The influence of parenting styles on pre-school children’s performance in mathematics in Lang’ata district, Nairobi county

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of parenting styles on preschool children’s performance in mathematics. The study was guided by the following research objectives : the effects of parental Permissive style on preschool children’s performance in Mathematics, parents permissive style, parents attachment style, parental authoritative style on preschool children’s performance in Mathematics , parental authoritarian style on preschool children’s performance in Mathematics. The study employed a survey research design. The target population of the study included all, (14) public preschools preschool children, teachers and parents. The sample included four (n=4) public preschools twenty (n=20s) preschool children, twenty (n=20) teachers and twenty (n=20) parents. The collected data was systematically organized in a manner that facilitated analysis. Raw data was combined into themes and then summarized into frequency tables and percentages. The coding of categorized data was done according to the various themes stipulated by the question items. Data was then put in tabular forms for analysis by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics consisted of tabulation of frequencies and percentage distribution, measures of central tendency and standard deviations. The analyzed data will be presented in tables of frequency and percentage distribution, bar graphs and pie charts. From the study, the following findings were made: The main source of income for the parents/guardians with children in public preschools in Lang’ata District is salary and business. There was a significant relation between parenting style affects and preschool children’s performance in Mathematics. This is because that it was found that parents’ ppermissive, parents attachment, parental authoritative and authoritarian styles affects preschool children’s performance in Mathematics. Parents’ permissive style affects children’s academic performance to a great extent. It was recommended that all the concerned stakeholders should work towards promoting positive relationships between preschool teachers and children.