170-Article Text-1560-1-10-20220527
170-Article Text-1560-1-10-20220527
170-Article Text-1560-1-10-20220527
Received: 10th December, 2021; Revised: 29th March, 2022; Accepted: 24th May, 2022
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Although, Turkana County is one of the most marginalized county in
Kenya, some students from this locality persist to pursue an education from one level to
another, surmounting the challenges at each level. The parental involvement factors
bolstering their academic resilience formed the basis of inquiry of this study.
Purpose: This study was an investigation of the relationship between parental
involvement factors and academic resilience of public secondary school students in
Turkana County.
Methodology: This study employed a mixed methods approach using the concurrent
triangulation design analysis. The data collection tools were questionnaires and interview
schedules. The sample size consisted of 382 students who responded to questionnaires,
and 10 teachers and 10 students for the interview schedules. The internal consistency
test of reliability was established through computation of the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient
whose overall output was .775.The content, construct and criterion-related validity were
also established. Similarly, the trustworthiness and authenticity of the qualitative data
was established.
Results: The study found that parental involvement academically, physically, socially,
emotionally, financially and parental communication of expectations yielded high
academic resilience among students, with parental involvement socially being the
strongest predictor of academic resilience.
Recommendations: The study recommended that parents should be involved in their
children’s lives academically, physically, socially, emotionally, financially as well as
communicate their expectations to their children. Further, parents should especially
involve their children in the social aspects of their lives in order to promote academic
resilience.
Keywords: Parental Involvement, Academic Resilience, Turkana County.
INTRODUCTION
Assumptions made about resilience the skills they need to cope with stressors
presuppose that students who were and recover from unforeseen failures. This
exposed to more protective factors fair assertion is backed by Boden et al. (2016)
much better than those exposed to risk and Narayan et al. (2018) that exposure to
factors. However, some students despite fostering and compassionate social
being exposed to adverse conditions environments, as well as other good
continue to push through education from experiences such as parental involvement,
one grade to another surmounting the strong caregiver- and teacher-child
challenges at each level. This is true of some relationships, and school engagement was
students from Turkana County, the most shown to promote health and well-being
marginalized county in Kenya. Krause and throughout developmental phases and into
Sharples (2020) concur that there is a adulthood (Boden et al., 2016; Narayan et
growing recognition that how children adapt al., 2018).
to traumatic events and stressful conditions Parents have multifaceted and
is influenced by a myriad of aspects ranging versatile protective influences on many
from the sociocultural context which include aspects of development, according to
the resources within families and Masten and Barnes (2018), and they
communities at a given point in time to the influence the well-being of their children
children’s skills, experiences, and when they are threatened by adversity.
capacities. Similarly, effective parenting promotes
Family is regarded as the source of positive development across all levels of
the first patterns of stress management, risk, with larger adverse effects when
difficulties, and failure (Pieronkiewicz & conditions are more threatening. Choe et al.
Szczygieł, 2020). Therefore parental (2013) argue that the family environment,
involvement may influence the academic specifically family structural situations,
resilience of learners. Parents who are parental responsiveness, management
physically present in their children’s lives approaches, and exposure to adjusted
can communicate with them their models, has a serious influence on children's
expectations. Family communication and and teenagers' self-regulation skills, a
resilience are deeply interwoven. Parent- feature associated with resilience. Romero
child communication appears to be the most et al. (2018) further emphasize the
significant in "socializing children to be importance of parents in building resilience
emotionally and behaviorally adaptive" by reducing the negative effects of harsh
(Theiss, 2018, p. 12). conditions. Although emotionally supportive
In this study, parental involvement parents cannot prevent difficulties in life,
academically, physically, socially, they can provide comfort and/or support to
emotionally, financially and communication their children as they adjust to and make
of expectations were the domains indicating sense of life's challenging experiences.
parental involvement. Families, according to According to Ofiesh and Mather
Theiss (2018), provide a foundation for (2013), adults who have been successful in
socializing children and equipping them with life despite having been challenged by
learning problems as children described children, plus 227 Greeks (average age 13.9
their family members as "extraordinarily years) were included in the sample, all of
supportive." Parents who continued to them were registered in Greek inner-city
encourage academic success supplied middle schools. Four family resources
financial resources, and aided access to (parental involvement in school, family
necessary programs were among those who support, and parents’ education) were
provided this assistance. Parent assessed for academic resilience. Immigrant
employment for instance affects both the and non-immigrant youth both had stronger
quality and quantity of parent-child bonding academic resilience when their families had
time and therefore determines how the more resources. The findings showed that
mother or father parents (Han et al. 2019). there was a strong connection between
In the spirit of improving the life chances of family resources and academic resilience.
