Relationship Between Perceived Parenting Styles and Spirituality Among Consecrated Women in Kiambu County, Kenya

Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's growth and future, as their behavior and interactions during upbringing significantly influence who their children become. Quantitative method and a correlational survey design were used to investigate the relationship between the perceived parenting styles and spirituality among the consecrated women in Kiambu County, Kenya. The study used four objectives on the consecrated women first examined the perceived parenting styles, second investigated the levels of spirituality, third established the relationship between the perceived parenting styles and levels of spirituality and lastly the relationship between demographic characteristics and level of spirituality of consecrated women. The study was supported by Baumrind’s Parenting Styles theory and Spiritual Development Theory. To determine the sample size the researcher used proportionate stratified random sampling and simple random techniques. The target population was 547 with a sample size of 248 consecrated women in Kiambu County. Parenting Style Inventory II (PSI-II) and Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) was employed in the study to gather information from the participants. The findings showed that authoritarian was the dominant parenting style with 78.2% followed by authoritative parenting of 55.5% and lastly permissive with highest of 43.7%. Level of spirituality showed low spirituality of 62.6% (149), moderate spirituality of 37.0% (88) and high of 0.4% (1). Relationship between parenting styles and spirituality showed permissive and authoritative parenting experienced negative correlations r (238) = –.24, p < .001 and r (238) = –.21, p = .001 respectively while authoritarian parenting had no significant correlation with spirituality showing r (238) = –.03, p = .67. Further demographic characteristics showed no significant associations: age, r (238) = –.06, p = .39; education, r (238) = –.10, p = .14. The study recommended having workshop on parenting to help parent understand influence parenting styles have to children as they grow up facilitated by psychologists or consecrated women.