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

In Kenya cases of bullying in schools are shocking and the vice has persisted for decades. It is shocking because this has led to students dropping out of schools due to stigmatization and in some cases physical injury to the extent that some have been maimed. According to the World Health Organization- backed Global School Based Student Health Survey violence among adolescents in Kenya is highly widespread in schools. The survey a collaborative surveillance project with United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC) ranks Kenya among countries with the highest level of bullying. These are countries with prevalence rates of between 43% and 74% among adolescents aged 13-17 years reporting being the target of bullying at least once in two months. Boys were found to be more victims than girls. In Australia bullying prevalence lies between 15 and 20% while in the USA between 15 and 30%. Victims of bullying are normally insecure, anxious, suffer low esteem and rarely defend themselves. Most of them are socially isolated, physically weaker and tend to be close to their parents who are in turn over protective. But at the same time they rarely tell their parents, teachers or other adults about their bullying incidence, instead preferring to confide in their closest friends. Parents play an important role in influencing student discipline. Studies in some parts of the world have shown that some students from single parent families tend are undisciplined. It is envisaged that single parents have little time for their children and in the process children develop habits that are prone to indiscipline. Hence when they join school, they display antisocial behaviour that encourages bullying. In Kakamega East Sub County, between 2006 and 2011, many cases of indiscipline were experienced in schools, bullying accounting for 28(80%). The objective of this study was to establish influence of single parenting on student involvement in bullying in secondary schools in Kenya. A conceptual framework showing influence of single parenting on student discipline was used to guide the study. The study established that single parenting had influence on student involvement in bullying. However the influence was marginal this means that children of single parent did not influence much bullying in schools. Nevertheless, children of single parenting were both perpetrators and victims of bullying. The study recommended that school administrators should involve single parents in dealing with cases of bullying among other vices.