Paternal Involvement Practices in relation to Male Adolescents in the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu, Kenya

Abstract

Adolescents in Kenya has increasingly exhibited more problematic behaviour with males accounting for the majority of cases.  Consequently, there has been hue and cry from church leaders, teachers and parents alike about the increasingly male adolescent problematic behaviour. This public discourse points to a society seeking to find answers and possible solutions to maladaptive behaviour. However, paternal role has been kept out of this discussion yet they could be the missing link in addressing maladaptive behaviour. The objective of the study was to determine paternal involvement practices in relation to the male adolescents in the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu, Kenya. The study was anchored on three theoretical frameworks namely Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological systems, Bowenian Family systems and Bandura’s Social Learning theories and adopted a parallel concurrent mixed methods approach. The target population were fathers who are members of the Catholic Men’s Association with male adolescents aged 13-15 years old. Simple random sampling was used to identify parishes to draw respondents from while purposive sampling was used to sample fathers with 13-15-year-old sons. Quantitative data was collected from 325 fathers using standardized questionnaires while qualitative data was collected from fathers using a semi structured focus group guide in 4 discussions.  Using SPSS version 29, quantitative data was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis while thematic content analysis was used for qualitative data. Interpretation combined quantitative and qualitative data. The study established that the fathers had a moderate level of parental consistency, coercive parenting, positive encouragement and parent-child relationship. In addition, fathers were moderately adjusted to their parenting role, family relationships and parental teamwork. Most fathers focused on the economic aspect of their paternal roles at the expense of emotional and mental aspects. The major recommendation from the study is the need for enhancement of paternal education to improve effective involvement with male adolescents to prevent maladaptive behaviours.