Parenting Education: Relationship between Parent-Child Interaction and Preprimary Children’s Writing Readiness Skills in Siaya County, Kenya
Loading...
Date
2021
Authors
Rabok, Daniel Achero
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Parenting education programmes have been found to promote good parent-child interactions in their households. Consequently, benefits in academic success, proper development of a child, prevention of child maltreatment and child aggression, have been associated with these programs. However, there is limited information regarding educational outcomes of the parenting education programmes in Kenya. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish whether there is a relationship between parent-child interactions and pre-schoolers writing readiness skills in Ugunja in Siaya County, Kenya. The study explored in detail whether performance of pre-schoolers on writing readiness is related to their caregivers’ level of income and whether level of knowledge on responsive parenting and their pre-schoolers’ temperaments influence interactions between them and pre-schoolers. The study was anchored on the Ecological systems theory by Urie Brofenbrenner. The theory explains how five various environmental settings affect the development of a person. The population of the study comprised of parents and their pre-schoolers in Ugunja Sub County, who benefited and those who did not benefit from ChildFund Kenya’s parenting education programme. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the location of the study, pre-schools and parents to be involved in the study. Pre-schoolers who represented other pupils in the study were selected through stratified simple random sampling technique. One hundred and ninety-six parents and their pre-schoolers participated in the study as respondents. Questionnaire and learners’ writing readiness assessment tests were used to collect data from caregivers and pre-schoolers respectively. To ensure validity of the instruments, content analysis was done. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation and percentages were used in summarizing data while inferential techniques such as one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and Spearman moment correlation were used to analyse the data with the help of Statistical Package of Social Science version 20. The study found a significant and positive relationship between parent-child interactions and level of writing readiness of pre-schoolers. There was a significant and positive relationship between pre-schoolers’ level of writing readiness and their parents’ income. The findings revealed an existence of significant difference in means of parent-child interaction across parents’ knowledge level on responsive parenting. The study also found a significant difference in means of parent-child interaction in relation to children’s temperaments. It was concluded that there was a significant positive relationship between parent-child interactions and writing readiness. There was a relationship between income level and pre-schoolers’ writing readiness. Responsive parenting knowledge and children temperaments influence parent–child interactions. It was recommended that there is need for a parenting curriculum to be developed and used in training of Community Health volunteers, Child Protection volunteers, pre-school teachers, religious leaders and other opinion leaders in communities to sensitize parents on responsive parenting and be economically empowered. Child focused organizations and government should scale up parenting education programmes.
Description
A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Education (Early Childhood Education) in the School of Education, Kenyatta University, June, 2021
Keywords
Parenting Education, Relationship, Parent-Child Interaction, Preprimary Children’s, Writing Readiness Skills, Siaya County, Kenya