS, version 26, were used in the data analysis. Bivariate correlational analyses using the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient revealed that both perceived maternal psychological control, r (381) = .11, P < .05, and paternal psychological control, r (381) = .15, P < .01, had significant correlations with learned helplessness. Moreover, perceived teacher psychological control has a significant correlation with learned helplessness, r (381) = .19, P < .001. Further, full structural equation modelling analyses on three separate models revealed that mindsets mediate the relationship between perceived parental and teacher psychological control and academic achievement. Specifically, mindsets fully mediate paternal control’s relationship with learned helplessness, while partially mediating the relationship for both maternal and teacher control, suggesting other factors are also at play in these relationships. The findings affirm the relevance of psychological control in the prediction of learned helplessness among students. The study may be key to creating an autonomy-supportive learning environment as well as devising interventions for alleviating learned helplessness, which cumulatively translate into an overall better learning environment for learners.