The perception of teachers and students about parenting styles and their influence on self esteem of children -- a study at Tsiame senior high school in the Keta municipality

Abstract

This study attempted to find out the views of teachers and students on parenting styles and their effects on self esteem of children and to assess the extent to which the school environment was affecting the self esteem of children. The study was conducted at Tsiame Senior High School in the Keta Municipality. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select gender as a stratification variable. In addition, a disproportionate gender was used for the study. The main instrument for the collection of data was a questionnaire. A total of 90 students and 15 teachers responded to the questionnaire. Data collected was analyzed using frequency count, percentages, ranking order, descriptive statistics and inferences were drawn based on the results of the study. Some key findings of the study were that authoritarian parenting style was used by most parents of students in the school and more especially by parents of male students. Permissive parenting style was used by parents of female students than parents of male students. The self esteem scores revealed that female students had lower self esteem than male students. The school was helping to raise the self esteem of students however; attention ought to be drawn to teachers’ unconditional acceptance of every child and their mistakes among others. Some of the recommendations given were that student’s goal setting and working to achieve the goals had to be looked at by students and the teachers/counsellors.