Influence of Parenting Task on Psychological Well-being of Parentally- Bereaved Adolescents in Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Parents must provide safety and sustenance, social-emotional support, instruction, supervision, and socialization to their children. The death of a parent alters parenting tasks and when the remaining parent remarries, adolescents in such families face additional challenges unique to blended families. The current study examined how parenting task influences the psychological well-being of parentally-bereaved adolescents in Kiambu County. Guided by Attachment Theory, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. Using snowball sampling, 132 parentally bereaved adolescents from reconstituted families and 10 key informants (social workers, clergies, and foster parents) were recruited. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaires and FGD respectively. Pilot study helped in testing tool validity and reliability. The study used descriptive statistics, mean, percentage, frequency, and standard deviation, to analyze the quantitative data. Thematic analysis using a latent approach was used to analyze qualitative data. Findings indicated low levels of autonomy (mean score 2.47 and standard deviation 0.926) and self-acceptance (mean score 2.40 and standard deviation 1.048) as a measure of psychological well-being. The score on the parenting task was low as indicated by a mean score of 2.64, and a standard deviation of 0.934. The score of inferential statistics indicated a statistically significant regression model, predicting that parenting tasks influenced parentally bereaved adolescents’ psychological wellness (Sig. value = 0.000). Regression analysis showed a strong and significant link between parenting tasks (coefficient value of.264, p-value of. 013). Bereaved adolescents expressed low levels of psychological wellness and parenting task in such families strongly and positively related to low psychological wellness. The researcher recommends that the staff handling children and family matters in government and nongovernmental institutions including religious leaders, need to be guided by the study finding in creating intervention tools for psychological support for parentally bereaved adolescents.