children growing up in adverse conditions, Independent of immigrant or social status,
parents and parenting were key students who had greater family support
considerations. and whose parents had a higher level of
Kong (2020) conducted research education and were more committed to their
using data from the Growing Up in Ireland child's school were likely to have greater
longitudinal study to determine the academic resilience.
association between parental socioeconomic The Project Competence research in
status and academic resilience, this was Minnesota by Garmezy et al. (1984), is a
connected to the construct of parental model work on the subject of resilience,
involvement in this study. The work status particularly worth revisiting. The study
and educational level of the parents were looked at how life stressors affected the
used to determine their socioeconomic aptitude of 612 primary school students in
status. The population in 1998 comprised grades 3-6 in two Minneapolis public
8000 9-year-olds and 10000 9-month-olds, schools. The sample was chosen to reflect
who are now 22 and 12 years old, the socioeconomic disparity and ethnic
respectively. Multiple regression was used minorities in the public school system at the
to evaluate the data, and the study time. Garmezy and colleagues (1984)
discovered that children from low focused on the association between
socioeconomic backgrounds showed high competence, hardship, inner functioning,
academic resilience due to the strength of and a set of personal and familial
parent-child connections. The implication characteristics. A total of 205 children and
for this study was that parental involvement families took part in the subsequent studies
financially leads to high academic resilience. at the ages of 7, 10, and 20 to provide
However, while the reviewed study was longitudinal data on competence and
longitudinal in nature, the current study was resilience. During the school years, tutor
cross-sectional in nature. Further, Ireland is ratings, peer feedback, and school record
different from Kenya in terms of the data were used to assess competence, while
economy, availability of infrastructure, life a life event questionnaire was used to
expectancy among others, and therefore assess stress exposure. Using an
the need to conduct the study in Kenya. exploratory multiple regression correlation
Anagnostaki et al. (2016) analysis, the investigators also interviewed
investigated whether and how personal and parents about their family's social order and
family resources of immigrant youth their child's perspective.
account for personal variation in academic According to the study's findings,
resilience in a cross-sectional study in which disadvantaged children with lower IQs and
300 middle school students, 73 Albanian socio-economic status but also less positive
family characteristics, were generally less South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei,
capable and more likely to be disruptive in and Japan were the countries involved. In
school. This implies that the lack of parental Singapore, disadvantaged and non-
involvement financially as indicated by low disadvantaged students showed a difference
SES affected academic resilience. The in academic expectations and time spent on
researchers discovered, however, that some mathematics at home. In Korea, being male
of the disadvantaged children were capable, increases the likelihood of resilience, and in
doing well, and did not exhibit behavioral Taipei, low levels of bullying at school
problems. This discovery prompted increase the odds of resilience. The findings
researchers to wonder why some children indicated that interventions influencing
did not succumb to adversity and thus did behavior as reflected in differentially
not develop negative adaptations. This associated variables could aid
study was carried out among children in the disadvantaged students in becoming
western world, which has a different academically resilient. This study was
education system from Kenya and cannot be limited to Asian counties only thereby
generalized to children in the Kenyan hindering generalization. It was important
context. to carry out the study in Kenya to examine
Morales (2010) explored the any notable differences.
protective factors in the lives of ten Despite the highly competitive
elementary-aged pupils, all of whom were academic environment, Li (2017) conducted
over the age of eight, who lived in a rural a quantitative analysis to determine the
Virginia school division that had experienced explanation for Chinese students' academic
hardship. Fifty low-income students of resilience. The sample consisted of 693
colour who were academically resilient were mixed-gender pupils randomly recruited
selected. The students that took part in the from five public and one private secondary
study had a parent with poor educational school in China. When school commitment,
backgrounds, low-paying jobs, and were individual conflict attitudes, parental
classified as ethnic minorities. Inverted supervision, and school involvement/
triangulation interviews were used to recognition were examined alongside
interview each student at least three times. academic resilience, the study found that
The study revealed that academically parental supervision, school involvement,
resilient students had protective factors that and recognition improve academic
include high parental expectations, and a resilience. The reviewed study was
mother modelling a strong work ethic. The conducted in China, an Asian country with a
reviewed study was highly qualitative while different education system and philosophy.
the current study is a mixed-methods study. The present study assessed parental
While the sample in the above study involvement in an African setup and Kenya
consisted of only ten participants, a lesser in particular.
