Impact of Parenting Styles on Emotional Well-Being among Undergraduate Students in Selected Public Universities in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Parents can have an impact on their children's emotional health through established patterns of parental control known as parenting styles. Parents' actions shape their children's personalities in this emotional environment, which in turn affects how well they succeed academically in school. The study's overall goal was to determine the impact of parenting styles on emotional well-being among undergraduate students in selected Universities in Nairobi, Kenya. The specific objectives were; to identify the parenting styles among parents of undergraduate students in selected universities in Kenya, to determine the level of emotional well-being among undergraduate students in selected universities in Kenya, to establish the relationship between parenting styles and emotional well-being among undergraduate students in selected universities in Kenya, and to determine the intervention. The Attachment Theory and Baumrind's Pillar Theory served as guides for the investigation. This study employed a correlation research design. The target population was 100,060 undergraduate students of three selected public universities in Nairobi County. These are: University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). The sample size was 156 respondents. The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) was used to gather main data on parenting styles, while the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale was used to obtain data on emotional wellbeing. SPSS version 29 was used to analyze the quantitative data and determine the mean, standard deviation, and percentages of the dataset. The results were presented as tables, frequencies, and percentages. Regression analysis was applied to determine the relationship between parenting styles and emotional wellbeing. Results showed that authoritative parenting was the most dominant parenting style (M=4.21), followed by permissive parenting style (M=4.16), while authoritarian parenting (M=1.91) and neglectful parenting (M=1.89) were the least practiced. Majority (77%) of respondents reported high levels of mental wellbeing, while 23% fell within the moderate mental wellbeing range. The overall regression model was statistically significant, F (4, 129) = 2.919, p = .024. Neglectful parenting style emerged as a statistically significant predictor of emotional wellbeing (=-1.616, t = -2.743, p <.05). Only neglectful parenting style adversely affected the mental wellbeing of the students, while the other parental styles had no significant effect. Interventions to enhance the emotional wellbeing of university students should focus on promoting sustained parental engagement characterized by warmth, guidance, and emotional availability, even as students transition into adulthood. Programs that encourage parents to maintain supportive communication without being intrusive can help reinforce students' sense of security and self-worth. Family therapists working with university students should integrate parenting style assessments into their sessions, especially for clients struggling with emotional issues. From a policy perspective, education stakeholders should implement structured mental health initiatives at the university level that recognize the shifting parental roles in young adulthood. Another study should be conducted among students of private universities in order to confirm or refute the findings.