Role of Selected Parental Characteristics on Levels of Self-Esteem among Undergraduate Students in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Kenyan universities have experienced a growing phenomenon of student’s unrest, drug abuse, deaths, relationship break ups, exam malpractice among others, which pose serious challenges in the growth and development of the students. Feelings of self-worth develop very early in childhood, thus parents and guardians play a great role in determining what the child thinks about him or herself. A strong self-esteem will act as a weapon against the challenges in life, the student will face. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the role of selected parental characteristics on levels of self-esteem among undergraduate students in public universities in Kenya. The researcher used a descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study was 840 students from the fourth year students of University of Kabianga, a location arrived at randomly to represent all public universities in Kenya. 540 male and 300 female students were proportionately distributed to include 174 male and 97 female students from which a sample of 271students was obtained. Experts in guidance and counselling from the Department of Psychology Counseling and Educational Foundations assessed the content and face validity of the questionnaire. Reliability was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha following pilot study. The yielded coefficient of 0.953 values was obtained. Data was analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26, using percentages, frequencies and cross-tabulation. The study established that most of the respondents who had stayed in married parenthood were optimistic about life, full of confidence and were pleasant with discomfort having a response of 74.8% and 74.1% respectively. The study concludes that parental characteristics specifically parental marital status, parental education level and parental employment status play a significant role in enhancing undergraduates’ student self-esteem in universities. The study recommends that Ministry of Higher Education should develop specific policies targeting undergraduate students’ self-esteem in all Universities in Kenya to enhance their well-being.