sample size which is prone to the margin of Research supports parental support
error, the present study consisted of 378 as an influential variable in promoting
students. resilience. Theron and Van Rensburg (2020)
Sandoval-Hernandez and Biaowolski conducted an inferential, secondary data
(2016) investigated how poor analysis of narrative and visual data derived
socioeconomic status influenced academic from two samples of adolescents on primary
resilience in mathematics among Asian caregivers and adolescent resilience in an
Education System pupils. In the five African context on South African
countries, the research sample included adolescents 133 from rural and 385 from
23,354 pupils from 720 schools. Singapore, urban settings. Parent figures who
encourage resilience offer additional access the city, where social issues like poverty and
to material resources, co-regulate teenage violence were frequent. Document analysis,
behaviour, encourage dedication to as well as interviews with instructors and
education, and provide emotional support in parents, were used to collecting data. The
the form of affection, according to the results of the study revealed that individual
findings of the study on resilient and parental involvement are the strongest
adolescents. The study affirmed that parent predictors of academic resilience. The
figures do matter for adolescent resilience. reviewed study was conducted on six
While data from this previewed study was students which hinders its generalization as
obtained through secondary data analysis, well increasing the chances of great error
the present study deduced academic margins. This study used a sample of 378
resilience based on primary data obtained students and this may make it generalizable
from questionnaires and interviews. In and reduce the margin error. In addition,
addition, the reviewed study focused on the reviewed study was purely qualitative,
general resilience, the current study focused the present study used a mixed-methods
on academic resilience. approach to fill in the gaps in the literature.
Educational challenges for children Boutin-Martinez et al. (2019) sought
exposed to any risk factor, according to to find out if there was a link between
Kwok et al. (2016), are receptive to personal and parental protective variables
differences in the quality of the home and and Latina/o high school students' academic
school atmosphere. Lofgren and Lofgren resilience, as well as their connection with
(2017) employed a narrative analysis to 12th-grade mathematics achievement,
investigate educational resilience from the dropout rates, and post-secondary
perspective of 12-13-year-old Swedish enrolment. The National Centre for
grade six students in eleven schools. Family Education Statistics' Education Longitudinal
expectations increased educational Study of 2002 dataset was used to compile
resilience, according to the study's findings, the data for this study (NCES). Latent class
resilience is a matter of living up to family analysis was performed to examine
expectations. This reviewed study was academic protective profiles, or latent
conducted among grade six pupils whose groups, among high school Latina/o
cognitive development level is lower students (N141610) and to properly
compared to those in secondary schools evaluate group differences between males
which the current study was concerned and females, socioeconomic background,
with, in addition, the study was purely immigrant status, student's native
qualitative while the current study implored language, early education attendance, and
a mixed-methods approach to 10th-grade mathematics. The research
understanding parental involvement and results reported the existence of academic
academic resilience. protective groups, which differed
Rojas (2015) carried out an significantly in terms of academic
exploratory study to determine the discussions with parents and attitudes
variables that may hamper academic toward mathematics including parental
resilience. The research looked into how communication, parental involvement, and
various parental and individual attitudes. Whereas the findings of the
environmental factors influence academic reviewed study were based on a longitudinal
resilience. Six pupils studying in a public study, it was interesting to find out if the
school in Bogotá, Colombia, participated in results would differ in a cross-sectional
the exploratory study. The school was in a study as in the present study.
low-income, marginalized neighbourhood of
gaps in the literature by employing a mixed- students thereby decreasing the margin of
methods approach. Moreover, the reviewed error. Besides, the above study was carried
study utilized a purposive sampling out in South America, a context different
approach which limits the generalization of from Kenya.
the results, the current study used both According to Schoon (2006), families
random and purposive sampling techniques. who set high standards for their children's
Using an ecological approach and a behavior from an early age help them
quantitative technique, Dotterer and develop resiliency. It was interesting to find
Wehrspann (2016) investigated the out if the present study would confirm or
association between parental engagement disconfirm these assertions. Bester and
in school and academic outcomes. The Kuyper (2020) used a quantitative approach
sample comprised 118 kids in grades 6-8 to investigate the relationship between
from an urban school in the United States additional educational support and
Midwest. According to the study's findings, academic resilience of 117 grade nine to ten
parental involvement has a favourable poverty-stricken adolescents in two schools
impact on academic outcomes. Additionally, in Gauteng, South Africa, that differed in
excellent academic outcomes will be terms of socio-economic nature and
achieved when parents collaborate with educational support provided. The findings
their child and their child's school to revealed that parental participation was
encourage favourable academic growth. The positively connected to resilience. The
reviewed study was carried out among reviewed study was purely quantitative.
