Abstract:
In any society, the type of family is determined by parental marital status. This parental marital status determines the family environment in which the child is born and brought up. Thus the family environment is likely to influence a child's self-esteem. This is because a network of forces that include parental influence has been known to determine the level of self-esteem of children. In effect, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students' self-esteem and parental marital status among secondary school students in Gichugu division. The study was a survey, which utilized causal comparative research design. The total number of schools in the division was 21 and the form three students were the target population. In the 21 schools in the division, there was a total population of 1382 form three students. Out of this population, 306 students constituted the sample of this study. In order to get a representative number per school, proportional sampling was done. In selecting the required proportion per school, purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was pilot tested to establish its validity and reliability before being administered to the respondents. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to estimate the reliability. Reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained and this was considered acceptable for this study. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5 was used to aid in the data analysis. One major finding was that the students from two parent families had a higher level of self-esteem than students from single parent families. Following this major finding, it was recommended that guidance and counselling in secondary schools be enhanced to cater for the needs of such students. It was also recommended that the teacher training colleges equip the teachers on ways to enhance the students' self-esteem in an attempt to reach the students with low self-esteem in general and particularly those from single parent families.
