Parenting styles, self- esteem and students’ academic achievement in secondary schools in Sironko District

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between parenting styles, self- esteem and students’ academic achievement in secondary schools in Sironko District. The objectives were to examine the relationships between: parenting styles and self-esteem; self-esteem and students’ academic achievement; parenting styles and academic achievement.The study was a survey and used a sample of 472 S.4 students of 2016 drawn from four secondary schools, namely, Masaba SS, Bugunzu SS, Buhugu SS and Bumasifwa SS. Demographic data were analyzed using frequencies counts and descriptive statistics. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to test the study variables. The findings revealed an insignificant positive relationship between authoritative parenting style and students’ self-esteem; while authoritarian parenting style and permissive parenting style each had a significant negative relationship on students’ self-esteem. On research objective two, this study found an insignificant negative relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement among secondary school students in Sironko District. For research objective three, authoritative parenting style and permissive parenting styles each had insignificant relationship with student’s academic achievement while authoritarian parenting style had a significant positive relationship with academic achievement. Recommendations were that; parents in Sironko District should consider other strategies to boost self-esteem other than authoritative parenting style; urgent strategies and mitigation measures should be put in place to address the negative effects of authoritarian and permissive parenting styles on self-esteem among secondary school students there; much emphasis should be put on authoritarian parenting style as a strategy to boost academic achievement among secondary school students but not authoritative and permissive parenting styles.