American students, therefore the findings of However, the current study examined,
the study may not be generalized to parental involvement and academic
students in Kenya. The current study also resilience using a mixed-methods approach
sought to find out whether parental that provided a complete understanding of
involvement would successfully predict the academic resilience construct.
academic resilience among students in an The study was anchored on
African setup like Kenya. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological-transactional
Florez (2015) undertook an model of development (Bronfenbrenner,
exploratory study to look into the factors 1979) renamed Bioecological Systems
that influence academic resilience in middle Theory in 1986 (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) to
school, as well as the risk and protective emphasize that a child's biology and
factors that influence academic outcomes. external factors influenced their
Six pupils were chosen from a public school development. This theory views the child as
in Colombia that was located in a growing up in a microsystem that includes
marginalized and impoverished area of the the school, parents, and the neighbourhood
city. Document analysis and interviews with or childcare environments and builds an
teachers and parents were used to gather analysis of the relationship between the
data. Protective factors, according to the individual and their parents, siblings, or
findings of this study, can be linked to family school environment. Relationships between
supervision, support, and meaningful people occur in two ways- from the child and
engagement, which, when provided, towards the child and are therefore bi-
enhance academic resilience and, as a directional. For example, parents influence
result, academic achievement. The above the child and the parents are also influenced
study was carried out on a small sample of by the child. The microsystem is the child's
6 students which is prone to a margin of immediate environment, which includes
error, while the present study was being their immediate family, school, and
carried out on 378 secondary school neighbourhood. In this study, the
The results revealed that regarding expectations were high since the maximum
parental involvement indicators, parental points were 12. In contrast, parental
communication of expectations and involvement socially and physically were
academic resilience was very high = 9.6556. moderate.
This was followed by parental involvement
academically = 8.9233. Parental Hypothesis 1: There is no significant
involvement socially had the lowest mean relationship between Parental Involvement
score of = 6.7540. It should be noted that factors and Academic Resilience among
the mean scores on only parental public secondary school students in Turkana
involvement academically, emotionally, County.
financially and communication of
N r Sig (2-tailed)
Academically 378 0.140 0.007**
Physically 378 0.104 0.042**
Socially 378 0.242 0.000**
Emotionally 378 0.229 0.000**
Financially 378 0.141 0.006**
Expectations 378 0.235 0.000**
Overall 378 0.285 0.000**
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
The findings revealed that there was involvement had the strongest correlation
a significant correlation between indicators compared to all the other aspects
of Parental involvement (Academically, (r=0.242). This was followed by the
physically, socially, emotionally, financially, expectations of the parents (r=0.235). The
parental expectations) and academic weakest correlation was noted in the
resilience. This is because all the P-values of physical aspect of parental involvement
the indicators were less than the level of (r=0.104) and parental involvement
significance of 0.05. However, it also financially (r=0.141). In addition, it was
revealed that the social aspect of parental noted that the correlation of indicators of
Parental involvement and academic findings of this study are in tandem with
resilience was weak but significant since all that of Marcelo (2018) who found out that a
the correlation coefficients were below 0.05. strong significant relationship exists
Cumulatively, parental involvement between high parental involvement and
significantly correlates to academic academic resilience. The findings also
resilience as indicated in table 3 at P<0.05. support the findings of a study by Florez
Given that the relationship was statistically (2015) who found that the protective
significant, the hypothesis that “there is no parental involvement of family guidance,
statistically significant relationship between support, and meaningful involvement
Parental involvement factors and Academic boosts academic resilience significantly.
Resilience among the form four students” Similarly, the study sought to estimate the
was rejected. It was therefore concluded level of influence of parental involvement on
that there is a statistically significant academic resilience. This was done by use
positive relationship between parental of regression analysis. The results of the
involvement factors and Academic inferential statistics are presented in Table
Resilience among the Public Secondary 4 below.
