| dc.description.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. | en_US |
