Parental Influence on Children’s Self- esteem and Academic Performance among Secondary School Students in Two Counties in Kenya

The environment in which a child is brought up is likely to influence the level of self-esteem of the child. As such, the death of parents that results in orphanhood may have setbacks on the development of self-esteem of orphans. Self-esteem is central to high academic performance and this is a key factor for development in any nation. The self-esteem of students may have  influence on academic work since the students with high self-esteem are said to perform highly academically. The purpose of this study was to find out whether there is significant difference in self-esteem levels of orphans and non orphans in Kirinyaga and Nyeri Counties, Kenya. This study was guided by Bowlby‘s theory of attachment. The study adopted a survey, which utilized casual comparative research design. According to the education offices in the two counties, the total population of students was 58,448 Simple random and purposive sampling methods were used to obtain the sample which was 400 students. The data was collected using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The major finding in this study was that the orphans registered lower level of self-esteem than non orphans. The study recommends that orphans should be incorporated into comprehensive child protection policies and programmes that would enlighten the caregivers on requirements for psychological development to ensure development of high self-esteem which would translate to high academic performance and high national development.