Parental Absenteeism: Child Nurturance and Socialization Impedes in Bibirioni Ward, Kiambu County, Kenya
Abstract
Undoubtedly, the changing dynamics of the families from heterogeneous to homogeneous
structure, the effects of globalization, technology, economy and social changes have adversely affected
parenting. Parents have consequently become absent in their children’s lives in order to fit to these
dynamics. The consequences of this parental absenteeism is massive juvenile delinquencies both at
home and in the institutions in which their children are enrolled. Juvenile delinquency in many parts
of the world is rising alarmingly. This then begs the question whether some systems within the society
are not working properly. With the family being central, parental absenteeism is therefore put on
perspective. The main objective of this study was to establish whether parental absenteeism impedes
nurturance and socialization of children.This was scrutinized by use of two relevant and
complimentary theories namely: parenting styles theory and Social control theory. Parenting styles
theory has authoritative, authoritarian and permissive styles as the main tenets while the Social
control theory captures the social bonds of the ‘significant other’ of an individual. The family is such
an institution in which a child is to be nurtured and socialized. This study was done in Bibirioni Ward
of Kiambu County. The study adopted mixed research design which embraced both qualitative and
quantitative methods. The target population was children of between 10 and 17 years of age, parents,
caregivers to the children, area children’s officers, religious leaders and local administrators. Using
Glen sample table with ±10% precision levels and 95% confidence level P=0.5, I used a sample size
of 100 respondents from a total population of 21,000 residents of Bibirioni Ward. Random sampling
was employed to select the parents and children respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select
key informants who included children’s officers, teachers, religious leaders, caregivers and area
administration officers. Data was collected through interviews, content analysis and key informants
methods. It was then coded and classified on the basis of common characteristics or attributes. Themes
were generated and explained through statistics attributes and thematically presented for qualitative
method. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze quantitative data and presented in graphs, charts
and tables. The findings revealed that parental absenteeism impedes nurturance and socialization of
children consequently leading to juvenile delinquencies and other externalizing and internalizing
behavior problems like low school performance, stress and withdrawal.