School students in Turkana County. The
The model summary reveals that the resilience (r=.285, n=378, p<.05).
parental involvement factors accounted for Similarly, it was observed that among
9.7 % (R Square =0.097) of the variation in parental involvement factors, parental
academic resilience among public secondary involvement socially was the strongest
school students. This finding means that (r=0.242) correlate of academic resilience.
variation in academic resilience is 9.7 % This was followed by the expectations of the
explained by the variability of parental parents (r=0.235). The weaker correlation
involvement factors among the public was noted in the physical involvement
secondary school students. The findings of (r=0.104) and parental involvement
this study corroborate with the findings of financially (r=0.141). A substantial number
other studies conducted by Kong (2020), of students experienced protective parental
Anagnostaki et al. (2016), Theiss (2018), involvement. This finding corroborates with
Boden et al.(2016), and Romero et the study by Rojas (2015) that parental
al.(2016)` who found out that parental involvement predicts academic resilience
involvement increases academic resilience and the study by Boutin-Martinez et al.
of students. (2019) that parental involvement predicts
academic resilience. Furthermore,
DISCUSSIONS qualitative data also revealed that students
The study found that there was a who experience high parental involvement
positive significant relationship between manifested academic resilience majorly
parental involvement factors and academic because they felt a sense of personal
never happened. Nevertheless, the 72% From the comments by Teacher 6, the
positive response reflects effort from the sacrifice that some parents make despite
parents. Qualitative data obtained from the poverty levels was a testament to their
another teacher indicated that parents who involvement academically and financially,
are present for their children and act as and like in teacher 6 self-reporting, it can be
mentors in the schooling process promote deduced that resilience was at play because
the academic resilience of learners. A of the involvement of parents. The finding is
student confirmed, ‘When I don’t perform in tandem with those of Theron and Van
well my father encourages me to do my Rensburg (2020) who agree that parent-
best, he even takes me for extra tuition and figures who enable resilience provide access
buys me revision books, and I don’t want to to material resources.
let him down (Student 10). This scale also sought to find out
From the excerpt of student 10, the whether parents communicate their
concept of parental involvement emotionally academic expectations of their children to
(my father encourages me) and financially their children and the results were striking.
(takes me for extra tuition and buys me From the responses 87% of respondents
revision books) was revealed. Because of reported that their parents always told what
this, the student feels obligated to persist in they expect from them academically, while
school. This support propels the students only 5.3 % responded that this only
towards resilience. This finding is supported happened sometimes, 8.2% reported that
by Theron and Van Rensburg (2020) who their parents never told them what they
assert that resilience enabling parents give expected of them. Perhaps awareness of the
emotional support in the form of affection importance of education is vast. One
that the adolescents appreciate. student commented:
On parental involvement financially, My mother tells me she did not go
70.1% of the respondents said that their to school and that is the reason why
parents always supported them by buying she was married early, she always
them books and other school requirements, tells me that she does not want me
while 20.6 % said that this happened only to live the kind of life she has lived
sometimes, 9.2 % said that they were never and that if I work hard in school I
supported by their parents. For instance, will be a better person in the future.
some teachers observed: She tells me that she wants me to
Most of the parents here are very get a good grade that will take me
poor and so are not able to support straight to university (Student 4).
their children’s education and rely The above expression is an indication
on well-wishers, sponsors, that some parents communicate to their
bursaries, etc. However, I have students their academic expectations of
seen a father who sold his camels, them. This is a trigger and an
cows, and goats so that his son encouragement to the child to persist in
could finish school, the son is now a education. This backs up a previous study
teacher. Myself, I was born and by Theiss (2018), who discovered that the
raised here, my father was a pure function of parents–children communication
pastoralist, no education, no job, is the most important "in socializing children
nothing but he sold his camels most to be emotionally and behaviorally
of the time until I finished adaptive." Boutin-Martinez et al. (2019)
secondary and university (Teacher, also confirm the role of parental
6). communication in their study that reported
parent communication with their children as School of Education, Arts and Social
a resilience protective factor. Sciences, University of Kabianga and
University of Kabianga IREC for the research
CONCLUSION grant. I acknowledge the Mawazo Institute
Based on the findings of the study, for the fellowship Award and APA, Trauma
the study concluded that parental Division for the International Student
involvement academically, physically, Stipend.
socially ,emotionally, financially and
communication of expectations predict Authors’ Bionote
academic resilience. Further, parental Janet Surum, PhD student in Educational
involvement socially was the most Psychology, Department of Educational
significant predictor of academic resilience Psychology, Moi University, Lecturer at
among other parental involvement factors. University of Kabianga, Mawazo Institute
Therefore, parents should be intentionally Fellow, Member of the International Society
involved in their children’s lives for the Study of Behavioural Development.
academically, physically, socially,
emotionally, financially, and communicate Dr. Esther Njeri Kiaritha, Senior Lecturer
their expectations. Parental involvement in Educational Psychology, Department of
socially should be given more emphasis by Educational Psychology, Moi University,
parents as it is the greatest predictor of Member of the American Psychological
academic resilience. Association.