Perspectives on influence of single parenting on student involvement in student delinquency in secondary schools in Kenya: a case study of kakamega east sub county

Parents and particularly mothers are the primary educators and trainers of children in African families. They are therefore responsible for shaping of children’s behaviour whereas fathers succeed them as the children grow up and eventually takeover as children enter into their adolescent stage. This means that enhancing of discipline among children is enhanced by both parents. Nevertheless single parenting is highly suspected to be less effective in dealing with discipline of children as opposed to dual parenting. In Kakamega East Sub County between 2006 and 2011 many cases of student delinquency had been reported. That is, behaviour such as smoking bhang, smoking cigarettes, chewing miraa, fighting, absenteeism, truancy, theft, sneaking out of school were prevalent in schools. In some cases they had resulted in juvenile crime. This has led to establishment of rehabilitation centres countrywide such as Kakamega Rehabilitation centre, Mary immaculate Rehabilitation centre, Bahati Rehabilitation centre, Dagoretti Rehabilitation School among others. One hundred percent of the schools had experienced cases of delinquency and the gravity of delinquency was high as it led to dropout of students and high repetition rate. Thus, it affected completion rates and quality of graduates. The objective of this study was to establish the perspectives on influence of single parenting on student delinquency in secondary schools in Kakamega East Sub County. The study established that respondents disagreed marginally on the view that single parenting influences student involvement in student delinquency. The study concluded that single parenting had influence on student delinquency. The study recommended that school administrators should involve single parents in dealing with cases of student delinquency.