Authoritative Parenting Style and Social-Emotional Development of Pre-Primary Learners: A Case of Lurambi Sub-Kakamega County, Kenya

Parenting is crucial to a child's growth and development since so much of what they learn in their formative years hinges on the strength of their relationships with their parents. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of authoritative parenting styles on social emotional development of pre-primary learners. The study adopted Baumrind's theory on parenting styles and used descriptive survey research design. The target population was 6,848 pre-primary learners, 264 ECD teachers, and 6,526 parents in Lurambi Sub-County-Kenya. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques helped to obtain sample size of 400 pre-primary learners, 26 ECD teachers and 20 ECD parents from 19 pre-schools. The interview schedule, questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to generate data for the study. The regression analysis indicated that authoritative parenting style had a statistically significant effect in predicting social emotional development of pre-primary learners as indicated by R2 =.206 (20.6%); F(1,18), = 4.661, B= .541, t=2.159, p<0.045. The study concluded that most children had active conversation with their parents, the study also concluded that most children were given token by their parents before doing task, the study also most parents made demands from their children. The study recommends that parents should use authoritative parenting to enhance children’s social emotional development.