| dc.description.abstract | Teenage motherhood is a worldwide problem with 36.4 million girls giving birth before the age of 18 years in developing world. Kenya faces a similar problem with the youngest mother in Siaya County giving birth at 13years. Ugenya Sub- County in Siaya is no exception. While many girls who become mothers before completing schooling consider academic qualifications to be important, they may not succeed academically due to emotional, psychological and socio economic challenges. The purpose of this study was to establish predictors of adjustment of re admitted teenage mothers in selected secondary schools in Ugenya Sub-County, Kenya. The study objectives were to: examine the relationship between guidance and counselling program and adjustment of re-admitted teenage mothers, determine the relationship between attitude towards guidance and counseling programme and adjustment of re-admitted teenage mothers, find out the difference in adjustment of re-admitted teenage mothers in selected secondary schools on the basis of age, examine difference in the adjustment of re-admitted teenage mothers in selected secondary schools on the basis of socio-economic status, and to establish the difference in the adjustment of re-admitted teenage mothers in selected secondary schools on the basis of school category. The study was informed by Cognitive Adaptation Theory and Life course theory by Elder Shanahan. Mixed method research approach was used and within it Sequential Explanatory Design was adopted. The target population consisted of 288 respondents:
23 principals, 23 guidance and counseling teachers and 242 re-admitted teenage mothers in 23
secondary schools in Ugenya Sub-County. A sample size of 21 Principals, 21 Guidance and
Counseling teachers and 184 re-admitted teenage mothers were selected for the study using saturated, Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques respectively. Reliability of the
instruments was ascertained through a pilot study of 10% of the population that did not
participate in the study. In addition, a reliability of Cronbach's Alpha of at least 0.7 for all sub scales in the questionnaires was reported through internal consistency. Face, Construct and
Content validity was ascertained by experts from the Department of Psychology and Education Foundation. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, such as ANOVA, t-test, Pearson, correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis to test hypothesis. Qualitative data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis. The findings of the study revealed that overall adjustment of the teenage mothers was moderate, with 120 (72.3%) of the respondents scoring 1.61-2.40 at a mean adjustment of M=2.176 (SD=.835). The study revealed that there was substantial difference in the level of adjustment between the two categories of teenage mothers. G&C accounted for 26.8% (R2 Adjusied=, 268) variation in overall adjustment in schools.
The study also established that attitudes towards Guidance& Counselling were a significant
predictor accounting for 29.8% of the variation in re-admitted teenage mothers' adjustment. The
findings also revealed that there was a statistically significant effect for age [F (2, 163) =144.496, p<.05], with considerably large effect size (eta squared=.639). Re-admitted teenage mothers from girls' schools had statistically significant higher mean overall adjustments (M=2.4 l 4, SD=.411) than teenage mothers from mixed schools (M=2.075, SD=.412); [t (49.20) =4.22, p<.05]. Finally, the findings of the study show that socio-economic status was a significant predictor of overall adjustment of teenage mothers, with a calculated effect size of .569. The study recommended that teacher counselors should be trained in different forms of therapies and techniques to assist the re-admitted teenage mothers in adjustment. | en_US |