Title:
INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL SUPPORT ON SOCIO EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN HAMISI SUB-COUNTY OF VIHIGA COUNTY, KENYA

Authors:
Dr. Christopher Omusula Bwamoni* and Joseph Indombera Khalwale ,Kenya

Abstract:
Parents’ typical attitudes, socioeconomic status and behaviours which form the emotional climate in which parents raise their children have been suggested to play an important role in children’s social and emotional development. Effective and warm parenting as well as behavioral control deployed by parents has been shown to be related to low levels of problem behaviours and depressive symptoms among children. High parental psychological control has been found to be associated with increased anxiety, distress, and depressive symptoms among both children and adolescents. The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Parental socioeconomic status on preschool children’s social emotional development. The study employed a descriptive research design in collecting the data. It targeted 115 preschools in Hamisi Sub County. A stratified random sampling was applied to select head teachers, parents, and pupils. The study used questionnaires and interviews for data collection and data analyzed using frequency counts. Reliability and validity was pre –tested though piloting in one of the schools was results gave a reliability index of 0.85 Cronbach’s alpha index. The results revealed that parents’ socio economic status affect socio emotional development of children in ECDE to a great extent. It was recommended that all the concerned stakeholders should work towards promoting positive relationships between parents and pre-school children to develop the socio emotional aspects of development