Effect of academic-related stress on student indiscipline in secondary schools in Eldoret East Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Many factors contribute to student indiscipline in schools. Some of these factors emanate from the school environment. In light of this fact, the study was designed to establish the key school environment contributors and solutions to rowdiness among secondary school students in Eldoret East Sub-County. Based on the study, this paper discusses the findings on the effect of academic stress on indiscipline practices among secondary schools students in Eldoret East Sub-County. The study was led by Social Control Theory. Ex-post facto research design was used in the study. The target populace of the research included 3480 form three students and 54 deputy principals in public secondary schools in Eldoret East Sub County. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to pick a sample of 346 students to take part in the study. Census approach method was considered in which all the 54 deputy principals took part in the study. Questionnaires and interview schedule were used as data collection instruments. Data collected was analysed in both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was evaluated in form of frequencies, percentages, average and standard variation. Analysis of Variance was used to examine the hypotheses. The study also established that academic stress (F [47, 273] = 2.001, p = .000) had an effect on indiscipline’s cases among secondary school students. The study concluded that academic stress had an effect on indiscipline cases among secondary school students. The study, therefore, recommended that the schools should reduce academic stress by providing adequate time for relaxation to help reduce cases of indiscipline cases in secondary schools in Eldoret East Sub-County.