Abstract:
Secondary school students are faced with challenges of navigating safely through their
adolescence in a world where the culture of sexual immorality is growing fast.
Parents play a key role in socializing their children on social norms; however the extent
to which parenting styles predetermine students’ risky behaviors remains obscure. The
study investigated parenting styles, as predictors of risky sexual behavior among
secondary school students. The study was objective was; to investigate the extent to
which parenting styles significantly predict secondary school students’ risky sexual
behaviors. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Stratified random
sampling was used to select a sample of 15 schools. Stratified random sampling and
systematic random sampling were used to select 399 participants (221 girls and 178
boys). Purposive sampling was used to select 15 Guidance and counseling teachers and
70 secondary school dropouts. A reliability of cronbach alpha (α) of α = 0.82 for
parenting styles questionnaires was reported and α = 0.78 for risky sexual behaviour.
The major findings of the study based on the objective of the study showed that
parenting styles have a positive and significant prediction of risky sexual behaviors
among secondary school students, and that parenting styles accounts for ; 57.2%
(R2=0.572, p< 0.05) of secondary school students risky sexual behaviors, The study
therefore recommended that school boards of management in conjunction with the
Parents Teachers Association, develop intervention measures by organizing seminars
for parents to sensitize them on good parenting with the aim of addressing adolescence
sexuality. The seminars should be aimed at building the capacity of parents to enable
them carry out discussions on sex issues with their adolescent children.