Abstract:
Over the past two decades, Public Secondary Schools in Kenya have experienced
persistent cases of student unrest, some of which have bordered on criminal activity
and have led to massive loss of property, student learning time and even student
arrests. The purpose of the study was to establish how home based factors influence
student unrest in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. The
objectives of the study were to assess the relationship between parenting behaviour
and student unrest in public secondary schools, to establish the influence of parental
economic status on student unrest and to determine the role of student family
background on student unrest in Public Secondary Schools. The study was guided by
the Social Learning Theory as postulated by Albert Bandura. The target population
for the study consisted of principals, deputy principals, and teacher counsellors and
form four students in 18 public secondary schools that experienced unrest over the
past three years preceding the period of this study. Simple random sampling was used
to select 6 schools and 278 form four students while Purposive sampling was used to
select 6 Principals, 6 deputy principals and 6 teacher counsellors which were
designated participants for the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design.
Structured questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from
participants. Frequency APA tables and percentages as well as charts were used to
present and interpret the data. Qualitative procedures were used to analyze and report
results from interviews. The study findings revealed that students that lived in home
which consisted of poor parenting practices such as permissive and authoritarian
parents, being showered with financial privileges and broken family structures with
elements of violence were most likely to participate and initiate strikes in secondary
schools. The study recommends that an operational student data base on student
background be developed to enable institutions prepare for likely triggers of unrest
and guidance and counselling departments in schools be manned by professionals to
avert catastrophic unrest cases.